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

Workman Mill Road

Whittier

Detail of 1872 map showing area around William Workman's mill

Englishman William Workman (c. 1799-1876), co-owner of the sprawling Rancho La Puente, once operated a flour mill – “Workman’s mill” – where the San Gabriel River now meets San Jose Creek, near the present-day interchange of the 60 and 605 freeways and about four miles west of Workman’s home (see Don Julian Road). The earliest mention of the mill I could find was in 1867, when Workman’s son-in-law (and banking partner) F.P.F. Temple advertised his “new road” from Los Angeles to San Bernardino via “Workman’s mill”. It was known as The Los Angeles and Workman Mill Road by 1895 and within a few years would simply be called Workman Mill Road.

Featured Offbeat Street

Butterfield Road

West L.A.

This 1923 street honors Edith Butterfield Sheldon (1884-1945), wife of developer Benjamin Cushing Sheldon (1876-1959; see Cushdon Avenue). She was born Mary Edith Butterfield in Chicago. When she was a child, her father John Spencer Butterfield took the family to Mississippi, where he and partner Fred W. Norwood had set up a lumber mill. Located outside of Brookhaven, Norwood and Butterfield named their company town “Norfield”, a portmanteau of their surnames. Norwood later dropped out and Butterfield ran the company with his three sons (see Bradbury Road), but it appears that he, his wife Emma, and Edith split their time between Mississippi and Chicago. Edith married Ben C. Sheldon in 1918 – she may have met the Minneapolis native through a mutual friend in that city – and they had three kids: Barbara, David, and little Abbott, who died of appendicitis in 1936 at the age of 12. (One block of Cheviot Drive was originally called Abbottson Road.) After years of shuttling back and forth between Los Angeles and Medford, OR, the Sheldons resided in this neighborhood full-time from 1932 onward.