In 1956, part of Federal Ave. was renamed to honor Colonel Robert Amedee Bringham (1892-1973), then head of the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration. Bringham was born in Beckwourth, CA and split his formative years between there and nearby Reno, NV. He entered West Point in 1913 and graduated in 1917. That same year, he married Margaret Balcom (1894-1968), with whom he would have five sons. After losing his left hand in World War I, Bringham taught at NYU then at the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. In 1929, he was appointed governor of the veterans home in Bath, NY – Margaret’s hometown – and served for six years before his transfer to West L.A. Bringham ran the VA here until retiring in 1960; obituaries noted that his quarter-century tenure was marked by his successful battles with the City of Los Angeles to rid the neighborhood of gambling and prostitution rackets that preyed on veterans.
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