Editing House numbering (section)

== History ==
[[File:Goodman's Field, cropped from John Rocque 1746 2f.jpg|thumb|One of the earliest street numbering systems was introduced along Prescot Street in Goodman's Field, London, as shown in [[John Rocque's maps of London|John Rocque's Map of London, 1746]].]]
A house numbering scheme was present in [[Pont Notre-Dame]] in Paris in 1512.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/07/16/102074964.pdf |title=The Numbering of Houses |date=16 July 1898 |work=The New York Times|access-date = 27 September 2015 }}</ref> However, the purpose of the numbering was generally to determine the distribution of property ownership in the city, rather than for the purpose of organization.{{Citation needed|date = September 2015}}

In the 18th century the first street numbering schemes were applied across Europe, to aid in administrative tasks and the provision of services such as mail delivery. The ''New View of London'' reported in 1708 that "at Prescott Street, Goodman's Fields, instead of [[house sign|sign]]s, the houses are distinguished by numbers".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyZfYaLXsuUC |title=London: A Social History |author=Roy Porter |year=1998 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=126|isbn=978-0-674-53839-9 }}</ref> Parts of the Paris suburbs were numbered in the 1720s; the houses in the Jewish quarter in the city of [[Prague]] in the [[Austrian Empire]] were numbered in the same decade to aid the authorities in the conscription of the [[History of the Jews in Prague|Jews]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tantner|first=Anton|date=31 December 2009|title=Addressing the Houses: The Introduction of House Numbering in Europe|journal=Histoire & Mesure|language=en|volume=XXIV|issue=XXIV-2|pages=7–30|doi=10.4000/histoiremesure.3942|issn=0982-1783|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Street numbering gained momentum in the mid-18th century, especially in Prussia, where authorities were ordered to "fix numbers on the houses&nbsp;... in little villages on the day before the troops march in". In the 1750s and 60s, street numbering on a large scale was applied in [[Madrid]], London, Paris, and [[Vienna]], as well as many other cities across Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://histoiremesure.revues.org/3942?lang=en |title=Addressing the Houses: The Introduction of House Numbering in Europe |year=2009 |doi=10.4000/histoiremesure.3942 |access-date=17 December 2012|last1=Tantner |first1=Anton |journal=Histoire & Mesure |volume=XXIV |issue=2 |pages=7–30 |s2cid=142666167 |doi-access=free }}</ref> On 1 March 1768, [[Louis XV of France|King Louis XV of France]] decreed that all French houses outside of Paris affix house numbers, primarily for tracking troops quartered in civilian homes.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Indexing the great ledger of the community: urban house numbering, city directories, and the production of spatial legibility |journal=Journal of Historical Geography |date=1 April 2008 |pages=286–310 |volume=34 |issue=2 |doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2007.06.003 |first=Reuben S. |last=Rose-Redwood}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Critical Toponymies: The Contested Politics of Place Naming |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xg1GAepFft8C |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-7453-5 |first=Reuben |last=Rose-Redwood |year=2009|editor-last = Berg|editor-first = Lawrence D.|editor-last2 = Vuolteenaho|editor-first2 = Jani |chapter=Indexing the Great Ledger of the Community: Urban House Numbering, City Directories, and the Production of Spatial Legibility |page=199|access-date = 26 September 2015|orig-year = originally published in 2008 in ''Journal of Historical Geography'' but revised in 2009|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xg1GAepFft8C&pg=PA199}}</ref>

Due to the gradual development of house numbering and street addressing schemes, reform efforts occur periodically. For instance, some US cities started efforts to improve their schemes in the late 19th century.<ref name="APA-Report13-1950"/>