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

Bel-Air Road

Bel-Air
Alphonzo E. Bell Sr.

Snooty Bel-Air was developed by oil tycoon Alphonzo Edward Bell (1875-1947), who was born in L.A. and grew up in a farming community that in 1898 would be named Bell after his father (see Bell Avenue). The Bells were known to be strict and devout: traits that little Phonzie inherited. After graduating from Occidental College – Brentwood’s Tigertail Road honors his alma mater – Bell’s tennis talents won him bronze and silver medals at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. His ranch and home in Santa Fe Springs made him some money through farming and land sales, then made him lots of money when oil was discovered there in 1921. But an enormous oil well fire soon chased the now-wealthy Bells towards Beverly Hills, where Alphonzo and his wife Minnewa Shoemaker Bell bought 1,760 acres from the soon-to-divorce Jake and Daisy (née Canfield) Danziger and established Bel-Air here in 1922. The name, short for “beautiful air” in French, is also a play on the Bell surname. Of the couple’s three kids, Alphonzo Jr. served eight terms in the House of Representatives (R-CA); Minnewa, who killed two old ladies with her car at 18, became the fourth wife (out of five) of FDR’s son Elliott Roosevelt; and Elizabeth died at 26 when her drunken husband drove them into a freight train in West Hollywood. Yes, WeHo had freight trains back in 1936.

Featured Offbeat Street

Waterloo Street

Echo Park, Silver Lake
No photos of the Hubbards, so here's a Waterloo Street sign
Image courtesy of Mark Tapio Kines

It’s not named for Waterloo, Belgium, site of Napoleon’s great 1815 defeat, but for Waterloo, Iowa – and why Iowans picked that name for their city is beyond me. The Waterloo tract was opened here in 1887 by the Hubbard brothers: Edward S. (1860-1927) and William E. (1861-1940). They had previously lived in Cedar Falls, Iowa – just outside Waterloo city limits – and had come out to Los Angeles for the big real estate boom. (They were reportedly physicians before that.) Their father Solomon had settled here a few years earlier and opened the nearby Marathon tract. He most likely gave his sons his own land to subdivide: today’s Coronado Terrace was called Hubbard Street back then. The brothers left L.A. for Salt Lake City in 1890 and became big real estate players out there. Edward suffered a stroke in 1907 and returned to Hollywood to recuperate. He stayed there for the rest of his life, wheelchair-bound but productive.