Petticoat Lane

Standing at 11th and Main streets downtown is a peculiar street sign labeled Petticoat Lane. Taking in the surrounding parking garages, banks, and office buildings, it can be difficult to discern why this short byway was named after women’s undergarments of a bygone age. Reader Scott Allen asked us to get to the bottom of it. To begin, we must imagine an 11th Street of a different age – inhabited by department and dry goods stores, bustling with buggies and streetcars, and crowded with shoppers. Over the years, local outlets like Emery, Bird & Thayer; John Taylor’s; Harzfeld’s; and Peck’s gave way to national chains like Macy’s and Dillard’s. And they all made the little downtown street an ideal place to buy a petticoat.