This street, introduced on 1905’s Palisades tract, honors Adelaide Gillis (1890-1990), whose father was one of the tract’s owners. Robert Conran Gillis (1863-1947) was born in New Brunswick and raised in Nova Scotia; he came to Santa Monica in 1887 with his pharmacist brother William and married Frances Lowell Lindsey (1866-1946) two years later. Gillis would become a big name in local railroads and real estate, especially as president of the Santa Monica Land and Water Company, which developed this neighborhood as well as Westgate and parts of Sawtelle. He and Frances left SM for L.A. in 1902 to raise their kids Adelaide, Dorothy, and Lindsay (a son), but kept a summer home right here on Adelaide Drive. As for its namesake, Adelaide Gillis was born in Bermuda while her parents were presumably on vacation there. She married journalist Frederick McCormick (1870-1951), a foreign war correspondent, in 1914. In 1942, after marrying off their only child Frances, the couple retired to a ranch in San Diego County. Adelaide Gillis McCormick was a lifelong horsewoman who died a month before her 100th birthday.
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