APPENDIX. I. NAMING AND NUMBERING COUNTRY ROADS AND HOUSES. 1. THE naming of country roads and the numbering of country houses has not generally received that recognition which its importance demands; consequently commercial and social intercourse in rural sections is rendered extremely inconvenient. The indifference of rural communities on this subject has been due to several causes, but mainly to the want of a system which was applicable to all localities, and which should, without serious complication, be sufficiently elastic to cover the changes wrought by improvement. Such a system is now available. It is known as the "Ten-block Method," devised by Mr. A. L. Bancroft, and now in successful use in Contra Costa County, Cal. 2. The Ten-block System.-In this system the roads are first named in as long lengths as possible (names of towns or living residents are not used, some landscape feature or historical association suggesting the name) and then carefully measured. The point from which the measurements of all roads within the county are commenced is the centre of the roadway directly in front of the main entrance to the county court-house; each mile is divided into 10 blocks of 528 feet, and each block is numbered, the even numbers being placed on the right-hand side and the odd ones on the left-hand side going from the court-house; the block numbers are conspicuously marked on the fences or on posts specially placed for the purpose; a line indicating the division of the block is placed between the numbers thus, 52 | 50; the end of each mile is indicated by an X painted inside a circle, the half-mile is marked by a V in a semicircle; the houses in each block have the same numbers as the block on which they stand, but are distinguished by a letter of the alphabet affixed thereto, as 3A, 3B, to 3Z; thus when new houses are built in the block they can have numbers assigned to them without interfering with those already numbered; the number of roads entering or intersecting a given road makes no difference with the length or number of the block; in passing through villages or towns the names and numbers already in use are left unchanged, but outside the town limits the ten-block system is resumed, the first house having a number depending upon its distance from the court-house. In this way, although a road passes through a dozen towns, the numbers on each side of the town indicate the true position of the house and its distance from the commencement of the road. The distance from the court-house or between any two given houses is quickly ascertained by dividing half the even numbers by 10; for instances, if a house is numbered 506 253 506, its distance from the county court-house is = 25, miles, or the distance of the same house beyond another house numbered 315 is equal to 2 10 506 315 253 157 and on the opposite side of the road. 2 10 3. The data necessary to put this system in operation are contained in the following ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the county of Contra Costa, Cal.: An ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the county of Contra Costa, State of California, naming the several public highways of the county and authorizing the use of certain other names and designations for private or local roads in use in said county; also providing for the erection and due preservation of suitable guide-boards at all road crossings and intersections, and at other necessary or suitable points upon such roads as have been properly measured or divided into blocks, according to the "Ten-block System," also providing for the affixing and maintaining by residents of house or farm-entrance numbers, based thereon, for all country residences upon such measured roads; also providing for an official road map of the county, and other records. The Board of Supervisors of the County of Contra Costa do ordain as follows: SECTION 1. All public highways which have been duly accepted by the county shall hereafter be known and designated by the names prescribed in this ordinance, according to the designation and descriptions laid down in Section 29. SEC. 2. All private or local roads designated in Sec. 29 of this ordinance shall in all official reference thereto be hereafter known by the names herein prescribed, and the public use and recognition of such designation is hereby recommended. SEC. 3. Whenever the owner or owners of any strip or strips of land within the county shall represent to the Board of Supervisors their purpose and wish to devote the same to use as a public or private road, or as a right of way for access to any dwelling, and shall offer or accept a name for the same, approved by the road committee, to be appointed or confirmed by the Board of Supervisors, and shall comply with the provisions of the law respecting roads, such road name shall, when approved by the Board of Supervisors, be thereafter used in all official reference to the same, and its public use shall be recommended. Such road shall then be listed in the road list and given a designating number and letter immediately following the number of the road to which it is adjacent or tributary, until such time as the Board of Supervisors shall revise the list and renumber the roads. And such road shall thereafter come under the provisions of this ordinance the same as the roads enumerated. SEC. 4. The streets of all unincorporated towns or villages in the county may come within the provisions of this ordinance and be named. When numbered, the numbers to be according to the town method of 100 numbers