Named in 1922 after Leonard Augustus Belden (1876-1944), sales manager for real estate mogul Carlin G. Smith, who opened the Eastmont tract that year. Belden was born in New Orleans and grew up in St. Louis. He, his wife May, and their three young children spent the 1900s in Chicago but were in Los Angeles by 1910. They eventually settled in San Gabriel, where Belden was a mail carrier. He was working for Smith by 1921, got divorced in 1928, and wound up in East L.A. I couldn’t find out much beyond that. Several other Smith employees are commemorated by nearby streets: E. Noel Bagshawe (misnamed Bradshawe), William E. Gerhart, William H. Hoefener, Charles J. Keenan, Eugene T. Leonard, John R. Sadler, Herbert P. Simmons, Frank W. Williamson, and some unlucky chaps whose streets were later renamed.
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