The Chatsworth neighborhood originated in 1887-1888 as Chatsworth Park, a 3,000 acre development that, given the time period and the remote location, was primarily rural, with plots ranging in size between five and twenty acres. The San Fernando Valley Improvement Company owned Chatsworth Park, and one of its directors – presumably the head honcho – William Booth Barber (1819-1901) was born in Eckington, Derbyshire, England, just eleven miles from Chatsworth House, the ancestral home of the Duke of Devonshire. (Derbyshire and Devonshire are in totally different parts of England, but dukedoms tend to be nominal.) Safe to say it was the homesick Barber who coined both Chatsworth Park and its main drag Devonshire Street. Chatsworth Street itself was originally called “Ben Porter Avenue”, in honor of the land’s previous owner, but that didn’t stick; it took on its current name in 1917.
Find it on the map:
