The Denton Suburban Roadways Quietly Impersonating West Houston’s Iconic Streets

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210The fastest way to Westheimer Rd., if you happen to be wandering north looking for it in the 76210 ZIP code, is a left off of Heights Blvd. and an immediate right off Gessner Dr. Lauren Meyers captured some scenes this weekend around the Summit Oaks subdivision on the south side of Denton, TX, which has a whole section of streets sharing names with major Houston roadway (with a few bizarro-world tweaks here and there, like Chimney Rock Dr. and an only-1-L Hilcroft Ave.) The imposters range from Briar Forest Dr. to Dunlavy St. to Willowick Cir. and beyond:

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Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

 

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

Summit Oaks neighborhood with Houston street names, Denton, TX, 76210

An older subdivision section immediately west across Teasley Ln. (the major road leading to the Summit Oaks subdivision’s entrances) also has a Hunters Creek Rd. (which crosses a manmade drainage feature likely assumed by non-Houstonians to be the eponymous Hunters Creek). Meanwhile, just east of the subdivison, the tangle of roads surrounding the Denton State Supported Living Center campus has both a north and south Houston St., sprinkled among nods to other Texas Revolutionary types.

Photos: Lauren Meyers

A Road By Any Other Name

13 Comment

  • Someone ought to do a subdivision in Katy/Fulshear and name the streets Crenshaw, Imperial, Valley View, etc. Would (i) be humorous and (ii) help keep the CA transplants outside Beltway. Win-win.

  • I’m impressed that they paid close enough attention to detail to even use Houston’s “Weslayan” misspelling of “Wesleyan”, too.

  • For what it’s worth I frequently forget the second N in “Bissonnet” too.

  • If you don’t have history of your own, you might as well steal it from someone else.

  • Better than cutting down all the trees, then naming the streets after them.

  • The neighborhood has been bought and renamed Lakewood Church Oaks.

  • I wonder if this is the same developer that did the neighborhood in Corinth (near Denton) where all the streets are named after Chicago north shore suburbs: Wilmette, Winnetka, Kenilworth, etc.

  • There is a neighborhood in the Suburbs of Dallas that has a lot of the street names as in Westbury if I remember correctly.

  • This isn’t even the nice part of Denton.

  • But seriously, I don’t know anything about what is nice or not in/near Denton and can’t imagine what they were trying to achieve.

    Having said that @Purple City if you look up “Denton, TX” on Bing maps and zoom right in, you’ll see a Valley View, an Imperial, a Hercules, AND a Laguna – all right next to each other! Looks like the Californians have their place in Texas after all.

  • I really enjoyed getting to be a part of your day taking the pictures. Great article too !

  • Who named these streets? Dumb.

  • If I recall correctly (it’s been 15 years since I moved from Denton), the developer was Houston-based.