Circa 1840.
And they felt the need to commemorate this?
And the people who live there now want it known as this?
Ahhh, the joys of having forgotten the scourge of bed bugs.
I wonder if the other side of town has “Typhoid Place,” and “Polio Avenue”?
Update 8/31: it’s in Thorndale, Pa.
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Just curious, does anyone know where this is?
I’ve found references to Bed Bug Rows in several cities, New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago.
Apparently in the 1890s Chicago’s Bed Bug Row was home to several houses of prostitution (with names like The Library and The House of all Nations!) and was part of the outrageous Levee “vice” district until reform came in 1912. Five thousand full-time prostitutes, ten thousand weekend freelancers! (Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster, T.J. English.)
Bed Bug Row was across the street from a saloon called The Bucket of Blood according to this map. Yikes.
Now that bedbugs are everywhere, we may as well get reacquainted with that wild and crazy 19th century!
Very interesting, Nomo!
Update 8/31: The photographer has just let me know that it’s in Thorndale, PA.