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 1,900 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

El Segundo Boulevard

Compton, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Willowbrook

1911 conceptual illustration of El Segundo

The city of El Segundo was born in 1911 as a Standard Oil company town. Standard had just purchased 840 acres from George H. Peck Jr. for their second oil refinery in California – their first, at Point Richmond, opened in 1902 – and el segundo is Spanish for “the second”, so there you have it. The name is credited to Virginia Wright Hanna, wife of Standard Oil general manager Richard Judd Hanna, who helped lay out the town. (I believe Hanna named Virginia Street in honor of his wife, while Franklin Avenue is for his hometown of Franklin, PA.) This thoroughfare was initially two roads: Ballona Avenue in El Segundo and Hawthorne; 128th Street in Los Angeles. Both were changed to El Segundo Boulevard in 1931.

Featured Offbeat Street

El Camino

Beverly Hills

This street was originally called Speedway Drive, in honor of the Beverly Hills Speedway, a wooden(!) automobile racetrack that existed here from 1920 until 1924. (See Durant Drive for more on the Speedway and the streets named after its directors.) The name was changed to El Camino – Spanish for “the way” – in 1930. Some city official must have felt that motorists were misinterpreting “speedway” as permission to race down the street. Nitpickers’ note: This street is officially just El Camino, full stop. Or at least it was – BH’s more recent street signs have it as “S. El Camino Drive”, and in fact various maps were adding the “Drive” even back in the 1930s.