Once known as 19th Street, this was renamed Beachy Street after the City of Los Angeles annexed (most of) the San Fernando Valley in 1915, since L.A. already had a 19th Street. Although I found no record of the change, it most likely happened in 1917, when many other Valley streets were assigned new identities to prevent postal conflicts. (It was listed as Beachy Street in a 1920 directory and became an “Avenue” in 1935.) As there was no one in Los Angeles named Beachy at the time, some bureaucrat must have found inspiration elsewhere – perhaps England’s Beachy Head, site of numerous torpedo attacks during WWI? Or was it a misspelled tribute to Lincoln Beachey, a superstar aviator who died in a plane crash at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Expo in San Francisco? Those are my best guesses.
Find it on the map:
