Although many streets in this neighborhood take their names from the work of Sir Walter Scott (see Ivanhoe Drive), Herkimer isn’t one of them. In fact it started out as Howard Street on 1887’s Ivanhoe tract and was possibly inspired by Scott’s 1805 poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, which made multiple references to Lord William Howard. City ordinance changed Howard to Herkimer in 1912 to avoid conflicts with another Howard Street that, ironically, no longer exists. (It’s now an LAPD parking lot near Cesar Chavez and Vignes.) My guess is that the City went with Herkimer mainly because it started with an “H”, like Howard. The name was copied from either Herkimer County, NY or Pasadena’s Herkimer Street – which itself was absorbed into that city’s Union Street in 1951.
Find it on the map:
