Welcome sign at Cornell, Wisconsin

The welcome sign in Cornell, WI. (Dan Mansoor ’79, MBA ’80)

Take a Cross-Country Trip—from ‘Cornell’ to ‘Cornell’

Big Red history expert Corey Ryan Earle ’07 contemplates the many towns, streets—even an asteroid!—named for our alma mater

By Corey Ryan Earle ’07

I’m fond of saying that “Cornell is everywhere.” Wherever you go, you can find evidence of the University’s impact on the world.

But if you look at a map, you’ll find that Cornell is, in fact, ubiquitous.

Towns and roads across the U.S. are named after the University or its founder, making it possible to take a Cornell-to-Cornell, coast-to-coast road trip—from Cornell Avenue off Half Moon Bay, CA, to Cornell Road in Jacksonville, FL, less than 20 miles from the ocean—with plenty of Cornells in between.

An illustration of Corey Earle with the title Storytime with Corey

A tour of namesakes might start at the top: Cornell Peak in the San Jacinto Mountains outside Palm Springs, CA.

According to one story, the geologist who mapped them in the 1890s was at one point joined by a colleague, Robert Hill 1886, who thought this particular peak was reminiscent of the clocktower at his alma mater.

(He was presumably speaking of the McGraw Hall campanile, not McGraw Tower, which wasn’t built until several years after he graduated.)

Cornell Peak, located in the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California
Cobber99 / via Flickr
Cornell Peak, in Southern California’s San Jacinto Mountains.

For transportation on your Cornell journey, I recommend the Fairchild PT-26, or Cornell plane; thousands of these inexpensive aircraft were built to teach pilots during World War II.

Per the British military’s convention, trainer aircraft were named after educational institutions—so American-made ones used by the Royal Canadian Air Force received names like Cornell, Harvard, and Yale.

View of a “Cornell” Fairchild PT-26 airplane
National Warplane Museum
The Cornell trainer.

(For the record: we’re skipping Cornell, CA, an unincorporated community outside L.A. that’s little more than a ghost town today. Some versions of its origin story say Ezra sent books and supplies to start a schoolhouse, while others hold that the town’s founder selected the name—but he had no apparent connection to the University, and the tale of Ezra’s gift is likely apocryphal.)

You can also fly your Cornell aircraft right over Cornell College, in Iowa; it’s not named for Ezra or his university, but does have its own unique Cornell connection.

You can fly your Cornell aircraft right over Cornell College, in Iowa; it’s not named for Ezra or his university, but does have its own unique Cornell connection.

Instead, head to Cornell, WI, a small town established in 1903, when its post office opened.

“It is the intention and desire that this post office be named ‘Cornell’ in memory of Ezra Cornell,” said its application to the postal service, adding: “The history of the Cornell University lands in Wisconsin forms a large part of the material history of Cornell University.”

Cornell Street sign in Ithaca, NY
joe wilensky / Cornell University
There are Cornell Streets all over the country—including this one near Collegetown.

This refers to the Wisconsin pinelands that comprised a significant portion of the acreage that the federal government distributed to New York State through the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862.

That land and the income it generated, managed by Ezra and his associates, gave Cornell its financial foundation—and the town’s founding postmaster was one of the agents who represented the University in its land dealings.

Heading northeast brings us to the town of Cornell, MI—population 565—in the Upper Peninsula. Its co-founder was George Mashek 1891, a lumberman who demonstrated his Big Red pride by naming the new community after his alma mater.

(If you need a snack during your travels, pack some Cornell bread; the 1940s recipe, developed by nutrition professor Clive McKay, is hearty and nutritious. Just watch out for bees—like Andrena cornelli, named for the university because the original reference specimen was discovered in the area. And I hope you’ve been taking notes on your trip. Might I suggest Cornell Notes?)

The cover of the "Cornell Bread Book"

The U.S. is also filled with Cornell avenues, drives, and roads, often found among clusters of similarly named roadways near universities.

The U.S. is filled with Cornell avenues, drives, and roads, often found among clusters of similarly named roadways near universities.

College Terrace, east of Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, includes Cambridge, College, Oxford, and Stanford avenues running perpendicular to Amherst, Bowdoin, Columbia, Dartmouth, Hanover, Harvard, Oberlin, Princeton, Cornell, Wellesley, William, and Yale streets.

side view of an Andrena Cornelli bee
Lymantria / via Flickr
Andrena cornelli.

