Everett Street Mnemonics
Editor’s note: Originally published October 24, 2017. Republished September 10, 2020.
Living and playing here in Mill Town, we all probably know that Marine View Drive is the long, windy street that runs along the waterfront, Rucker is the busy thoroughfare that eventually turns into SR-99, Colby is where the restaurants are, Hewitt is the historical main street that stretches all the way to Lake Stevens, and Broadway is the wide boulevard that funnels cars into and out of the city.
All our downtown streets are named after Everett pioneers, founders, and investors. With all these old family names, though, it can be tricky to remember the correct order of our streets, even for a well-weathered and savvy urban explorer.
Old Seattlites know a trick to help tourists and locals alike remember the order of their downtown streets. They use the acronym JCMSUP, converted into the mnemonic “Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest”. Each letter in the acronym stands for a pair of streets with matching first letters. From south to north, they are: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine. This fun little saying is useful in navigating downtown Seattle, and also showing off to friends and out-of-towners.
Downtown Everett has five named streets and ten named avenues. The named streets are, from north to south: Everett, California, Hewitt, Wall, and Pacific. If we were to take the first letter of each, we create the acronym “ECHWP”.
From west to east, our main named avenues are: Marine View Drive, Grand, Rucker, Hoyt, Colby, Wetmore, Rockefeller, Oakes, Lombard, and Broadway. These streets make an acronym that’s a bit harder to swallow: “MGRHCWROLB”.
Let’s seize this opportunity to create our own Everett mnemonics for remembering our street layouts. If we create something memorable and uniquely Everett, we can bring it up at parties. Wouldn’t you love to have something to say at a party?
Here are a few examples that I came up with:
Streets: Everett - California - Hewitt - Wall - Pacific
Even Crummy Harpists Will Pluck
Everett Contains Heroes With Plans
Everett Could Have Won Plenty
Avenues: Marine View Drive - Grand - Rucker - Hoyt - Colby - Wetmore - Rockefeller - Oakes - Lombard - Broadway
Many Great Realtors Have Chosen Where Regular Old Laborers Belong
Mahatma Gandhi Revealed Horrible Crimes When Refusing Only Lima Beans
My Granny Ran Home Crying With Regrets Of Lost Balloons
What do you think? Let’s hear your ideas in the comments. Apparel-makers, take note: free ideas for your next best-selling tee!
Jeff Valluzzi is a writer, loud talker, and a transportation and urbanism enthusiast who lives in 110-year old house in Port Gardner with his family and generations of of ancient spiders. He enjoys listening to baseball on his front porch and talking about podcasts.
