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 2,200 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

San Marino Avenue

Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino

The San Marino name was imported from the Italian Peninsula – via Maryland. James De Barth Shorb, who founded the town (originally a ranch) in 1877, named it after his childhood home: the San Marino plantation in Emmitsburg, MD. Said plantation took inspiration from the Republic of San Marino, the tiny nation surrounded by Italy. According to an 1874 article in a Maryland newspaper (the Catoctin Clarion), Shorb’s father Dr. James Aloysius Shorb (1798-1867) was moved by the little country’s pastoral yet independent spirit and thought it a fitting name for his plantation. The Republic of San Marino owes its own name to Saint Marinus, who in the year 301 established a monastery where the country now stands. Our San Marino, incorporated in 1913, employs parts of the republic’s flag in its city seal. San Marino Avenue was named by 1889.

Featured Offbeat Street

Ellenwood Drive

Eagle Rock

W.H. Ellenwood in front of his house at Ellenwood and Hill drives

Named for a landowner during the two years he didn’t own the land. William H. Ellenwood (1840-1917) was an Illinoisan who came to SoCal in December 1900 after nearly thirty years operating a small farm in Adams County, Iowa. The reason for the move is unclear. It’s possible Ellenwood sought to improve the health of his wife Virginia (1846-1903) as she died just over two years later. Newspapers also suggested that they were following one of their daughters (they had fifteen kids altogether) out West. Whatever the case, the Ellenwoods came first to Pomona but settled on 34.5 acres in Eagle Rock in 1902. A year after Virginia’s passing, W.H. took Mary Best (1837-1917), who at 65 had apparently never been married, as his bride. Two years after that, he sold his Eagle Rock land to an investment syndicate. They then named Ellenwood Drive on a tract called Ellenwood Heights. The tract’s namesake bought back 11 acres in 1908, conceding that he couldn’t find an “equally attractive place elsewhere”. W.H. Ellenwood died just three months after Mary.