So often the Museum gets people visiting wanting information on their historical house, usually just shortly after they bought it. It is nearly impossible for us to satisfy these requests because, before August 1960, the houses had no numbers. Imagine that, “it’s the second house past the Orange Hall on the other side of the road” was normal. Here is a transcript of the newspaper article announcing the completion of the numbering project.
Similkameen Spotlight, Wednesday, August 17, 1960, page [?] – “House Numbering Completed Here”
“On Friday of last week the House Numbering project was completed and now every building in Princeton has a new set of black and aluminum numbers prominently displayed. It will now no longer be necessary for anyone to describe their residence as the fourth house from the corner on the third street to the right over the bridge as the exact street name and house number now can be given.
The system of numbering is known as the Uniform Measured System. While there is considerable technical detail involved in the actual operation, the end result of the entire system is to make it as simple as possible for anyone to find any building just by knowing the number. All numbers on all streets are the same equal distance from any corner and sufficient numbers are left to take care of any new buildings. A number is allocated to every 20 feet of measurement on both sides of the street and consecutive numbers on every street are always opposite.
The Numbering runs west starting as the C.P.R. bridge over the Tulameen River and all numbers run from 1 to 100 at Bridge Street. The numbering then continues on from Bridge Street to the westerly limits on all streets with a number every 20 feet.
In the other direction the numbering starts at the Similkameen River and runs north with all numbers from 1 to 100 being below the Hope Princeton Highway. Then starting at the Highway they continue on to the Village limits on the north.
East of the Highway bridge on the Hope-Princeton Highway the numbering runs east after one crosses the bridge at the north end of the business section.
The numbering system was supplied by the Municipal Co. of Oakville, Ontario and Princeton is the 91st Canadian Community to adopt this system. The big advantage of this plan is that no matter how big the Village may grow, the numbering plan is on the ground to take care of any future development.”
Princeton Museum