City ordinance decreed that the former Railroad Street be renamed in honor of city councilman John Topham (1872-1936) in January 1917 – just weeks before Topham was found guilty of violating the Los Angeles City Charter. Whoops! At issue was a decidedly unsexy scandal: the councilman was skimming profits off of the City-required plumbers’ bonds that he was issuing through his own private company. (His total take: around $400, worth about $10,000 today.) He was promptly removed from office. Born in England, John Topham came to L.A. in 1893. He and his wife Hannah, a fellow Brit, had four kids. In 1909, eight years before his fall from grace, Topham was appointed to the L.A. Police Commission. He stepped down from that role in 1911 amidst similar accusations of misconduct – and promptly ran for City Council! He had nerve, I’ll give him that. Anyway, after leaving public service, Topham became an insurance broker. He also tried in vain to get elected back onto Council twice in the 1920s.
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