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 1,500 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

Lennox Boulevard

Lennox

Some say the unincorporated community of Lennox was named in 1905 by a transplanted farmer from Lenox, Massachusetts. Aside from the spelling discrepancy, I’m skeptical. Lennox Boulevard itself was originally named Olivia Avenue – at least on a 1908 maps for the Inglewood Rancho tract; newspapers were calling it Lennox Avenue that same year. Two years earlier and mile and a half south, a different tract had its own Lennox Avenue; it’s now 126th Street between Hawthorne and Prairie. So the Lennox name was clearly floating around this part of town by 1906, which gives some credence to that “farmer from Lenox” theory. But there are no further clues. The neighborhood in general began answering to “Lennox” in 1912.

Featured Offbeat Street

Sanborn Avenue

Silver Lake
Dr. Francis A. Sanborn

Sanborn Avenue was born DeFrees Street in 1887. In 1906, the Pacific Electric Railway established a streetcar stop at DeFrees and Sunset and called it “Sanborn Junction”. You know it today as Sunset Junction. Since conductors and passengers kept referring to DeFrees as “Sanborn”, the City gave in and changed the street’s name officially in 1914. So where did “Sanborn” come from? I found the answer in a WWI draft card belonging to a John DeFrees Sanborn (1882-1943), a one-eyed realtor who lived with his parents at 4002 Sunset Blvd – smack dab in the middle of Sunset Junction. Said parents were Dr. Francis Asbury Sanborn (1837-1921) and Georgiana DeFrees Sanborn (1842-1919): DeFrees was her maiden name. They came here from Ohio in the 1880s to take part in L.A.’s real estate boom. In fact DeFrees Street originated on the couple’s Manzanita Heights tract.