Appropriately, Cornell Street stands out. It’s the only one not in alphabetical order—since it was originally named Washington.

The many other examples of college-themed enclaves include Denver’s University Hills and the College Park neighborhoods found in both Orlando, FL, and Red Hook, NY.

If your Cornellian odyssey takes you beyond the U.S., you might go by sea instead of air. Unfortunately, the S.S. Cornell, S.S. Cornell Victory, and S.S. Ezra Cornell are no longer options

Greenland makes a good next stop—for a visit to the Cornell Glacier. In 1896, two Big Red geology professors and several students joined Admiral Robert Peary on a scientific expedition.

As a result, the glacier was named on the northwest shore of Greenland—as was Mount Schurman, for University president Jacob Gould Schurman.

view of rock basin lakes in Greenland, circa 1896, with the Cornell Glacier and Mt. Schurman in the background
rare and manuscript collections
The Cornell Glacier—with Mount Schurman in the background—during the 1896 Peary expedition.

(The team’s photographs of Greenland’s glaciers remain an important resource for scholars, given changes in climate, and many plant and fungi specimens collected on the adventure are still held in Cornell’s herbarium.)

Finally, you’ll need to make alternative travel plans if you’re heading to asteroid 8250, named Cornell.

In 1999, the Hill hosted the International Conference on Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors; a dozen minor planets were named for Cornellians affiliated with the event, in addition to one for the University itself.

map showing the projected orbit of the 8250 Cornell asteroid within our solar system
NASA / JPL
The orbit (in white) of the Cornell asteroid.

At the time, an official from the International Astronomical Union noted that the Cornell asteroid was aptly named: “It’s inclined at 17 degrees, so it’s highly inclined and slightly eccentric.”

An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.

Top: The welcome sign in Cornell, WI. (Photo by Dan Mansoor ’79, MBA ’80.)

Published September 15, 2025

Comments

  1. Karen Zelkind Buglass, Class of 1977
    23 Sep, 2025

    What a fun journey through all these Cornells!

    Reply
  2. Dave Bowen, Class of 1976
    23 Sep, 2025

    Having lived in Half Moon Bay for 5 years, I’ll be heading back there in a few weeks to visit friends and take in the HMB Pumpkin Festival, California’s largest street fair. Will be sure to look up Cornell Ave, never knew it was there.

    Reply
  3. Laurie Sieminski, Class of 1969
    23 Sep, 2025

    Cornell Avenue in Glen Echo, MD, is one of that neighborhood’s several streets with a university name. Glen Echo was developed as a Chautauqua community in 1891.

    Reply
  4. Reid Bowman, Class of 1982
    23 Sep, 2025

    There is a Cornell and Cornell lacrosse-themed neighborhood in Annapolis, Maryland that features Cornell Ave, Moran Dr, George Boiardi Lane and Eamons Way.

    Reply
  5. Judith A Barth, Class of 1969
    23 Sep, 2025

    When we moved to Fort Collins, CO in 1984, our first house was on Cornell Street. it was an omen-we were where we needed to be! I felt very much at home. 41 years later, I still do!

    Reply
  6. D B Franklin, Class of 1960
    23 Sep, 2025

    A major street in Portland Oregon is Cornell Road.

    Reply
  7. Allyn Smith, Class of 1960
    23 Sep, 2025

    A group of people in southern California (probably from upstate NY) wanted to start a school and wired Ezra Cornell for help. He sent books and syllabus for the students. They named the town Cornell, CA.
    Today there is a Cornell Winery near that town between Malibu and Agoura Hills.

    Reply
  8. Magdalen Lindeberg, Class of 1995
    23 Sep, 2025

    I went to Swarthmore College where I lived on Cornell Avenue and studied in Cornell library… and now I work at Cornell!

    Reply
  9. Louis W Miller, Class of 1957
    23 Sep, 2025

    There’s a Cornell Road in Agora Hills, Ventura County just west of Los Angeles.

    Reply
  10. Steve Dornseif, Class of 1970
    30 Sep, 2025

    “The history of the Cornell University lands in Wisconsin forms a large part of the material [financial] history of Cornell University.”
    I hope it’s also worth mentioning that these Morrill Land-Grants were given soon after the removal of the Ojibwe, Dakota, and other indigenous peoples.
    http://www.hcn.org/issues/52-4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities

    Reply

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