Bellevue and Waverly drives were named in 1885 by James Brown Smith (c. 1845-1909), a Glaswegian who immigrated to Pasadena seven years earlier with his Irish wife Constance (c. 1848-1916) and their six sons. (A daughter, Clara, was born here.) Smith operated a large furniture store and the family lived on Bellevue before moving on to Altadena. According to Hiram A. Reid in his 1895 book History of Pasadena, Bellevue simply means “beautiful view” and Waverly comes from Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels (including Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and Waverley itself). The latter makes sense, since Smith was a Scot like Scott, but it doesn’t explain why he deleted that second “e” from Waverley. (Silver Lake’s Waverly Drive is likewise misspelled.) Anyway, between Bellevue and Waverly lies Gordon Terrace, named after one of the Smiths’ sons.
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