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 1,800 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

City Terrace Drive

City Terrace

The 600 acre City Terrace subdivision was opened for sales in October 1923 by Walter H. Leimert (1877-1970), a big-time real estate operator from Oakland who had relocated to Los Angeles earlier that year. (His first Southland development was Bellehurst Park in northeast Glendale; his most famous one, Leimert Park, opened in 1927.) Leimert spared no expense when it came to advertising his ventures, and he promoted City Terrace with weeks of full-page ads in all the local newspapers. This street itself was part of Ramona Boulevard until 1937, when it was renamed City Terrace Drive.

Featured Offbeat Street

Le Doux Road

Beverly Grove, Beverly Hills, Ladera Heights

Named in 1922 for Dr. Joseph Alphonse Le Doux (1856-1940). Born in either France or Quebec – public records disagree – Dr. Le Doux moved to Los Angeles with his wife and kids in 1886. Two years later, he became a surgeon at the French Hospital, a position he held for eleven years. (Located in today’s Chinatown, the French Hospital was founded in 1860 to treat L.A.’s French citizens; renamed Pacific Alliance Medical Center in 1989, it was finally shuttered in 2017.) Le Doux Road was named by real estate king Clifford C.C. Tatum on a Beverly Hills tract he co-owned with several investors, including Le Doux himself. Not coincidentally, Tatum was married to the doctor’s daughter: Blanche Alice Le Doux Tatum (1884-1965). No ordinary housewife, she was VP of her husband’s firm. For more on C.C.C. Tatum, see Charleville Blvd.