Lovers Lane in Saint Joseph, beginning where 18th Street meets Grand Avenue and extending a mile and a half northeast to Ashland Avenue, began as a shady country road lined with stately trees and edged by farmland fences. Earlier known as Rochester Road, it became a favorite with romantic couples seeking solitude, was designated a city street in 1897, and was paved in 1914. It became internationally famous in 1889 when poet-journalist Eugene Field, while sojourning in England, penned nostalgic lines about it. Although farmhouses, fields and pastures, woods and orchards later gave way to quiet, closer neighborhoods, the residential area retained its early charm and was chosen as a Saint Joseph Landmark in 1979.