What If Asa Lovejoy Won The Coin Toss? (Portland, Sherwood: office, cities)

[SyraBrian]

As we know, Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine won the naming rights after defeating Asa Lovejoy of Boston in a two out of three coin toss competition.

What if Asa Lovejoy had won? Would there be a Boston, Oregon today? Or, to reduce confusion, would the city have been re-named?

Would a current city name of Boston, Oregon feel a little less special?

Speaking for myself, yes!

[khyron]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

As we know, Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine won the naming rights after defeating Asa Lovejoy of Boston in a two out of three coin toss competition.

What if Asa Lovejoy had won? Would there be a Boston, Oregon today? Or, to reduce confusion, would the city have been re-named?

Would a current city name of Boston, Oregon feel a little less special?

Speaking for myself, yes!

It's always possible there's a third option, there could have been Eastboston and Westboston (similar to Northampton and Southampton, Norfolk and Suffolk, etc).

Altogether though I think we're all pleased that "Portland" won out. After all, Boston is a unique town with irrevocable historical weight to its identity and that name would never have been effectively redefined. When it comes to "Portland" however, today anyone outside New England immediately presumes you're referring to Portland, OR. This is why people say "Portland, Maine" aloud but seldom does anyone feel the need to specify Portland as "Portland, Oregon" in most conversations.

[SyraBrian]

The original name of The Clearing would have fit well with Portland's current green image.

[aaronkc]

boston, oregon sounds crazy
i wish portland was named someth else tho, that way u dont have to confuse it with maine

[EnricoV]

Only people on the east coast would possibly confuse the two. So really, who cares?

[aaronkc]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Only people on the east coast would possibly confuse the two. So really, who cares?

i know of a foreign person who actually booked a flight to a wrong portland...

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by aaronkc

i know of a foreign person who actually booked a flight to a wrong portland...

I'm sure it can happen. But to do so is pretty dumb. After all, there are all kinds of cities with the same names throughout the world. To not give more of a specification than just a city name is kind of short-sighted.

[Sherwoody]

Wasn't there a story about someone from Boston that ended up in Auckland, New Zealand instead of Oakland Ca?

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Sherwoody

Wasn't there a story about someone from Boston that ended up in Auckland, New Zealand instead of Oakland Ca?

Are they pronounced the same?

[2bpurrfect]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

As we know, Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine won the naming rights after defeating Asa Lovejoy of Boston in a two out of three coin toss competition.

What if Asa Lovejoy had won? Would there be a Boston, Oregon today? Or, to reduce confusion, would the city have been re-named?

Would a current city name of Boston, Oregon feel a little less special?

Speaking for myself, yes!

ok, if people really wanted something special, unique and truly original as being a description of primeval Portland, well, why didn't they just stick with Stumptown? was it too derogatory????

didn't they know the internet would come along and confuse everyone whenever we tried to search google and ended up getting the address of an office in Maine?