The “new” (circa 1962) Naval housing in Charleston, SC had streets (avenues, actually) named for various states, and each had its own block sequence, unrelated to any sort of grid. Alaska Avenue had 100s; West Virginia Avenue was, I think, the 2200s.

The Oklahoma City grid perplexes people because it’s a standard 100-to-the-block setup, but the numbered street is at the end of the block, not the beginning: the block between 59th and 60th is the 6000s, not the 5900s.

At one time I worked delivering not-pizza and one of the destinations turned out to be in a location that had been grandfathered when the city changed its house-numbering system. It was out of sequence and on the wrong side of the road, but they hadn’t bothered to mention that to the dispatcher.

They got their food, along with a gentle demurrer to the suggestion it should be free because it had taken so long.

The rural addressing system is designed to allow up to 1000 addresses per section mile or 500 addresses on each side of the road (north and east sides are even numbers, whereas the south and west sides are odd). Since there are 5,280 feet in a mile, that means that the address will go up by 2 for every 10.56 feet (5280 feet divided by 500 numbers = 10.56). So, if your neighbor’s driveway is 100 feet from your driveway, there would be a difference of 18 numbers between your address and his address.

As seen in Wabasha County, Minnesota. In some states, one corner is used as a base point for the entire state: South Dakota starts the grid in the northwest corner and runs 100 addresses per mile, with east-west roads designated “Street” and north-south roads designated “Avenue,” which explains this.

Who figures these things out? Still puzzling why there are approximately 5 houses on the 5 miles of rural route leading to our country property. And none of the land can be subdivided smaller than 40 acres, the area is zoned agricultural so only one dwelling per parcel is allowed. Yet our number is 2000 something. So what are they reserving thousands of numbers for? Coyote dens? Anti hills? Mesquite bushes?

One-digit numbers, with a “number” — Number Four Grandin Lane.

Two-digit numbers up to twenty as above, “Number 12 Weebetook.” Two-digit numbers 21 to 99 as-read. “Twenty-four West Court Street.”

Three-digit numbers number, as-read. “Four-sixteen Riddle Road.”

Four-digit numbers as two pair of two-digit numbers: “Thirty-eight, forty-two Millsbrae.”

Five digit numbers as ZIP codes: “One seven two nine-oh Princeton Pike.”

The idea being that each method sets off a differrent reaction in the hearer’s mind and lets him more-easily comprehend the numbers — sort of a mini-mnemonic created on the fly.

On a similar note: doncha just HATE the computer programs that jam all the digits of long strings of them into single masses, removing any punctuation that make them easier to scan and remember? Such as: telephone numbers, credit card numbers, ZIP-plus-4, and so-forth.

(859)555-1212 is a lot easier to apprehend than 8595551212.

M

I think the “ten-seven-…” form comes from the practice of referring to five-digit prices, wherein 11720 would be “eleven (thousand) seven (hundred) seventy.”

I rather suspect that when the “Common Era” achieves five digits, the length of time during which two consecutive digits will be encountered may lead to resetting the calendar. Perhaps “N.C.E.” for “New Common Era.”

Ten thousand years after that we’ll probably be using hexadecimal.