Some roads in Guilford County have one name.
Some have two.
Some – like Guilford College Road, which becomes College Road and then becomes New Garden Road – have three names.
But there’s one road that must take the cake for the most names in Guilford County – a road through Jamestown and High Point that has not one, not two, not three – but nine different names.
High Point Economic Development Corp. President Loren Hill – who spends much of his time driving business recruitment prospects around the county and showing them potential sites – is something of a road name aficionado. Hill brought the street with nine names to the attention of the Rhino Times.
“I’ve always wanted someone to write about this,” he said of the road with nine different names passing through three municipalities.
While no one has suggested that the road with nine names is a problem, wildly meandering road names can be serious business because poorly named roads can create confusion for emergency responders. For that reason, Guilford County, and the cities and towns in it, will sometimes change road names – like Greensboro did changing High Point Road and Lee Street to Gate City Boulevard.
Those changes aren’t made often because it’s a very involved process for businesses and residences located on the road and new signage can be costly.
“There are some roadways with five names,” Hill said. “West Lexington Avenue in High Point becoming East Lexington Avenue, which turns into Greensboro Road in High Point and then becomes Jamestown’s West Main Street, which becomes East Main Street.”
That’s not the only one of those: Another five-namer is Clinard Farms Road, which in the High Point area becomes Piedmont Parkway and then, in Greensboro, becomes Hilltop Road and later Groometown Road – which then turns into Muddy Creek Road.
But Hill feels certain he’s found the one with the most names.
“One roadway may be the clear winner,” Hill said, “with eight names in Guilford County and one more name just in Randolph County.”
Here’s the breakdown of names for that road …
- Ragsdale Road (in Jamestown)
- Dillon Road (in Jamestown and in unincorporated Guilford County and in High Point)
- Triangle Lake Road (in High Point)
- East Green Drive (in High Point)
- West Green Drive (in High Point)
- West Fairfield Road (in High Point)
- East Fairfield Road (in High Point and in unincorporated Guilford County)
- Aldridge Road (in both the Guilford County and Randolph County parts of Archdale)
- Renola Drive (in the Randolph County part of Archdale)
Hill noted: “Rag-Dil-Tri-Green-Fair-Ald-Ren Blvd. goes through three municipalities, crossing over Archdale and High Point’s Main Street three times.”
Road names aren’t a problem for “Old Timer” emergency responders and dispatchers who were generally natives and came from volunteer fire departments. They knew their country roads and neighbors and were able to respond to locations based on the name of the resident or farm they were being dispatched to. I remember in the olden days when volunteers working in their fields heard the siren go off on top of the fire department often got to the scene by following the dirt path left by the fire trucks who responded before them. My husband and one other dispatcher were well known for their ability to give directions to remote locations in the County or City to EMS and fire units because their families had long histories in this area. There’s a lot to be said for being an “Old Timer” and I find myself lost when I hear of a traffic accident on West Gate City Blvd. because there is no such place in my mental GPS system.