Where the Streets Have New Names: 20 Houston Streets That Change Names
It's tough enough to get around in Houston with traffic, accidents and the messy spider web of freeways. If you just moved here, you're probably having a difficult enough time figuring out the difference between the Southwest Freeway and U.S. 59 (hint: there is none, but more on that later) and then one day you are driving along minding your own business when the street you are on suddenly has a different name. You can't figure out what you did. You didn't turn. Don't feel bad. You're not crazy. The streets are.
If only it were that easy, but this is Houston.
That's because there are numerous major roads in our fair city that change names with no warning. Weird, right? Even those of us who have lived here for years are still surprised to find out we are lost thanks to a street that went from one name to another for seemingly no reason.
Now, before we get to this list, a couple notes:
This list does not include directional streets. So, while it may be weird that there is a North Shepherd and a South Shepherd or, worse yet, a variety of Main Streets around town, that's not what we're talking about. Also, this is not about divided roads. The fact that, for a stretch, North Shepherd splits into Shepherd (moving northbound) and Durham (going south) is unsettling, but not technically a name change.
Finally, there are nearly as many streets that end through a merge with another thoroughfare as there are ones that change names, but as confusing as it may be that 20th crosses North Main onto Cavalcade or Washington Avenue divides into three streets as it passes under I 45 into downtown, it just ends, it doesn't change.
Now, with that out of the way, let's do this.
East T.C. Jester Boulevard/Rosslyn Road
If this tree-lined winding road with a split into east and west at Ella Boulevard doesn't throw you, just wait until you get past the railroad tracks in Oak Forest, when it becomes Rosslyn Road (not to be confused with North Houston Rosslyn, which we'll see later in this list).
Heights Boulevard/Waugh Drive
This beautiful historic street through Houston's oldest neighborhood is easy to understand until you cross Washington Avenue and it suddenly becomes Waugh, which, incidentally, splits in half south of West Gray. You heard me.
Holcombe Boulevard/Bellaire Boulevard
Holcombe, which begins as a split-off from Old Spanish Trail near the Medical Center, changes to Bellaire west of Stella Link. Don't even get me started on the Bermuda Triangle formed by Bellaire, Bissonnet and South Rice.
Richmond Avenue/Wheeler Avenue
Richmond is one of several streets forced into a name change by the intersection of Main Street and the light rail. Mercifully, Wheeler dead-ends into the University of Houston.
Weslayan Street/Willowick Road
River Oaks, the home of old money and giant houses, has a way of changing things, street names included. In this case, Weslayan turns into Willowick as it enters the well-known subdivision north of Westheimer.
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