Despite being one of the Westside’s best-known thoroughfares, Barrington Avenue’s etymology has eluded me. This much I can tell you: it was introduced in 1905 on the Westgate subdivision, owned by the Santa Monica Land & Water Company. I looked into the officers of said company and found no Barringtons in their family trees or any places called Barrington in their backgrounds. It’s not impossible that someone associated with Westgate had ties to the cities of Great Barrington, MA or Barrington, RI or even to Charles Barrington Jr. (1872-1945), who was then chief clerk of the Los Angeles Railway. He was easily L.A.’s most prominent Barrington at that time, and his wife Pauline (née Bucknor, 1876-1956) was a well-connected socialite, suffragist, and writer. Or maybe whoever named this street just thought “Barrington” sounded fancy.
Find it on the map:
