In 1873, L.A. city councilman Prudent Beaudry, who would be mayor in a year, named Bunker Hill Avenue on his tract – located, you guessed it, atop DTLA’s Bunker Hill. Did he also name the hill? There’s no proof, but while the street was first mentioned that December 13th in a glowing news article – an ad, frankly – about Beaudry’s tract, the first mention of Bunker Hill itself was in an ad published by Beaudry the very next day and which ran in newspapers for weeks. So I believe Beaudry christened both street and hill. Said ad made it clear that our Bunker Hill was indeed named after Boston’s Bunker Hill, site of a 1775 Revolutionary War battle. P.S. You may have noticed that present-day Bunker Hill Ave. isn’t on Bunker Hill at all, but in Chinatown! Beaudry originally laid it out from 2nd to 4th Street, between Hope and Charity (now Grand), but it was erased in the 1960s along with the rest of the old Bunker Hill. The existing Bunker Hill Ave. was born as Montreal Street – also named by Beaudry, a French Canadian.
Find it on the map:
