History - How Sandpoint Streets Got Their Names
by Bob Gunter
At the time the streets were named many of them were just in the minds of the Farmins and their guests because much of the land was dense forest.It was in the late 1890s that L.D. and Ella Farmin homesteaded 160 acres of land that eventually made up the central part of Sandpoint, Idaho. Larch Street, bordered their acquired land on the north, on the east by the Northern Pacific Railroad, on the south by Pine Street, and Boyer Street on the west. At the time the streets were named many of them were just in the minds of the Farmins and their guests because much of the land was dense forest.
Mr. Farmin had arranged for a civil engineer, William Ashley, to survey and plat the first site of Sandpoint. It was at the Farmin's dining room table that the streets of Sandpoint were named. At the table were L.D. and Ella Farmin, Josephine LeHuquet, Mrs. Earl Farmin, and William Ashley. It was the desire of Mr. Farmin that the Avenues would run north and south and have numerical names, i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, through 7th street. The streets were to run east and west and were to be given names of trees that grew in the area.
The honor of naming the first street fell to Miss LeHuquet and Pine Street got its name. The next to choose was Ella Farmin and she refused to follow her husband's direction and named her street Church Street because the only church in town was located there. Mr. Farmin named the main thoroughfare between the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads, Main Street. When the turn to name a street fell to Mrs. Earl Farmin she named her street Cedar. She had a special love for the tall cedars found in the area and would on occasion ride her horse through the beautiful trees.
Those sitting around the table continued to give us the names of streets we recognize today, such as, Popular, Fir, Alder, and Larch.
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All photographs have been used with permission of the Bonner County Museum.
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