The city of Burbank takes its name from Dr. David Burbank (1821-1895), a New Hampshire-born, Maine-raised dentist who moved to San Francisco in 1854 and married Clara Ann Kauffer (1830-1903) there five years later. The Burbanks settled in Los Angeles in 1867 and David soon purchased some 4,600 acres of Rancho San Rafael from the estate of Jonathan R. Scott and another 4,600 acres of Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus. Burbank got rich raising sheep and wheat on his new mega-ranch – enough that he closed his dental practice in 1872 – but he sold most if not all of his acreage in December 1886 for $275,000. The buyers, who called themselves the Providencia Land, Water and Development Co., established the town of Burbank here the following year. (Dr. Burbank was a shareholder.) Not much else is known about David Burbank. He and Clara had two daughters, Adie (who died at ten) and Flora, and he opened his self-financed Burbank Theater in DTLA in November 1893: the stress of running it would kill him within fourteen months. Burbank Boulevard was known as Central Avenue until 1924.
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