How does the American house numbering system work?

Question

House numbers in America seem to have astonishingly large numbers; in the hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands.

How does this work, surely there aren't that many houses in the street?

I still don't understand, In a large city the block system would make sense, but i've seen small streets where the number are like 10765 or 742. I jsut can't see how it works.

Answer 1

I believe that is the province of the U.S.Post Office, based on the town grid, number of land plots, early settlers, etc. It is not the same all over the country.

Answer 2

American House Numbers

Answer 3

America is quite large. Cities are quite large. If the city has a grid already in place, you will see a number 100, then a number 200 at the next intersection, then 300., etc. Hence, if you have a street that is a mile or two miles long, or ten or twenty, you can see how the numbers could get quite large.

All these are based upon a baseline.. a center point to the city. Each block North being numbered 100, 200, 300,etc and same South East and West.

But it varies by city. Some have Streets and Avenues and the definitions of each may be different by city. The numbering and grid systems may be different as well.

Sorta like our laws and regulations systems.. all f'd up.. every state and city and county has their own and each wastes numerous dollars and money repeating crap and arguing and blah blah blah.

odd vs/ even. most cities do the even numbers on the north or west sides of the streets and odd on the south or east sides. At least something is common.. the fact that if you are looking for an odd numbered house, all odds are on one side, and evens on another.

Answer 4

Most addresses in residential areas are separated by four: one house is say -- 6827 The house on one side of it would be 6823 and on the other side the house number would be 6831.

Secondly, the postal service numbers for houses are even on the South and East sides and odd for houses (or any structure, for that matter) on the North and West sides. Check it out. You will see this is true.

Thirdly, as answered previously, blocks are numbered 100, 200, 300, and so on.

The numbers start from either a dividing street in the town, i.e. Division St. or from the town center, which is usually City Hall.

The address 6875 would be the 68th block and either on the North or West side of the street.

Answer 5

There is no system. Some areas use 2 or 3 digit house numbers and others use 4 or 5 digits house numbers.

Answer 6

Where I live they start at 0 going north to south, east to west, with 0 being the middle point of each two directions. One side has the even numbers the other side has the odd numbers, depend how far a street goes until it reaches a boundary area that's how large the number would be. For some reason, they do skip some numbers. but I don't have the answer to that
A street going north and south,the East side of a street is odd and the west side of a street is even, and a street going east and west, the north side of a street is even and south side of a street is odd.

Answer 7

They number houses according to streets. On large roads usually 100 numbers per block. So between first street and second street, houses will be numbered between 100-200. Its basically a grid system. Therefore if someone lives at 6827, they will be house number 27 on the 68th block for the center of town. The other thing is most town number all odds on one side of the street and all evens on the other. This actually makes it very simple to locate a specific address. For 6827, you drive to the 68th block, check numbers to see which side is odds in this case and simply count down/up to the specific address you desire.

Answer 8

House numbers are loosely based on distance north or south from the city they belong to. For example a house on a street that runs north and south will have an odd or even number depending on which side of the stree it is on and the address will represent how for north or south it is. It is possible for an adress to appear on the north side of town as well as the south side of town if they are on the same street. This works the same for a home on an eat/west street. It's number is determined by how far east or west it is.

Answer 9

I pressume it works the same as Canada, they work on a grid system and it makes it really easy to find your way around. For example if your address is 11968-144street then the first 3 numbers of the address tell you its on the block that intersects with 119th avenue. so the grid of 119th avenue and 144th steet is the block you live on and your house number is 68. As the streets run east west and the avenues run north south its a piece of cake to find any house in the city.

Answer 10

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Answer 11

The first block on the street usually starts in the 100's, then block 2 is the 200's so that you know how many streets to go to find the house or business.