L.A. Street Names – Los Angeles Street Names – their origins, their histories, their meanings

Welcome to L.A. Street Names, the origin stories of street names across Los Angeles County, from the shortest cul-de-sacs to the longest boulevards. Mysteries solved, myths debunked, scandals exposed, history revealed. This is an ongoing project with more than 2,000 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

La Cuarta Street

Whittier

Cuarta is the Spanish feminine translation of “fourth”, in this case referring to cuarta calle: “fourth street”. So was La Cuarta Street originally known as 4th Street? Yes it was – and as another street as well. 4th Street was laid out in 1891 on the East Whittier subdivision. (The folks behind East Whittier were not the original Whittier Quakers but a group of Michiganders: see Michigan Avenue.) La Cuarta Street was named fifty years later on the Friendly Hills tract and was meant as an extension of 4th Street – the Friendly Hills developers tweaked the name to conform to their other Spanish-themed avenues, e.g., Enramada. Meanwhile, if we go back in time to 1887, the western stretch of La Cuarta was christened Short Street on the original Whittier townsite. Both Short Street and 4th Street kept their birthnames until 1966, when the entire thoroughfare became La Cuarta. See 2nd Street for the tortuous history of East Whittier’s ordinal streets.

Featured Offbeat Street

Laura La Plante Drive

Agoura Hills

This street is a remnant of the bygone era when Agoura Hills was known as “Picture City”, owing to Universal Pictures setting up remote facilities here to shoot Westerns and the like. It’s often stated that it was Paramount Pictures who named Picture City, as they too had a large outdoor studio here, but Laura La Plante Drive provides a key to the Universal provenance: When the street was christened on January 8th, 1928, Laura La Plante (1904-1996) was Universal’s most popular leading lady, and she appeared at the street’s dedication. A native of Saint Louis, La Plante – then just “LaPlant” – was living in L.A. with her sister Violet and their divorced mother Lydia by 1915. She won her first movie role at fifteen and was signed by Universal in 1922. (1927’s The Cat and the Canary and 1929’s Show Boat are her best-known films.) La Plante left Universal in 1930 and went into semi-retirement after marrying producer Irving Asher in 1934.