This street was first laid out in 1887 on a never-built tract called “Cahuenga“. (Hollywood was then known as the Cahuenga Valley.) This tract was planned by a group of real estate speculators who had purchased the land from early settler Michael L. Yager (1837-1922) southwest of Sunset and Gardner. I don’t know why they gave up on it. At any rate, an aspirational “perspective map” of the tract shows Fountain Avenue distinguished by two roundabouts encircling what do indeed appear to be fountains – hence the name. (Although the map has little to do with reality, these imagined fountains were probably where Fountain Ave. now crosses Crescent Heights and Curson, respectively.) Due east was the Plummer Ranch, today’s Plummer Park; in newspapers, Fountain was mentioned solely in reference to said ranch from 1888 until 1905. As for its stretch east of Western Avenue, it was called Benefit Street until 1912. Showbiz postscript: There’s no proof that Bette Davis ever said, when asked what advice she’d give young actresses in Hollywood, “Take Fountain.” That quote started making the rounds in the late 1990s and was also attributed to Elizabeth Taylor, Tallulah Bankhead, and Mae West. There’s no proof that they said it either.
Los Angeles Street Names – their origins, their histories, their meanings