Who Is the Jenny Lind in New Bedford’s Jenny Lind Street?

Johanna Maria “Jenny” Lind was born on October 6, 1820 in Klara in central Stockholm, Sweden. So how come a street in New Bedford is named after her?

Well, since you ask, I’ll tell you.

I do not know.

Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer who was often called the “Swedish Nightingale” and according to the website TheFamousPeople.com was one of the most famous singers of the 19th century to perform in Sweden and across Europe.

The website states that legendary 19th-century showman PT Barnum persuaded Lind to embark on an American tour in 1849.

On February 5, 1852, Lind married the German composer and conductor Otto Goldschmidt in Boston. Lind performed in Boston as part of her American tour.

According to the Provincetown banner, a tower resembling a castle battlement on Truro’s Cape Cod National Seashore may have a connection to Lind.

The tower may have been part of the Fitchburg Railroad Station in Boston before the station was demolished. Legend has it that Lind performed in a hall at the train station, but when the angry crowd rebelled at being denied entry to the hall, Lind supposedly climbed to the top of the tower and performed for the people gathered below.

Jenny Lind is not known to have ever visited or performed in New Bedford, but there is Jenny Lind Street in the town. There are also streets named after Jenny Lind in Taunton and North Easton, Massachusetts and Jenny Lind Way in Dartmouth.

Streets named in Jenny Lind’s honor also exist in California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

There is a hospital in England named after Lind and an island in Canada bears her name.

Lind counted among her friends the German composers Felix Mendelssohn, Hans Christian Anderson and Thomas Edison, for whom she may have edited a recording of her singing.

Jenny Lind died on November 2, 1887 at Wynds Point in Malvern, England.

Why a street in New Bedford comes close to its name may forever remain a mystery.