So named because, well, it leads to the city of Whittier, which itself honors Quaker poet/abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). Not to be confused with Whittier’s own Whittier Avenue, this lengthy concourse was originally at least three separate streets: in Whittier itself it was called both the “Los Angeles and Santa Ana Road” and the “Los Angeles and Anaheim Road”; Montebello residents knew it as the “Whittier Road”; in Boyle Heights and East L.A. it was Stephenson Avenue, altered from Stevenson Avenue, which was likely named in 1876 by surveyor Henry J. Stevenson. (See Lorena Street, which I believe honors his daughter, for more.) Whittier Boulevard was established by 1896 and officially consumed Stephenson Avenue in 1920. It’s been an important center of Chicano culture and commerce for many decades.
Find it on the map:
