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Why Addresses Have Numbers

thehistoricalinsights.page

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Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#21

Post by advisedwang »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #4

My house has a name, not a number, not that uncommon in the UK, especially for a 200-year-old building. I think there’s a bit of false equivalence going on here as well regarding zip codes (several thousand addresses, or thereabouts) and a UK postcode (maybe 10-15 houses). You could genuinely address a letter to me using something like: 4, L226ET That’s all it would take. No, that’s not my address, characters within…

4, L22 6ET doesn't work very fast/reliably in practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ss7A20EVpk

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#22

Post by pasc1878 »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #7
pasc1878 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but you could not address a couple of places I have lived in in England like that. First was a house in a small cul de sac – with no number just a name. Second was a flat – there are two number 1s in the same post code.

By all means, the variety in addressing is a constant software-developer trap. The above will cover the 99% case though. There are even buildings with multiple postcodes (DVLA is one such, I believe)

So that allows developers to create systems where I can't get the local council to deal with a problem? Of course the developers who wrote the council tax system understood that it was aren't crap like those who deliver the 99% solution – they had my address and the other number 1 as separate.

Or post does not get delivered as it is addressed wrongly?

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#23

Post by ianbicking »

FL410 wrote: post #16

Fun one: Costa Rican addresses are still often relative to a landmark. I used to have a subcontractor there, and his address was something like "500m north of the old church" (which IIRC wasn't even there anymore). It was kinda hard to figure out how to get this into the DHL website, but it always made it there.

I remember in San José and maybe other Costa Rican cities with a street number system where even/odd were used for the cardinal directions. Calles (streets) run N/S, Avenidas (avenues) run E/W, and odd is east or north. So Calle 8 Avenida 7 is in the northwest. I also remember finding it helpful in theory but not very helpful in practice since the rest of the addressing wasn't normalized. I also recall more than one Latin American city where they ran the numbers up one-by-one, and this didn't scale over the decades or centuries, so they renumbered... just meaning that every house had two numbers, and people used both.

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#24

Post by lakis »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #8
GratiaTerra wrote: post #5

The southeastern Wisconsin system takes the address idea further, the address grid is tied back to the Milwaukee grid. A local official gives the example W156 N8480: roughly 156 streets west of the origin and 84 blocks north. He specifically notes that you can use the address to determine whether you need to travel north, south, east, or west. Wisconsin's statewide NG9-1-1 standards even explicitly recognize these tw…

So every city you travel to you need to look up the baseline location? I'd rather houses and streets have numbers so I can determine how to get there just by looking at street signs.

No. You need to know your current location. Then you can easily extrapolate where the destination is.

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#25

Post by dekerta »

bonoboTP wrote: post #20
emaro wrote: post #11

Don't like the readability of the page. Was quite interesting, especially the fact that house numbers were invented multiple times for different reasons and with different systems. It got quite repetitive though, and I quit after roughly half of the read, when the even/odd number system was explained for the third time. Seems to be written with heavy AI assistance.

The text is AI. The web design also screams AI.

The entire site is very obviously AI generated. The fonts, layout, and even the logo are obviously AI. I'm not sure about the content. Maybe the "author" is actually someone really interested in history and just used Claude to generate a frontend for their blog, but I couldn't bring myself to read much of it. Maybe it's just me, but the "AI feel" makes me not want to read sites like this. Feels like a waste of time to read a bunch of (potentially) AI slop that might not even be accurate. I'd be better off just asking Claude why addresses have numbers

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#26

Post by historical1234 »

emaro wrote: post #11

Don't like the readability of the page. Was quite interesting, especially the fact that house numbers were invented multiple times for different reasons and with different systems. It got quite repetitive though, and I quit after roughly half of the read, when the even/odd number system was explained for the third time. Seems to be written with heavy AI assistance.

yeah I m a solo publisher, so I do use AI as an assistant to help with editing, formatting, HTML, and other production work that normally be handled by a team. The historical research, fact-checking, source verification, and overall direction are my own, but I rely on AI to speed up the publishing process.

I also take your point about the repetition. That's something I revisit and tighten up, because readability matters more than word count.

but, when I write for external publications, the style is much more traditional because I follow each publication editorial guidelines. On my own site, I experiment more with layout and presentation, which can sometimes make the pages feel different. but it look cool

If you are curious, here are a few examples of my work published elsewhere:

• Medievalists.net: https://www.medievalists.net/2026/06/bell-tower-medieval/

• Family Handyman: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/history-of-toll-roads...

• Bored Panda: https://www.boredpanda.com/rarest-most-expensive-historical-...

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#27

Post by thenthenthen »

dekerta wrote: post #25
bonoboTP wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The text is AI. The web design also screams AI.

The entire site is very obviously AI generated. The fonts, layout, and even the logo are obviously AI. I'm not sure about the content. Maybe the "author" is actually someone really interested in history and just used Claude to generate a frontend for their blog, but I couldn't bring myself to read much of it. Maybe it's just me, but the "AI feel" makes me not want to read sites like this. Feels like a waste of time t…

I got curious because of the comments and wow. Just how many fonts were hurt creating this page?! If you are an ‘independent publisher’ that would be sorta priority? I guess not in ‘the age of ai’

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#28

Post by thenthenthen »

spacedcowboy wrote: post #4

My house has a name, not a number, not that uncommon in the UK, especially for a 200-year-old building. I think there’s a bit of false equivalence going on here as well regarding zip codes (several thousand addresses, or thereabouts) and a UK postcode (maybe 10-15 houses). You could genuinely address a letter to me using something like: 4, L226ET That’s all it would take. No, that’s not my address, characters within…

My house has no less than 6 numbers. Everything is a number here. Until it isnt

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#29

Post by bluGill »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #8
GratiaTerra wrote: post #5

The southeastern Wisconsin system takes the address idea further, the address grid is tied back to the Milwaukee grid. A local official gives the example W156 N8480: roughly 156 streets west of the origin and 84 blocks north. He specifically notes that you can use the address to determine whether you need to travel north, south, east, or west. Wisconsin's statewide NG9-1-1 standards even explicitly recognize these tw…

So every city you travel to you need to look up the baseline location? I'd rather houses and streets have numbers so I can determine how to get there just by looking at street signs.

You can figure it out close enough without looking it up.

Re: Why Addresses Have Numbers

#30

Post by graypegg »

historical1234 wrote: post #26
emaro wrote: post #11

Don't like the readability of the page. Was quite interesting, especially the fact that house numbers were invented multiple times for different reasons and with different systems. It got quite repetitive though, and I quit after roughly half of the read, when the even/odd number system was explained for the third time. Seems to be written with heavy AI assistance.

yeah I m a solo publisher, so I do use AI as an assistant to help with editing, formatting, HTML, and other production work that normally be handled by a team. The historical research, fact-checking, source verification, and overall direction are my own, but I rely on AI to speed up the publishing process. I also take your point about the repetition. That's something I revisit and tighten up, because readability matt…

> because readability matters more than word count.

“If I had more time, I would’ve written a shorter letter.”

If part of the reason you need LLMs to speed up the process is because you were trying to hit a word count and the typing was taking too long, it’s actively working against you!

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