Wells Street

From HistoryWiki

Wells Street Soundex Code W420

200 W. from 1820 N. to 6448 S.

The street was named for Captain William Wells.

By 1870, Wells Street had developed such a miserable reputation for debauchery, given its many brothels, that the city renamed it Fifth Avenue. Chicago's Fifth Avenue never developed the grandeur or class of New York City's Fifth Avenue, and in 1918, the original name was restored.

There is still a Fifth Avenue farther west in Chicago.