All I can tell you for sure is that this thoroughfare was born Maple Avenue in 1910 and that seven years later, after Los Angeles annexed the Valley, it was renamed Tampa Avenue to avoid conflicts with DTLA’s own Maple Avenue. Since “Tampa” was chosen by anonymous civil engineers with the City, it’s impossible to answer the why behind the name. Sure, one of those engineers might have come from Tampa, FL – we’ll never know. Or maybe they figured “Tampa” was similar enough to “Maple” – two-syllable, five-letter words that share an “a”, an “m”, and a “p”. Or else they recalled that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited Tampa Bay in 1539 and so they coined Tampa Avenue as a match for De Soto Avenue due west. But even back then, before the Valley was developed, two miles and three big streets separated Tampa and De Soto, so I wouldn’t bet on that last theory.
Find it on the map:
