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This horse chestnut has these long and fragrant white flowers in early summer, but it has also been flowering in September. At first it was just a few flowers, but this year about a third of the tree rebloomed. ANDREW MESSINGER
Residents of Hildreth Avenue in Bridgehampton have successfully petitioned Southampton Town to change the name of their road because, they say, it is too common.
There are eight Hildreth roads/lanes/avenues in Southampton Town, including one right around the corner from Sandra Taylor, who lives on Hildreth Avenue and who started the petition. The abundance of Hildreth roads—named for one of Southampton’s early families—makes it difficult for emergency service vehicles and delivery companies to find the right address.
“If you order something on the internet, it says we don’t exist,” Ms. Taylor said on Friday about her own road.
The town approved the name change to Audubon Road after a public hearing on March 22.
Ms. Taylor said she came up with the new name in honor of James J. Audubon, the American naturalist and painter who painted wildlife. “He was very famous and with the country life and the fowl that we have out there, I just thought it would be a nice name,” Ms. Taylor said.
Jamie Bowden, a legislative aide for the town, said earlier this month that the name change “needed to occur” for public safety reasons. “All of the pertinent public safety personnel also support the name change, along with the Assessors Office,” Ms. Bowden said.
The petition was signed by 11 households, or all but two of the households on Ms. Taylor’s Hildreth Avenue—the members of those two households having been out of town.
Ms. Taylor said she did not know exactly when the “Hildreth Avenue” signs will be replaced.
Alisha Steindecker on Mar 25, 2016