In 1910, back when NoHo was the town of “Toluca“, residents petitioned the County Board of Supervisors to rename 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th streets. They suggested McCormick, Weddington, Wilcox, Blakeslee, and Cumpston, respectively – all honoring local farming families. (Wilcox Avenue later became Margate Street.) The Blakeslees hailed from Anamosa, Iowa. Dr. Edwin Blakeslee (1831-1905) was a Massachusetts boy who was orphaned in childhood, obtained his medical degree in 1854, and soon relocated to the Hawkeye State, where he hung out his shingle as an eye and ear doctor. It was in Anamosa where, in 1858, he married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Scott (1839-1911), an Ohio native. They moved to San Bernardino in 1892, then to DTLA, and finally settled in Toluca in 1895. The Blakeslees had three adult children by that point; it appears that only their unmarried daughter Mary lived here with them.
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