Attorney John Dustin Bicknell (1838-1911) was one of the most respected Angelenos of his day. Born in Vermont and raised in Wisconsin, in 1860 Bicknell went out and got a good taste of the Wild West – wagon trains, gold rushes, the works – before heading back to the Badger State to obtain his law degree. He moved to Los Angeles to set up practice in 1872; as a property title lawyer in the expanding city, Bicknell got very busy… and very rich. This inevitably led to him branching out into banking, oil, mining, and real estate (he cofounded both Monrovia and Azusa). In 1875-1876, a Santa Monica summer cottage was built for Bicknell, his wife Nannie, and their daughters Edna and Mary, where Ocean Avenue now meets their commemorative street. In fact Bicknell owned quite a bit of land here, purchased in part from Hollywood pioneer Ivar Weid. Bicknell Avenue was named by 1892. It was originally Ocean Avenue – back when today’s Ocean Avenue was simply called “Promenade”.
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