Famous for its appearance in Back to the Future, Roslyndale Ave. was named in 1951 on land owned by Sanford Billings Schulhofer (1909-1988). He had no Roses or Lyns or Dales in his family tree, and although there’s a Boston neighborhood called Roslindale (often misspelled Roslyndale in the press), Schulhofer hailed from NYC and had no known ties to Beantown. Curiously, in 1869, just two years after Boston’s Roslindale was named – someone allegedly coined the moniker because the area reminded him of Roslin, Scotland – a Roslyndale neighborhood popped up in Sydney, Australia. If I had to guess, I’d say that Sanford Schulhofer outsourced the naming of this street to some anonymous civil engineer who either hailed from Boston or found “Roslyndale” in a file of potential street names at the Department of Public Works. Even DTLA’s Rosslyn Hotel (note spelling), named for its original owner Abner L. Ross, could have been an inspiration – but that’s pure speculation on my part.
Find it on the map:
