The City of Broken Arrow uses its own street names and numbering system. While most major arterial roads match those in the City of Tulsa, the names and addresses change to the Broken Arrow system inside the City limits. (Hence, 71st Street becomes Kenosha Street or 145th East Avenue becomes Aspen Avenue.) For the convenience of drivers, signs for major section line roads contain both the City of Broken Arrow names, along with the Tulsa County designations.

Generally, North-South roads carry horticultural names west of Main Street and are numbered east of Main. East-West roads carry names of cities: northern cities north of Broadway, southern cities south of Broadway.

North-South Section Line (Arterial) Roads

• Azalea Avenue – Mingo Road
• Garnett Road
• Olive Avenue – 129th East Avenue
• Aspen Avenue – 145th East Avenue
• Elm Place – 161st East Avenue
• 9th Street – Lynn Lane/177th East Avenue
• 23rd Street – County Line Road/193rd East Avenue
• 37th Street – 209th East Avenue
• Evans Road – 225th East Avenue
• Oneta Road – 241st East Avenue
• Midway Road – 257th East Avenue
• Oak Grove Road – 273rd East Avenue

East-West Section Line (Arterial) Roads

• Rockford Street – 31st Street
• Dearborn Street – 41st Street
• Omaha Street – 51st Street
• Albany Street – 61st Street
• Kenosha Street – 71st Street
• Houston Street – 81st Street
• Washington Street – 91st Street
• New Orleans Street – 101st Street
• Florence Street – 111th Street
• Tucson Street – 121st Street
• Jasper Street – 131st Street
• Yazoo Street – 141st Street

History of BA Street Names

Broken Arrow’s Street Naming System was formally adopted in 1973, but its use dates back to at least 1948. When Broken Arrow was originally platted around the turn of the 20th century, all the east/west streets starting from the north to the south were alphabetical, A, B, C, etc. , through J. Avenue. All north/south streets, starting from the east, were number 1st through 7th Street. Two exceptions were made at this time: E Avenue was labeled Broadway and 2nd Street became Main Street, both of which retain those names today. The original plat of Broken Arrow ran from what is now Greeley to Houston and from Elm Place to 2nd Street. College (formerly Avenue D) and Commercial (formerly Avenue F) were named sometime prior to a 1910 platting of the College Addition, between the original townsite and the Haskell State Agricultural School.

The current naming structure begins to appear in records when the Kenwood Addition platting on the north side of Kenosha was filed in 1948. In this plat, streets west of Main were now named for the current system, (for example, 3rd Street became Ash). However streets east of Main maintained their number characteristics. Brown’s Addition filed in 1952, shows that a standard naming system seems to have been adopted and the names used are the same ones used today.

The distance between the City of Tulsa and Broken Arrow in these days meant conflicts with street names were not an issue. However, Tulsa County officially began its street numbering system in the early 1950s, and as areas were developed outside of Broken Arrow city limits, confusion and conflicting names began to arise.

By the late 1960s, these conflicts led the City Council and Planning Commission to begin studying the issue. In 1973, it was decided to retain and formally adopt Broken Arrow’s established system of naming streets. This was done for several reasons, but a major factor was the pride residents felt in Broken Arrow and the desire to create an identity separate from Tulsa.

City leaders, the City Council and the Planning Commission have looked into renaming Broken Arrow streets a few times since 1973, ultimately deciding to retain the established names each time for reasons relating to expense, difficulty for residents and business owners, and to retain the pride and identity of Broken Arrow.

Roads on the eastern side of town that use names indicate these were roads that once (likely in the 1920s-40s) broke off the highway and lead to small mining towns or other communities.