It’s so small that it doesn’t even rate a street sign, but this little bit of road is the lone remnant of the once-mighty Brooklyn Avenue, which became part of Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in 1994. The “Brooklyn” name came to Boyle Heights in 1875, when seven young subdividers established the Brooklyn Land and Building Association and the Brooklyn Heights tract here. (In 1877, they donated 4 acres to create Prospect Park.) The name might have been a reference to the tract’s location east of the L.A. River, just as the New York borough of Brooklyn is east of the East River. A couple of the subdividers, including Albert H. Judson, were from New York – but nowhere near Brooklyn. Bailey Street is named for one of the tract’s secondary investors.
Find it on the map:
