Brookline teen's Google Maps prank becomes official MBTA bus stop
Brendan Libby was 14 years old and bored.
It was 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was still in full swing and the Brookline teenager was messing around online.
Scanning through Google Maps, he noticed a small, unnamed side street near his home. Really, it wasn't anything more than a parking lot that turned into a driveway leading to the dumpsters behind an apartment complex on the Brookline-West Roxbury line.
But what if it weren't? What if it were actually a real street dedicated to Baseball Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville, one of Libby's favorite old-timey ballplayers and owner of what he thought was an especially "epic" name.
Google Maps lets users suggest changes to the names of locations on its platform. Libby submitted "Maranville Street" as the real name of the nameless West Roxbury side street off of Independence Drive.
He was shocked when Google Maps accepted the suggestion.
The entrance to the parking lot of Atrius Health and Hancock Village apartments on the West Roxbury-Brookline border. Brendan Libby renamed the small side road that begins there as "Maranville Street" as a prank.(Anne Brennan/MassLive)
The "street" is a parking lot for Atrius Health behind Hancock Village apartments and leads to the complex's dumpster area, Libby, now 18 and a Brookline High School senior, told MassLive in an interview Tuesday. "There's not much more to it. It's basically just a parking lot."
For a while, Maranville Street remained an inside family joke. But in 2022, while riding the MBTA's 51 bus through West Roxbury, Libby was shocked to hear the monotone automated voice that announces upcoming stops declare that the bus was approaching "Independence Drive at Maranville Street."
It seemed that sometime in the months prior, the MBTA had updated its bus stop name to reflect Maranville Street — as it appears on Google Maps — as the only cross street in that area.
Maranville, a Springfield native, played for the Boston Braves from 1912 to 1920 and was known as one of "baseball's most famous clowns" for his practical jokes. He was nicknamed "Rabbit" for his speed and small size.
He "seemed like a chill guy, honestly," Libby, a fan of baseball history, said. "He's kind of a prankster, which I think is pretty fitting for the situation."
"I'm not throwing any shade at the MBTA obviously," Libby added, using the Gen-Z slang for disrespect. "But I think it's funny that something that small can slide in and basically sit there for two years without being noticed."
Maranville Street, a small side road leading through the parking lot of Atrius Health and Hancock Village apartments. Brendan Libby renamed the road on Google Maps after an early 20th-century baseball player as a prank.(Anne Brennan/MassLive)
Early this week, Libby came clean. He posted his story on Reddit under the title "So ... I accidentally named a MBTA bus stop."
He thought it would just be one of those funny local anecdotes that would give Bostonians a chuckle and then disappear.
Instead, the post took off. As of Wednesday morning, it was the top item on the r/Boston subreddit this week.
The story "appears to be plausible," an MBTA spokesperson said. The agency occasionally consults Google Maps to update bus stop names. Two stops — Independence Drive at Maranville Street and Independence Drive opposite Maranville Street — had their names updated in the summer of 2022 to reflect the change on Google Maps.
Libby wanted to take the bit further. On Monday, he submitted a complaint to Boston 311 , noting that Maranville Street — "an important cross street for the MBTA" — was missing a street sign. He posted about that on Reddit, too.
Libby provided MassLive with a screenshot of an email from Google Maps approving his suggestion of changing an unnamed road to Maranville Street.
As of Wednesday, "Independence Dr @ Maranville St" and "Independence Dr opp Maranville St" remained stops on the MBTA's 51 bus route , between Corey Street and Sherman Road or Thornton Road. On Wednesday morning, a Boston school bus passed through the "street".
The 311 submission had reached a second stage of review, Libby said.
He had also suggested changes to other street names, most to honor obscure early 20th-century celebrities. He was going for ones he "didn't think Google would catch."
"Like you're not naming it Taylor Swift Drive or something," he said.
Libby is applying to college and said he is interested in minoring in political science and working in politics. A campaign to rename a street "is probably a good start," he said. "Super low stakes."
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