The cottages on the left side of Academy Street going under the railway bridge heading toward Kilcarn were known as Butterstream.
In the photograph above the man on the left has been identified as Mr Fox; the man opposite as Mr McGuinness (Frank?) and the woman at the pump on the left (barely visible) as Mary Anne Hartigan.
Source: Paddy Fox, Butterstream
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According to local folklore a stream flowed down towards Mellows Terrace on the far side of the street. The butter merchants coming in from the country to the market in Navan washed their butter in this stream.
An alternative explanation of the name is Bóthar Sirriam – the Sherriff’s Road (on the way to Dublin).
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Below is a story from the Meath Chronicle from 1898:
Poacher caught at Butterstream Navan
Acting Sergeant Fullerton, summoned at Navan Petty Sessions Daniel Keefe for having been found illegally in possession of rabbits and a net at Butterstream, Navan. Mr Sainsbury acted for the defendant.
Complainant stated that on the morning of the 21st December, accompanied by Constable Flanagan, he lay in ambush at the Trim Bridge, and saw the defendant crossing the road at Dillon’s Land carrying rabbits and a net on his back, and accompanied by a dog. On seeing the police, the defendant ran off and into a house at Butterstream, occupied by a man named Moore. They pursued him and saw him coming out of Moore’s piggery, and found nine rabbits and a net (produced).
Mr Sainsbury submitted that the rabbits might have placed there by somebody else, but the Court held the case proved, and fined the defendant 30s. The defendant refusing to pay was committed to prison for one month.
Source: The Meath Chronicle Centenary, Publication p. 41