Ed Bacon’s First, Last Names Misspelled on Street Sign

In May of 1998, City Council passed a resolution honoring a stretch of Dock Street with a secondary name: Edmund Bacon Way. It was named for the city’s former planning commission director — the man famous for Penn Center, Market East, Society Hill and other areas during his 21-year tenure.

“I’m so used to being in this room over there; where that desk is where I came during the 21 years I was director,” Bacon said at City Council while accepting the honor. “I beseeched you — as a very humble servant — to, number one, give me money for the planning commission and, number two, to let me do what I wanted.”

In seventeen years since naming the stretch of Dock Street between Columbus Boulevard and S. 2nd Street after Edmund Bacon, the city has apparently changed it: While running by this morning, I noticed the street sign now reads “Edmond Beacon Way.” Yes, both his first and last names are spelled incorrectly.

The Streets Department didn’t return a request for comment. (Anyway, what would they say?) There’s no sign in the latest Google StreetView from June 2014, so the sign has been installed some time in the last year.

Street sign typos are pretty great. A few years ago, the 11th Street sign at 11th and Bainbridge read “11th Srteet.” (It’s since been fixed.) And, in South Philly, a mysterious sign read “BESTY ROSS” instead of “Betsy.” (“Besty Ross” would be a fantastic name for a Philadelphia rapper.)

Presumably, the sign will eventually be fixed. In the meantime, Edmond Beacon is going to be my new fake name for restaurant reservations.