This street was born in 1922 as Noble Avenue. A perfectly fine name, but after the City of Los Angeles annexed parts of this neighborhood (the “Evans Addition” and “Fairfax Addition”, respectively), city ordinances were passed to rename it Croft Avenue. In those heady days of annexations, the City would expunge duplicate street names to avoid mixups, and since there was already a Noble Avenue in the San Fernando Valley, this Noble was sentenced to an ignoble demise. A special committee selected the new name in August 1923 after a heated meeting with local residents. There is no record of who suggested “Croft” or why. I doubt it was meant to recognize anyone by that surname; it was probably just derived from a generic English/Scottish term for a cozy little farm.
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