Henry Parkhurst Barbour (1854-1927) was president of the Beach Land Company, Playa del Rey’s original developers. He was a Massachusetts boy: born in Worcester, educated at Amherst, a graduate of Boston U’s School of Law. But after marrying Florence Emily Gray (1856-1923) in 1883, the newlyweds moved to Minnesota, where Barbour published a magazine and got rich in mining. He was also active in developing portions of Washington state, so it’s unclear where the couple lived at any given point during this period, but they arrived in Los Angeles in January 1902. Here Barbour made lots of high-powered friends very quickly, and with their money he bought this land from Joseph Mesmer and opened it that June as Playa del Rey – “The King’s Beach”. That’s when this street was named. Yet it was in Long Beach where Barbour truly made his name: relocating there in 1904, he became a major subdivider along the waterfront and was president of that city’s realty board, which ultimately led to his appointment as president of the CA Real Estate Association in October 1923. It was a bittersweet victory as Florence had passed away earlier that year. Although several Beach Land Co. guys were gifted with Playa street names, all were renamed or erased except for Barbour, Trask, and Rindge.
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