Curiously named Cd'A street cluster explained

COEUR d'ALENE - Crown Royal is often incorrectly identified as a bourbon, rather than a Canadian Rye.

Maybe that's why the late Jim Bening used both "Rye" and "Bourbon" when he named four Coeur d'Alene streets after the liquor in 1970.

Rye Avenue and Bourbon Drive are accompanied by Crown Avenue and Royal Street in a north Coeur d'Alene neighborhood between U.S. Highway 95 and Government Way. Bening was a member of an investment group, called DECEM Inc., and was tasked to submit street names to Kootenai County officials prior to development of the land.

Jim's son, Frank Bening, told The Press Monday that the street names came from necessity rather than a love of Crown Royal.

"He came up with some names and, for whatever reason, the county didn't like them," Frank said. "He went round and round and round and every time he came up with another series of names, they were already taken."

Bening was losing his patience with the process, Frank said. But inspiration finally came from an unlikely source.

"One night I think he was having a cocktail and he looked up at the bar and he says, 'I got it,' and started naming them," Frank said. "I think it was born more out of frustration - it wasn't like he was some bourbon connoisseur or anything that romantic."

Bening started DECEM Inc. with nine of his buddies, Frank said, because no one in the group had enough funding to invest individually. Once the business was created, and funding was pooled, the partners started purchasing land throughout Kootenai County.

Their initial investment, made when Frank was a child, extended far beyond the Crown Royal neighborhood. Frank said he asked his father about the particular purchase before he died.

"They sold that land and I said 'You know how much that would be worth now?' I mean (U.S. Highway) 95 wasn't even there then," Frank said. "He said 'Yeah, but we sold it and made a good, fair price. You've got to go on with life and you can't worry about what it's worth in 40 years.'"

Frank added that he has been involved with several small development projects in Coeur d'Alene that have reached the point where streets need to be named.

"I don't even think they'd let you do what my dad did now. Well, maybe they would, but I'm sure you would offend somebody," Frank said with a chuckle. "Probably did then too, but nothing near like it would today."