If you look at a map of Los Angeles, you’ll notice that there is no 100th Street between 99th Street and 101st Street. There is, instead, Century Boulevard – and it shouldn’t take you 100 years to guess how it came by its name. The “Century” appellation was made official in 1925 as part of a plan to widen and extend the road across the city towards Mines Field – the future LAX. Yet newspapers as late as 1930 were still using both old and new street names while the plan was being fought by property owners. I found no special reason behind the Century moniker, except to add some gravitas to the thoroughfare; nothing notable in Los Angeles was celebrating its centennial in 1925. Anyway, if you’re longing to see 100th Street, there is a tiny little remnant of it out near Watts. Lynwood’s share of Century Blvd. was later named Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Find it on the map:
