Mandeville Canyon’s likeliest namesake wasn’t named Mandeville. Guy C. Manville (1839-1905) raised bees here in the 1870s-1880s, and his canyon was variously spelled “Manville”, “Manvill”, “Manvel”, and “Mandeville”. (The earliest citation I found was “Mandeville” in 1888.) Originally from Illinois, Manville was a lieutenant with the Colorado cavalry in the Civil War, then came out here with his wife Frances and their eight children. In 1891, he testified to the poor quality of the canyon’s water, which was meant to be tapped for “Soldiers’ Home” (now the VA campus) near Sawtelle. Manville had by then given up on beekeeping and was living near USC, but moved back to the Westside in 1898 when he himself became a resident of Soldiers’ Home.
Find it on the map:
