Milton Kauffman (1882-1956) would cofound Temple City in 1923 (see Kauffman Avenue for a bio) and make a fortune building thousands of homes after WWII, but this little byway marks one of his earliest real estate developments – perhaps his very first. The year was 1907, and although Kauffman was still working with his father Isaac in an El Monte general store, he had been buying and selling SGV land for at least four years, and in 1905 he purchased the first of many parcels from millionaire Elias “Lucky” Baldwin. (Articles published later in Kauffman’s life claimed that he’d been an “associate” of Baldwin’s. Not quite true, but he did work for Baldwin’s nephew/estate manager Hiram Unruh.) Kauffman Street was born on 5 acres that Kauffman acquired from Frederick W. Tyler, the likely namesake of Tyler Avenue.
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