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Many of the 1960s split levels, especially with older owners who don't care about updates, have them around here. It was "a thing" back when these houses were built.
Many of the 1960s split levels, especially with older owners who don't care about updates, have them around here. It was "a thing" back when these houses were built.
I personally hate them.
I took a class on desktop publishing and formatting. We were taught that it is only appropriate if the address is 1 (One). This is because if the address is 1, it is likely the only house / business on the street (Private drive, possibly? Local codes state that DOT will only recognize a street as public with 3 or more dwellings on it.) Streets planned with multiple homes, units, or businesses don't usually start at 1. Some start at 100, 300, or even 3000.
Still, the logical reasoning against it is because it deviates from the standard addressing scheme approved by the postal system. In Raleigh, we have a road, when written as designed, North Hills St., as it is reflective of the neighborhood and shopping center of North Hills. Oftentimes, GPS will not locate it by search, or, when it includes it as an intermediary road in navigation, will display it as N Hills St. This is incorrect, as there is no S Hills St.
Another example is downtown. We have East St. and West St. I can't tell you how odd it is to hear "Turn left, onto NE West St."
I've been seeing this often enough to wonder about it: house numbers written in words. For example: "Twenty-four Nineteen", instead of "2419". House numbers with a zero in them even have "O" (letter) or "Oh", or even a "0" (zero), such as "Three Oh Nine" for "309". At times, the words are written in cursive or a hard-to-read font like Old English, as opposed to a more pragmatic Helvetica or a similar font. This seems to be a mainly affluent people's phenomenon, since I rarely see house numbers spelled out in working-class areas. It's also more common with numbers less than 1000, and even more so for numbers less than 10.
Why? I don't see a single benefit in spelling out house numbers. It's much harder to read what's a series of words than a simple string of digits. Which makes it harder for visitors to find your house, if they don't already know it really well. In fact, not just visitors; it's harder for delivery workers and emergency services to locate your house, if they can't read the number quickly and easily from a moving vehicle. Especially with certain fonts.
What does everyone else think about this? Do you prefer numbers or words? Does the font make a difference?
We have an exclusive development, Governor’s Club, which uses no suffix in its street names. An example address: 54501 Craig, 30084 Britt, 50201 Manly.
I've been seeing this often enough to wonder about it: house numbers written in words. For example: "Twenty-four Nineteen", instead of "2419". House numbers with a zero in them even have "O" (letter) or "Oh", or even a "0" (zero), such as "Three Oh Nine" for "309". At times, the words are written in cursive or a hard-to-read font like Old English, as opposed to a more pragmatic Helvetica or a similar font. This seems to be a mainly affluent people's phenomenon, since I rarely see house numbers spelled out in working-class areas. It's also more common with numbers less than 1000, and even more so for numbers less than 10.
Why? I don't see a single benefit in spelling out house numbers. It's much harder to read what's a series of words than a simple string of digits. Which makes it harder for visitors to find your house, if they don't already know it really well. In fact, not just visitors; it's harder for delivery workers and emergency services to locate your house, if they can't read the number quickly and easily from a moving vehicle. Especially with certain fonts.
What does everyone else think about this? Do you prefer numbers or words? Does the font make a difference?
The address numbers in cursive fad was a trend in the late 50-60s.
Yes. It was a bit affected and pretentious, and it was absolutely intended to look posh.
Since I enjoy Mid Century modern kitsch, I sort of think it's cool. But, then, I am not a postal worker or a delivery person.
I wouldn't sweat it, though. I have not seen them sold in any hard wear shops or home improvement stores - ever.
Our first home was in a decidedly middle class "starter subdivision" of Cape Cod and ranch style homes. This was 1987, and we bought the then 30 year old house from it's first owner. It was light grey, with pink and aqua trim. The number "Twenty One" was written over the garage in flamboyant cursive, in black wrought iron, that matched the hand rails on the front steps and the mailbox.
We thought of adding pink flamingos.
Instead, like good little suburbanites of that era, we replaced the grey with tan vinyl and the pink and aqua shutters with forest green.
We took down the "Twenty One" and replaced that with these decorative tiles encased in an oak frame that were sold at Home Depot.
Now, I wished we had left the house as it was. It was such a cute, colorful, little house by the sea.
Sorry for rambling, but the thought of those mildly pretentious, long hand address numbers, brought on an unexpected wave of nostalgia.
Yes...it's an affectation. One of many that people have to separate themselves from others. Big deal.
Yeah, though I do find it annoying. Its frustrating enough when you're looking for a house number that isn't the most visible and if its written out you have to slow down further, especially if its in a font that's odd.
Wow I'm surprised with all the remarks about it being pretentious to have letters as an address. There are quite a few houses around where I live that have this, and they are all old school, modest sized homes in nice neighborhoods. It seemed to be the style at the time these homes were built, several decades ago.
This is the case in my area, too. Mostly homes built in the 50s, give or take a decade.
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I don't see a single benefit in spelling out house numbers. It's much harder to read what's a series of words than a simple string of digits. Which makes it harder for visitors to find your house, if they don't already know it really well. In fact, not just visitors; it's harder for delivery workers and emergency services to locate your house, if they can't read the number quickly and easily from a moving vehicle. Especially with certain fonts.
