Why are there twenty-five Helena Drives in Brentwood? One rumor says a developer cheated on his wife Helena and then apologized by naming every street in her honor. Cute story, not true. The cul-de-sacs were laid out in 1922 on the Brentwood Country Club Estates tract, owned by Richard P. Shea (1868-1932), whose wife was named Elizabeth. (They soon split and he married Jane McComas in 1924.) Although Shea did have a daughter named Helen, the fact is that he simply borrowed “Helena” from nearby Helena Street, which had existed since 1906 on the Carlos Heights tract. Carlos Heights was set up by Chicago hotelier Tracy C. Drake (1864-1939), whose Blackstone and Drake hotels still operate in the Windy City. Since Drake named the tract after his son Carlos, it’s reasonable to conclude that his streets were tributes to other loved ones: Anita Avenue for his wife Annie – and here I must note that Richard Shea also laid out five Anita Drives on the west side of Anita Avenue – and Helena Street for Helen Vernera Drake (1867-1960), Drake’s little sister, a Chicago socialite. (I have no guesses for Carmelina Avenue.) Tragic postscript: On Christmas Eve 1932, two months after his wife Jane’s death, a despondent Shea tied her ashes around his neck and drowned himself in the Pacific.
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