Named for Louis Leroy “L.L.” Bryson (1880-1946), a Huntington Park pharmacist, on a 1923 tract run by William A. Alexander (see Alexander Avenue), also of HP. How did Bryson and Alexander know each other? Well, you see, both were members of the Ku Klux Klan. This came to light in 1922 when the two, along with more than thirty other Klansmen, were arrested for conducting a deadly vigilante raid on a bootlegger’s house in Inglewood. Bryson confessed to leading the raid with “Kleagle” (regional Klan leader) Nathan A. Baker. The Klansmen were cleared of all charges although the incident did cost Bryson his side gig as a deputy constable. It’s not known if he stayed with the KKK after that, but he was an itinerant soul anyway: Born in Indiana, Bryson became a licensed pharmacist in Escanaba, MI, where he’d married Rossie Mae Wright (1877-1941). After a few years in Albuquerque, the couple and their two sons came to SoCal in 1917, with brief stays in Long Beach and Escondido. They lived in HP between 1919 and 1924. There followed moves to Mar Vista, San Jose, Whittier, Salinas, and finally the Hollywood area. Ironically, Bryson died here in South Gate: a heart attack got him while he was staying at a local hotel with an unidentified companion.
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