Named for Ella Brooks Solano (1852-1932), wife of Alfred Solano. She was born in Dunkirk, NY, where her father Horatio G. Brooks was a wealthy locomotive manufacturer. Her first husband was a man named David R.W. Patterson, who deserted her in 1876. She then moved to Los Angeles with her little daughters Marion (1872-1964) and Jessie (1874-1953) and secured her divorce in 1880. She married Alfred Solano in 1886. Since Solano owned this whole neighborhood – the couple themselves lived in a lavish mansion on Figueroa – he gave this street Ella’s maiden name in 1903. But the Solanos were divorced by 1920 and Ella spent her remaining years in the company of a Miss Elizabeth Wolters (1866-1952), who had known her since 1901 and had lived with her since at least 1910. (Infer what you will.) Of Ella’s daughters, Marion went on to marry W. Jarvis Barlow, founder of the Barlow Respiratory Hospital, while Jessie wed Victor M. Tyler, a great-grandson of John James Audubon, and moved to Connecticut.
Find it on the map:
