Where does the name Jersey Street come from?
The contentious battle over the origins of Yawkey Way's name finally came to an end this week. But what about the street's new name?
It’s settled: Yawkey Way is going back to its old name, Jersey Street.
The decision was unanimously approved by a Boston city commission Thursday, after the long-running debate over the allegations of racism against former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey finally crested.
Now there’s a new question: How did Jersey Street get its name? And why?
Yawkey Way had only been Yawkey Way since 1977, a year after its namesake died. But it went by its original name for at least 80 years prior, predating Fenway Park back to the 19th century, when the Back Bay was gradually converted from a tidal marshland to an actual neighborhood.
As the Back Bay was filled in, city planners had to pick names for the new streets.
Back Bay street grid
“They wanted to emulate London and Paris and the basic grid plan of the mid-19th century grand European cities,” Anthony Sammarco, a prominent local author and historian, recently told WGBH.
According to Sammarco, the long streets running east-to-west, roughly parallel with the Charles River, were given names, such as Newbury, referencing Boston’s Puritan roots. The cross streets, however, were named to project the city’s chic future aspirations, as they tried to attract Boston’s wealthy elites to buy property in the new neighborhood.
Thus, Sammarco said that — running east-to-west alphabetically from the Common — those cross roads were named after British aristocrats: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, and Hereford. With the exception of Fairfield, all of the names linked back to British earls, the third-highest ranking noble title in the United Kingdom’s peerage system.
“They were trying to create a connection to the aristocracy of Britain,” he told WGBH.
The pattern continues after Mass. Ave. with Ipswich, Jersey, Kilmarnock, and Miner streets, all of which were also named after earls.
Jersey is a small self-governing island in the English Channel, 12 miles off the coast of Normandy, France. Though British in culture and one of three Crown dependencies, it is not technically part of the United Kingdom. There have been 10 earls of Jersey since the mid-17th century.
Sammarco told WGBH that the Back Bay streets were named more after the titles than the particular individuals holding them at the time. However, after being contacted by WGBH, the current Earl of Jersey, William Villiers, who is in fact on Twitter, confirmed that Jersey Street would have been named at the time after the 7th Earl of Jersey, Victor Child Villiers.
A British banker and Conservative politician, Villiers lived from 1845 to 1915 and served as the governor of the Australian state of New South Wales.
“Coincidentally he was known as the Red Earl,” Villiers, the current earl, tweeted Thursday afternoon.
If that date is accurate would have been 7th. Coincidentally he was known as the Red Earl. pic.twitter.com/M9mnO6BDyL
— William Jersey (@EarlofJersey) April 26, 2018
Red Sox owner John Henry (who also owns The Boston Globe and Boston.com) suggested last year he would have liked to see Yawkey Way renamed after retired slugger David Ortiz. However, city rules prohibited the street from being named after a living person. So, with the agreement of the street’s abutters, Henry requested the city change it back to its original name.
And while not everyone was happy about the official decision Thursday, the move did at least convert one new Red Sox fan overseas.
https://twitter.com/EarlofJersey/status/989555121100087299
