Mayor to appoint panel to study changing name of Main Street to Railroad Street, as many have suggested

Do you call it Main Street, which the signs say, or Railroad Street, its original and still often-used name?

For many people, the name of the main business street in Midway is Railroad Street, and a logo sign on Interstate 64 once used that name. But the street signs say Main Street, and that is used by the businesses on East Main and the homes on West Main. Now the City Council may change that.

Mayor Grayson Vandegrift told the Midway Messenger, "I am going to move forward and ask an ad hoc committee of the council to study the prospect of changing the name of Main Street back to Railroad Street," which it apparently was called before "Main Street" signs went up decades ago.

The issue was raised on Midway Musings, a "secret" Facebook group that has almost 700 members, by local historian and merchant Bill Penn. On July 2, he wrote: "I would like to make a motion that Main Street be renamed 'Railroad Street' to recognize both the fact of its being the street's original name from 1835 through about the 1950s, and would also honor the town's origin as being founded by a railroad."

The comments on Midway Musings were overwhelmingly favorable. Main Street merchant Kenny Smith said, "We have Railroad Drug and Railroad Street Framing but no Main St. anything! Proof enough for me!" Smith once headed the Midway Business Association, which before his time had a logo sign on I-64 advertising "Railroad Street Shops."

Former police officer and council member John McDaniel said on Musings that he checked the council minutes, and "Railroad Street's name has never been officially changed to Main Street. If I remember, the Main Street sign never went up until the late 40s or early 50s, from what I heard the elders say. . . . The mayor at the time suggested ordering Main Street signs as Railroad Street made the name too long and it would cost extra money to have them made." McDaniel said he heard the story from his father, police officer John Willie McDaniel, who headed the sign crew.

Vandegrift told the Messenger, "I hesitated to bring something from Midway Musings straight into potential policy without appearance by an individual at a council meeting, but this really isn’t the first time the idea has come up, and the Musings post helped show how much support this might have."

The mayor added, "Despite some initial hiccups at changing a street name, I think this could have a very positive impact on the city," he wrote. "I think that Railroad Street could become an identifying feature that could be beneficial to our merchants," like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Broadway in New York.

"Plus, I think it’s important that we play up our history as the state’s first railroad town," Vandegrift wrote. "Obviously, it’ll need a lot of study and input from citizens, especially occupants of east and west main, but I’m supportive of the idea."

The biggest complication could be delivery of goods. Regular mail does not seem to be an issue. Former council member Dan Roller noted on Midway Musings that the businesses on East Main get their mail at the post office, not through street delivery. He also said, "Another reason it needs to be done is when you go to a countywide meeting and someone say 'Main Street.' it means something totally different to Midway residents than to Versailles residents."