Here’s something most people, even the folks who live in Altoona, probably don’t know about the city–unless they’re English teachers, librarians, or poetry lovers.
Twenty-four streets in the city are named for poets, popular during the late 1800’s. That’s when the owners of Baker mansion were trying to sell thousands of acres of land they owned, and wanted to recruit well-to-do buyers.
One local historian believes when the Bakers designed new developments, they gave the streets names that would appeal to the upper classes
Michael Farrow says, “The Suburban Home Company was catering to what they consider the aristocracy of Altoona, so, in order to bring in the aristocracy of Altoona which they figured was imbued with the arts and the literature and poetry this would be the demographic to attract people to build homes.”
He adds that works by Tennyson, Browning, and Hawthorne were found in Baker Mansion. The streets with poets’ names are located in the Llyswen and Garden Heights areas of Altoona.
