The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
Named intersection, not a notable community: Ref 6 only says "The second commercial district
primarily encompasses land owned by Salem Hospital and around the Pointers
intersection." and Ref 4 says "King's Highway rejoins the route at the Pointers, 26.6 m. The latter name comes from the junction of three old roads pointing here toward Salem." Ref 3 says "The juncture of highways north of Salem
where the road divides to Woodstown, Sharptown and Penn's Neck." Ref 5 is a map which labels this similar to other places that aren't necessarily communities, like beaches, forts, corners, mills, and Pine Island. Can't find any newpapers.com sources establishing notability and none of these are significant coverage beyond stating that it's an intersection with a typical WP:GNIS error. Reywas92Talk22:53, 20 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The major problem seems to be that it wasn't actually an intersection. Going back to 1852 and New Jersey legislation, it turns out that it was the roads ("from Woodstown, Sharpstown, and Sculltown to Salem") that were the "pointers" but this seems to have been mis-read as the junction of the roads being named "pointers". So this looks like multiple layers of comical errors, from roads to intersection, to "populated place" (because of the hospital buildings, no doubt), to "unincorporated community", to "settlement". ISBN9781581820942, another placename explainer, tells us that it "refers to a road sign", just extending the random walk of things that this name has been comically attached to. Unsurprisingly, given that this wasn't even the thing that the placename explainers thought it was, there's no history here. No Arcadia book. Nothing at all. Equally unsurprisingly, apart from some sloppy journalism the formal address of the Memorial Hospital has been (from when it moved there) "Woodstown-Salem Road" or just "Woodstown Road", not "Pointers". Uncle G (talk) 00:33, 21 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Not exactly sure what is comical about it the evolution of the name the Pointers to reflect the place/locale where three road converge to form one; seems like a natural development of language and colloquial use as is cited in "Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey". New Jersey Legislature. 1852. Retrieved March 21, 2022. ...between the junction of the roads from Woodstown, Sharpstown, and Sculltown to Salem (commonly called the Pointers)..., which refers to the junction as a specific spot. (Blevins, Don (2002), Peculiar, Uncertain, and Two Egg, Cumberland House Publishing, ISBN9781581820942 appears not to be easily accessible online.) Also, there is really anything unusual for building to use a street address. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Djflem (talk • contribs) 2022-03-21T16:02:17 (UTC)
That's because you aren't reading what's right there in front of you. The roads (plural) were called the Pointers (plural), not the (singular) junction. You've made exactly the same comical error. And if Pointers were the town that the Hospital was in, which it isn't, it would be part of the address, which it isn't. It's 3 roads, not a settlement, not a town, not an unincorporated community, not an evolution of anything. It's 3 roads, from from Woodstown, Sharpstown, and Sculltown to Salem, collectively called the Pointers. The placename explainers read the original wrong, just like you are. Uncle G (talk) 23:29, 21 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
One could also say that like Salem Woodstown Road, the road between Salem & Woodstown, the Pointers Sharpton Road and the Pointers Auburn Road are the roads between Pointers and those two places. But that idea and the one about plurals are moot since sources are easy to read and don't require fanciful interpretations or 'creative' OR suggested above. It's very rare in USA to cite district/neighborhood name in addresses. Much more common to use municipality/CDP name as with the hospital. But that's also irrelevant since there's no claim that Pointers is either.Djflem (talk) 07:05, 24 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.