This 1923 street honors Harry Woolsey Chase (1873-1958), who sold his 90 acre walnut grove that year to a group of real estate speculators including Clarence Kenyon, who named a nearby street for himself. Harry Chase was born in Fort Scott, KS to an itinerant farming family who briefly came to Los Angeles in 1887 and returned three years later to settle in Hollywood. In 1891, Harry’s parents Philip and Calista bought 45 acres of Rancho La Ballona from the Machados and dispatched Harry to establish a ranch here; his partner was A.E. McConnell, who would soon be his relative by marriage: in 1893, Harry wedded the Wichita-born, locally-raised Minnie May McLaughlin (1871-1955), whose brothers also farmed the area (see McLaughlin Avenue). Minnie’s sister Rosa then tied the knot with McConnell’s son William. The Chases, who would have three children of their own, moved to Venice Beach around 1919-1920. They later focused on running a huge Mariposa County cattle ranch, which they purchased in 1926. My guess is that they bought it with some of that $400,000 they made from selling the walnut grove. The Westchester extension of Chase Ave. was named in 1945 by different developers.
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