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
Olympic Boulevard
If you count the numbered streets in central Los Angeles, you’ll notice that there is no 10th Street. (Well, there is, but only in bits and pieces.) That’s because it was changed to Olympic Boulevard in 1935, in honor of the Summer Olympics that were held in L.A. three years earlier. (We can thank William May Garland for bringing the Games to our fair city.) The request for the new name was actually made back in July 1929, well in advance of the Games; although they marked the 10th Olympiad, the selection of 10th Street was apparently coincidental, as the road was already being widened and extended across the city. (At least no newspaper articles about the name change picked up on the 10th Olympiad angle.) And ironically, it was a healthy portion of Country Club Drive that was the first stretch of asphalt to be awarded the Olympic moniker – six years before 10th Street was finally renamed! The boulevard continued to expand all the way into 1945, coopting most of the Westside’s Louisiana Ave. (where it had to slice through the Fox backlot) and Santa Monica’s Pennsylvania Ave., and portions of 9th Street and Mines Ave. on the Eastside.
