Letter Streets / Tree Streets

On a recent walk around Belleville, Illinois, I noticed something wonderful about the streetgrid.

Rather than numbering the streets away from Main Street, Belleville uses letters.  Not only that, but they have a Church Street, which is amazing because downtown St. Louis used to have lettered streets and a Church Street before Missouri became a state.  Isn't it interesting that Belleville also has a Walnut Street?

Here's an account from St. Louis historian James Neal Primm,

On July 1, 1826, the board renamed the streets.  Their French names, still current with older residents, had already been replaced in general usage by numbers for the north-south streets (except for First--usually called Main).  With only a few exceptions, the French had not named the east-west streets.  After 1815, those in the original village with Market the point of origin, had been designated North or South A, B, C, and so on.  Mayor Lane and Aldermen Henry Von Phul and Thomas McKnight, all Pennsylvanians, persuaded the board to adopt the unimaginative Philadelphia system of naming streets for trees.  Northward from Market (the only street reflecting its origins), the east-west streets were Chestnut, Pine, Olive, Locust, Vine, Laurel, Prune, Oak, Cherry, Hickory, Pear, and Willow.  South of Market were Walnut (Rue de la Tour [Tower]), Elm, Myrtle, Spruce, Almond, Poplar, Plum, Cedar, Mulberry, Lombard, Hazel, and Sycamore.  The olive was not even a native tree, and several of the others had never grown near St. Louis.  The recently completed street on the river side of Laclede's front lots was named Front; the remaining north-south streets were First (La Rue Principale [Main]), Second (Rue de l'Eglise [Church]), Third (Rue des Granges [Barn]), and so on to the west.  No doubt some of the French and older Americans regretted these changes, but the "go-ahead" spirit had little use for the relics of the past.  ------ Lion of the Valley, page 122

If Belleville was founded in 1814 and St. Louis adopted the lettered streets theme in 1815, who influenced who? 

Regardless, here's Philadelphia today,

To quote wikipedia:  "The major east-west streets in William Penn's original plan for the city [were given] the names of trees: from north to south, these were Vine, Sassafras, Mulberry, High (not a tree), Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, Pine, Lombard and Cedar. (Sassafras, Mulberry, High and Cedar have since been renamed to Race, Arch, Market [the main east-west street downtown] and South.)"

For the most part, St. Louis has managed to keep its numbered streets because renaming a few would wreck the whole system.  That's true of most cities with numbered streets (NYC, KC, Philly, etc.).  New York has consistently numbered lettered avenues as well.

Tree streets in St. Louis and Philadelphia have not lasted over time.  Where are Vine, Prune, Oak, Cherry, Pear, Willow, Elm, Myrtle, Almond, Mulberry, Lombard, Hazel, and Sycamore?  Hickory, Plum, and Cedar are now obscure. 

One tree street name is actually coming back. 

The Laurel Apartments at the Mercantile Exchange bear the name that Washington Avenue used to bear.  Is that intentional?  Apparently yes,  they say so right on their website.