When the Alamitos Beach townsite was laid out in 1886, its twenty north-south avenues were arranged in alphabetical order. Just over half have retained their original monikers: Alamitos, Bonito, Cerritos, Esperanza, Falcon, Gaviota, Hermosa, Junipero, Lindero, Obispo, Paloma, Redondo, and Termino. (The lost names: Descanso, Independencia, Kalamazoo, Modjeska, Naranja, Quito, and Sobrante.) Now, while término is Spanish for “end” – and indeed, Termino marked the end, or the eastern boundary, of Alamitos Beach – my crackpot theory is that someone wanted the alphabet to continue, which is why we have the weirdly-named Ximeno Avenue four blocks east.
Find it on the map:
