Named for Ella Brooks Solano (1852-1932), wife of Alfred Solano. She was born in Dunkirk, NY, where her father Horatio G. Brooks was a wealthy locomotive manufacturer. Her first husband was a man named David R.W. Patterson, who deserted her in 1876. She then moved to Los Angeles with her little daughters Marion (1872-1964) and Jessie (1874-1953) and secured her divorce in 1880. She married Alfred Solano in 1886. Since Solano owned this whole neighborhood – the couple themselves lived in a lavish mansion on Figueroa – he gave this street Ella’s maiden name in 1903. The Solanos were divorced by 1920 and Ella spent her remaining years in the company of a Miss Elizabeth Wolters (1866-1952), who had known her since 1901 and had lived with her since at least 1910; infer what you will. Of Ella’s daughters, Marion went on to marry W. Jarvis Barlow, founder of the Barlow Respiratory Hospital, while Jessie wed Victor M. Tyler, a great-grandson of John James Audubon, and moved to Connecticut.
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