This is one of L.A.’s oldest streets, named in 1849 on the Ord/Hutton plan of the city. Does that mean there was then an olive grove – or even an olive tree – on what was to become Olive Street? It’s impossible to say, since most of Ord and Hutton’s paper roadways predated their physical counterparts by years. (The earliest mention of Olive Street in the press was in March 1869.) Olives are not native to the Americas, but by all accounts the Spanish were planting them while constructing the California missions in the 1770s, so surely some olive trees had popped up in Los Angeles between 1781, when the city was founded, and 1849, when Ord and Hutton rolled into town. There probably wasn’t one exactly where Ord decided Olive Street should be, but he was surely inspired by others in the area.
Find it on the map:
