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 2,100 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

Gramercy Place

Los Angeles (Citywide), Gardena, Torrance

Four “Places” – Wilton, Gramercy, St Andrews, and Manhattan – debuted in 1901 on the W.G. Nevin tract just south of Pico. While I assume Gramercy Place takes its name from NYC’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, I can’t say why exactly, as the tract’s primary owner William George Nevin (1855-1902) wasn’t from New York but from regular old York, Pennsylvania. He joined the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1876 and was named general manager of its SoCal division in 1897, which made him something of a VIP when he and his family relocated to Los Angeles from Chicago. But the final year of his life was plagued by ill health and he died just a month after his tract opened. (Nevin Avenue, south of downtown, was named in October 1902, presumably in Nevin’s memory.) Nevin’s son Bill (1881-1934) remained near the tract and went into real estate. He declared bankruptcy in 1933, likely a victim of the Depression, and died the next year; his wife Hattie followed him in 1936.

Featured Offbeat Street

Cottage Home Street

Chinatown

The Cottage Home tract was set up in 1895 by William R. Burke (1852-1911) and his wife Jessie (1854-1910). William Burke hailed from Helena, AR, where at the tender age of 18 he established the Helena World newspaper, still in print today. He married Jessie Greenfield, the New Orleans-born daughter of a cotton broker, in 1879. The couple and their kids Louise and Carleton came to Los Angeles in 1885, shortly after William sold his paper for a tidy sum. Here he got into insurance sales, then real estate. After Cottage Home – presumably named just because it sounded cozy – he built his signature tract, Berkeley Square, in 1903-1905. Located between Gramercy and Western and between 21st and 24th streets, it was a posh, private enclave of mansions, one of which the Burkes lived in themselves, but it was razed in the 1960s to make way for the 10 freeway. Similarly, much of the Cottage Home tract would vanish under the Arroyo Seco Parkway.