Using Local Place Names to Teach History

Are you thinking of teaching about local history to your high school students, but not sure where to begin? Look no further than out your window, or keep your eyes peeled when driving to work. We often forget that history is all around us.

Using the names of streets and buildings, as well as public history represented by monuments and statues, is an effective way to connect students to their immediate surroundings and deepen their understanding of local history in an authentic, often tangible manner. You can harness the history all around you to help students learn about their city or region’s past. 

Prominent Names

Street and building names, as well as monuments and statues, are important artifacts, detailing a place’s history. Look around at the names of prominent streets in your area. Many of them bear the surnames of your town or city’s founders, or of individuals who contributed greatly to the community. These street names provide opportunities for lesson plans and projects.

Consider having individual students or groups of students create presentations exploring the people after whom the streets or buildings are named. One fun idea is to have the students create trifold posters with images of the individual, facts about him or her, and pictures of the street or building, as well as some information about when it was built. 

Another idea: arrange tape on the floor of your classroom to signify approximate locations of the streets in your city. (Painters’ tape is a good option.) Have students stand and present next to the street they chose. Students then can take a “tour” of the city within your class. The teacher, or students, can move through different neighborhoods or parts of a city, stopping to hear students explain the history and location of their street or road. Students might describe the layout of the road, whether it goes east-west or north-south, who the street is named after and why, and any special buildings or places located on the street.

Statues and Monuments

Statues offer a chance to better understand a community, and grouped in parks, they make for particularly effective field trips, as students can see many statues in a single location. I took my students on a walking tour of one prominent park in our region, discussing each statue, its history, and what it signifies or represents. Our city also has several monuments to wars in which residents of Erie, Pennsylvania, fought. Connect a lesson from a history or social studies class to a monument in your area.

Have students “adopt” a soldier. Using historical databases like NewsBank (which public libraries might offer), students can research the names of prominent local soldiers who fought in a historical war and use this research to prepare for a writing assignment or a class presentation. A presentation might include a poster or trifold board in which the student prints out or re-creates photographs of the soldier, along with other written or visual information. 

Or, ask the class to create their own monument utilizing symbols and references to the event or person. Students might reflect on the purpose of monuments and the differing rationales guiding their creation. Have students watch the documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision or read about the sculptor behind the new World War I monument in Washington, D.C., Sabin Howard. This will help students understand that creating a monument involves having some historical knowledge of the event.

Graveyards 

Couple a study of monuments and statues with a visit to a graveyard to see where the namesakes are buried. The history of the graveyard itself might have value to the class. Pioneers and settlers, after all, typically needed to build graveyards soon after building a community. In one graveyard near our school, I had students locate prominent names of individuals they would recognize from street names and places in our community.

Graveyards usually have interesting stories unique to a community, too. There might be somebody who works for the city or cemetery association who can give a guided tour. Make sure, however, that students know that graveyards demand respect and deference.

Speakers and Presenters

Analyzing place names and public history offers wonderful opportunities for speakers to come into the class. If a nonprofit or citizen group maintains the monuments, ask representatives to come in and talk, or have people who work for the city discuss the building and maintenance of parks, statues, etc.

Connect with local historians or knowledgeable community members who might be interested in providing guided walking tours of different areas.

Activities

Your community’s public history provides many chances for engaging student activities. Here are some ideas.

• “What’s in a Name?” research project: Assign students a local street or building name and have them research the person, event, or idea it commemorates. They can present their findings as essays, videos, or podcasts.
• Historical scavenger hunts: Organize a scavenger hunt where students visit specific places (like particular statues or monuments in a park). Students answer questions for each of the different items they find. 
• Photojournalism or video project: Students photograph monuments, statues, and historic buildings. Have them pair the images with captions or essays about their history and significance. Students can also create a short documentary or video project about a site, building, or piece of public history.
• QR code history: In addition to visiting sites, my colleague and I printed large-scale photos of churches and buildings. We included a QR code beneath each site so that students could learn more. Then, they took a “tour” of prominent buildings and churches.

When teaching students about local history, don’t look too far. There is history all around us in the form of place names, monuments, statues, parks, buildings, and communal areas. Teach your students about the world around them that largely goes unnoticed—and then get them out into that world.