to the actual block or square. SEC. 5. The authorities of the village, town, or city incorporations in the county are recommended and urged to name the streets within their corporate limits, and to cause the houses thereon to be numbered; also, to make use of one of the following designations only for the roadways within such incorporation, viz.: Alley, Avenue, Boulevard, Court, Park, Place, Plaza, Promenade, Row, Square, Street, Terrace. SEC. 6. Road measuring and numbering, as contemplated by this ordinance, are hereby defined and described as follows: All roads shall be measured along the surface line of the same, as near to the middle of the roadway as practicable, and laid off in imaginary blocks one tenth of a mile, or 528 feet frontage each, according to the "Ten-block System of Numbering Country Houses." A line to indicate the division between these blocks, with the block number on either side of the same, shall be marked or painted upon the fence where practicable, and where it exists in a fair state of preservation, or upon any other permanent object on one or both sides of the road. The odd numbers shall be applied to the blocks on the left-hand side of the road, and the even numbers to the righthand side. The block numbers shall be in figures not less than two inches nor more than two and one half inches in height where the fence board or other object will admit of this size, and so plainly painted as to be easily read from the centre of the road. The mile distances shall be distinguished in some suitable manner, as by a full circle, and the half-mile by a half circle or other suitable device. SEC. 7. The initial point of measuring for roads leading from the county seat shall be the centre of the street immediately in front of the main entrance to the court-house at Martinez. Other roads shall be measured at the end nearest the county seat, and branch roads the same, or from the main road to which they are tributary. SEC. 8. Note shall also be taken and a record kept of the block within which is located, and the number of feet in or within the block (i. e., the distance from the commencement of the block), of all bridges, large culverts, important permanent springs, drinking troughs, public monuments, summits, road crossings and intersections and objects of special prominence, and the correct block number be marked thereon, or near thereto, where practicable. SEC. 9. Note shall also be made and a record be kept of the number of the block within which is located, and the number of feet in or within the block, of each and every house entrance or gateway, lane, or road leading from the highway to any residence upon the roads, or to which access is had by way of the road, with the name or names of the owner or occupant, when practicable to procure them; also, to the entrance to all school-houses, churches, and public buildings. SEC. 10. The measurement of all roads which pass through or enter the corporate limits of cities or towns shall be continuous, regardless of such boundaries; but the block and country-house numbers may be omitted within such corporations. SEC. 11. In the measurement of the roads of the county re quired by this ordinance a record shall be made and preserved of the general course of bearings by the compass of all roads at road crossings or intersections; also, the general course of all private or local roads at their point of departure from the main road; and it shall be the duty of the county surveyor to prepare and place on file, in the office of the clerk of the county, a complete road map of the county, with the names of all roads, and, whenever the same are measured, the block numbers at their commencement at all roads, crossings, and at all crossings and connections of all roads, and at their endings, together with the boundaries of the several road districts in the county. SEC. 12. The measurement of the roads of the county may include the record of the accurate reading by barometer of the altitudes or elevations above the sea-level of the commencement and ending of all roads, all plains, valleys, the foot and summit of hills and the slopes of mountains, at suitable distances. The records of such altitudes, if taken, to be placed over the block number nearest the point of observation, or otherwise suitably posted, to show the range of important elevations traversed. SEC. 13. Whenever one or more residents or owners, upon any road enumerated in section 29, or hereafter designated and described, as required by this ordinance, or other person, shall furnish the Board of Supervisors satisfactory evidence that the provisions of this ordinance, respecting road measuring and numbering, have been faithfully complied with upon any road touching the county seat, or upon any road connecting with any other road which has been previously measured and blocked off; and whenever such residents shall file with the county clerk the record required in sections 8, 9, and 11; and whenever such resident, residents, or other persons shall have affixed block numbers at the beginning and ending of such roads, and at each mile and half-mile division thereof, where practicable or oftener, then, and in that case, it shall be the duty of the Board of Supervisors to erect upon such road, or roads, guide-boards, as hereinafter prescribed. SEC. 14. Whenever any such road is so measured and block numbers designated thereon, thenceforth and thereafter the several requirements of this ordinance as to the maintenance of house numbers, the protection and preservation of guide-boards, etc., |