You may have guessed that Telegraph Road traces the route of an old telegraph line. Indeed, its original name, given in 1872 when it was laid out by County surveyor Frank Lecouvreur, was “Anaheim Telegraph Road” because the line connected Los Angeles to Anaheim. Western Union owned the system; in fact it owned all of California’s telegraph lines from 1867 onward. I can’t say when this particular line was dismantled but the street officially dropped the “Anaheim” from its name in 1952. Members of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce lobbied the L.A. County Board of Supervisors for the change; they argued that too many drivers mistakenly thought it went all the way down to Anaheim – maybe it did in 1872, but now it terminates in La Mirada – and/or confused it with Long Beach’s Anaheim Street, which for the record doesn’t go to Anaheim either.
Find it on the map:
