This was laid out in 1912, five years before Culver City was incorporated, on the so-called Washington Park subdivision. No doubt influenced by its location abutting Washington Boulevard, Washington Park’s streets honored notable figures in American history (e.g., Duquesne Avenue). In this context, Irving Place has got to be for the most famous Irving of his era: author Washington Irving (1783-1859). He himself was not only named after George Washington but spent the last years of his life writing an epic five-volume biography of the president. (The two met briefly when Irving was six years old.) Today’s readers know Irving mostly from his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the SoCal city of Alhambra owes its name to one of his nonfiction works.
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