Origin of Los Angeles street names?
October 2, 2013 8:09 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a resource that lists Los Angeles city street names and their origin/namesake. There's an old Angelfire site that does exactly what I'm looking for, but only for a few major streets. Where can I find information similar to what that site offers, but for lesser-known streets?
Best answer: There's a couple places that do things similar to what angelfire does. There's also one for Sherman Oaks alone.
Most of the tiny streets in subdivisions with residential neighborhoods will be named at the whim of developers or thematically. Like, where my grandmother used to live in Westchester, all the streets were named after aviation pioneers, since it was right by the airport.
posted by LionIndex at 8:33 PM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]
Most of the tiny streets in subdivisions with residential neighborhoods will be named at the whim of developers or thematically. Like, where my grandmother used to live in Westchester, all the streets were named after aviation pioneers, since it was right by the airport.
posted by LionIndex at 8:33 PM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]
There is a beautiful book on the history of Los Angeles streets named after Saints.
And googling "history of los angeles street names" gets you a few more sites and a video from the Natural History Museum!
posted by calgirl at 8:51 PM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]
And googling "history of los angeles street names" gets you a few more sites and a video from the Natural History Museum!
posted by calgirl at 8:51 PM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]
All of the streets in the Porter Ranch neighborhood North of Rinaldi built in 1974-77 are named for golf courses around the country.
Doral
Pala Mesa
Merion
Braemar
Pine Valley, etc.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:15 AM on October 3, 2013
Doral
Pala Mesa
Merion
Braemar
Pine Valley, etc.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:15 AM on October 3, 2013
Response by poster: Thank you for the helpful answers so far. What I'm really hoping to find is some kind of official directory maintained by the city or government agency. Ultimately, who is in charge of naming streets? Wouldn't there be some kind of city record of the origin of names?
posted by averageamateur at 9:51 AM on October 3, 2013
posted by averageamateur at 9:51 AM on October 3, 2013
What I'm really hoping to find is some kind of official directory maintained by the city or government agency. Ultimately, who is in charge of naming streets? Wouldn't there be some kind of city record of the origin of names?
That's kind of what I mean for the little residential streets being named by developers - hell, even the lists I linked to, half of the names of major avenues are developers or landowners.
Generally, for residential subdivisions, the developer will submit a plan for the entire subdivision to the City for approval by the engineering, planning, traffic, and other departments. That proposal will include all the streets that will be built, which will be named by the developer at that point, but the actual real property of the streets themselves is ceded to the city at some point. So, as far as records go for that sort of thing, you'd probably want to look at things called "subdivision maps", which may be on file in the records department at the building or planning department (in my town, those are both in the same building, along with records, where all the subdivision and public works maps are kept on microfiche). Those maps will probably be the first instance of street names being used in many circumstances. Unless the city has some overarching requirement for street names, like numbered or lettered, there's generally not a requirement that street names conform to any standard, although they may be subject to approval when the subdivision is proposed to prevent developers from building Fuck You Avenue someplace.
posted by LionIndex at 10:10 AM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
That's kind of what I mean for the little residential streets being named by developers - hell, even the lists I linked to, half of the names of major avenues are developers or landowners.
Generally, for residential subdivisions, the developer will submit a plan for the entire subdivision to the City for approval by the engineering, planning, traffic, and other departments. That proposal will include all the streets that will be built, which will be named by the developer at that point, but the actual real property of the streets themselves is ceded to the city at some point. So, as far as records go for that sort of thing, you'd probably want to look at things called "subdivision maps", which may be on file in the records department at the building or planning department (in my town, those are both in the same building, along with records, where all the subdivision and public works maps are kept on microfiche). Those maps will probably be the first instance of street names being used in many circumstances. Unless the city has some overarching requirement for street names, like numbered or lettered, there's generally not a requirement that street names conform to any standard, although they may be subject to approval when the subdivision is proposed to prevent developers from building Fuck You Avenue someplace.
posted by LionIndex at 10:10 AM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Well, I am someone deeply immersed in the researching of the street name origins of my city for a book. And I can tell you that unless someone has written a comprehensive resource on the subject, you will have to do it yourself or hope someone with a ridiculous interest in historical minutia will do it for you.
Government agencies and the various street type departments of cities are generally not that interested or motivated to keep such information in a single resource such as you mention. They will generally have a *list* of current streets and their exact locations, and that's it.
Historical societies always have some geek like me who will write about a single neighborhood, but writing about the origins of an entire city's streets is a huge job. No city would bother on their own dime.
Streets are almost always named by developers and their reasons for doing so can be murky. City council records will sometimes record when and why a street name is given, but finding them in the mass of paper isn't always easy. Hell, my town is less than two hundred years old, and it's still a big pain in the ass--it's taken years and I'm still spending lots of times following hunches in census records and old newspaper archives and standing in the city vault looking at old plat maps for the dates street names changed.
Believe me, it's like I'm doing genealogy for the entire city.
posted by RedEmma at 10:25 AM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
Government agencies and the various street type departments of cities are generally not that interested or motivated to keep such information in a single resource such as you mention. They will generally have a *list* of current streets and their exact locations, and that's it.
Historical societies always have some geek like me who will write about a single neighborhood, but writing about the origins of an entire city's streets is a huge job. No city would bother on their own dime.
Streets are almost always named by developers and their reasons for doing so can be murky. City council records will sometimes record when and why a street name is given, but finding them in the mass of paper isn't always easy. Hell, my town is less than two hundred years old, and it's still a big pain in the ass--it's taken years and I'm still spending lots of times following hunches in census records and old newspaper archives and standing in the city vault looking at old plat maps for the dates street names changed.
Believe me, it's like I'm doing genealogy for the entire city.
posted by RedEmma at 10:25 AM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
Best answer: So, in other words, if you want to find a *specific* street name origin, I can tell you how to get there:
You start by making an email or in-person query to the relevant historical society. Some of them will have files for some streets, but generally not all. They might know right off the bat what the street was named for.
If you have no luck there, you start by visiting your city hall and asking to see the old plat maps. Sometimes historical societies will have copies of some of these, but you want the plat maps that have signatures of the developers when they ceded the land/streets to the city.
Then you can check the dates for city council notes--though mostly this comes up empty for me. They will mention that the street name has been changed, but most of the time, unless it's for some war hero, they won't tell you why.
The best luck I have is by taking the street name and plugging it into Google, then GenealogyBank.com, then once you have the name of the developer, you can find clues through Ancestry and other places. GenBank has newspaper archives and sometimes obituaries will mention if a street has been named for the person, or there will be a small article mentioning the naming and why. So, on GenBank, you can enter "X Street" and it might come up. Often, however, it will just be about street improvements, which aren't helpful at all. Otherwise, you just might enter the name itself, and you'll find that there was X person who was a real estate developer or a big money dude in town in the early days, and you'll be able to deduce through much research that this was how the street was named.
If you're looking for something specific, you should be able to find it this way. Otherwise, if you want to write the book, welcome to my world!
posted by RedEmma at 10:33 AM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
You start by making an email or in-person query to the relevant historical society. Some of them will have files for some streets, but generally not all. They might know right off the bat what the street was named for.
If you have no luck there, you start by visiting your city hall and asking to see the old plat maps. Sometimes historical societies will have copies of some of these, but you want the plat maps that have signatures of the developers when they ceded the land/streets to the city.
Then you can check the dates for city council notes--though mostly this comes up empty for me. They will mention that the street name has been changed, but most of the time, unless it's for some war hero, they won't tell you why.
The best luck I have is by taking the street name and plugging it into Google, then GenealogyBank.com, then once you have the name of the developer, you can find clues through Ancestry and other places. GenBank has newspaper archives and sometimes obituaries will mention if a street has been named for the person, or there will be a small article mentioning the naming and why. So, on GenBank, you can enter "X Street" and it might come up. Often, however, it will just be about street improvements, which aren't helpful at all. Otherwise, you just might enter the name itself, and you'll find that there was X person who was a real estate developer or a big money dude in town in the early days, and you'll be able to deduce through much research that this was how the street was named.
If you're looking for something specific, you should be able to find it this way. Otherwise, if you want to write the book, welcome to my world!
posted by RedEmma at 10:33 AM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, I forgot to mention also that books and pamphlets written on specific neighborhoods can often be helpful. However, I have often found errors and assumptions in these, based on the fact that they didn't have the internet and had to rely on personal interviews of very old people and reference books in their local libraries.
For example, I live in a neighborhood that is primarily Scottish street names, and they were all named by the developers (who were from Scotland, natch). However, one of the streets was an outlier--"Dunedin". The lady who wrote the book obviously looked in the index of her atlas and found only one: in New Zealand. So she wrote in her little pamphlet that it was named for this town in New Zealand. While it was remotely possible that Old Hunter and Macfarlane decided to name one street for a place in New Zealand (one of them did travel to Australia once), here in the age of the Internet, I could Google it and find that it's the Scots Gaelic name for Edinburgh. Old Scottish dudes would know this, and it would make sense to use the name in their plat of streets. So, we actually live in an era where figuring this shit out is waaaay easier than they had it back in the day before key-word-search and boolean dealy-bobs.
Anyway, these pamphlets, which will surely be in the historical society or the local history section of your local library will be helpful. Just understand they're not perfect.
posted by RedEmma at 1:33 PM on October 3, 2013
For example, I live in a neighborhood that is primarily Scottish street names, and they were all named by the developers (who were from Scotland, natch). However, one of the streets was an outlier--"Dunedin". The lady who wrote the book obviously looked in the index of her atlas and found only one: in New Zealand. So she wrote in her little pamphlet that it was named for this town in New Zealand. While it was remotely possible that Old Hunter and Macfarlane decided to name one street for a place in New Zealand (one of them did travel to Australia once), here in the age of the Internet, I could Google it and find that it's the Scots Gaelic name for Edinburgh. Old Scottish dudes would know this, and it would make sense to use the name in their plat of streets. So, we actually live in an era where figuring this shit out is waaaay easier than they had it back in the day before key-word-search and boolean dealy-bobs.
Anyway, these pamphlets, which will surely be in the historical society or the local history section of your local library will be helpful. Just understand they're not perfect.
posted by RedEmma at 1:33 PM on October 3, 2013
Have you tried calling the reference desk at the Central branch of LAPL?
posted by amapolaroja at 12:41 AM on October 4, 2013
posted by amapolaroja at 12:41 AM on October 4, 2013
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posted by eponym at 8:33 PM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]