Only One Dead End in Park Hill Despite Signs to the Contrary
A StreetWise installment by Jack Farrar
My wife, Pam, and I like to wander off the beaten path in Park Hill – meandering down alleys and cul-de-sacs and short streets – routes with which most people aren’t familiar simply because they aren’t part of their normal driving routines. We highly recommend taking different routes periodically; it’s good for the soul.
There is only one true cul-de-sac in Park Hill, as far as I can determine. It is a short chunk of Roslyn, just north of Montview. The streets to the east and west of Roslyn, Rosemary and Quince, just off Montview, are also marked with signs that say, “No Outlet.” But that isn’t true. If you turn into Quince you can exit on Rosemary, and vice-versa.
The expression cul-de-sac comes from a Catalan (language found in parts of Spain and France) expression meaning literally “butt of bag.” It refers to streets that are dead ends, with no through road. The primary purpose of a cul-de-sac in city planning is to achieve traffic and pedestrian safety by calming traffic. The earliest example of a cul-de-sac is an area of an Egyptian village dating back to 1885 BC. The 15th century architect and planner Leon Battista Alberti noted in one of his books that dead-end streets were probably used initially for defensive purposes – to trap pursuing enemies.
One of the Spanish terms for a cul-de-sac is “calle privada,” or “private street.” In Chinese, cul-de-sac is translated literally as “dead road.” In Sweden a cul-de-sac is “return street.” In some parts of England, cul-de-sac is thought to have originated when coal was left at the end of small roads, leaving behind “coal in the sack.”
In medicine, cul-de-sac is sometimes used to refer to the deepest part of the female pelvis. Metaphorically, a cul-de-sac is a line of thought or reasoning that leads nowhere.
Cul-de-sacs (always marked in Denver as “No Outlet”) as traffic control devices are much more popular in suburbs than in the central city neighborhoods, often used in gated or secured communities, to achieve a sense of exclusivity. But some city planners believe cul-de-sac geometry hurts the environment because it encourages slightly longer, indirect car trips.
Most real estate professionals believe that being on a cul-de-sac enhances the property value of a home – as much as 20%.
Are there crescent or loop (i.e., nonrectangular) streets in Park Hill? Not that I’ve discovered. In a future column, I will write about some unusual, unoccupied lots in Park Hill. Any input is welcome.
By the way, here’s a shout out to Jim Korn, a Civil War history buff who caught an error in my last column. Schuyler Colfax was not Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president; Hannibal Hamlin was. Colfax was Grant’s first VP. Whoops.
If you have any questions about Park Hill streets, or would like me to pursue a particular topic, please advise: 303-388-5204 or denverfarrar@comcast.net.