Named for Rev. Clement Molony (1874-1949) on a 1910 tract owned by his father Richard (1839-1938), a wagon maker-turned-city councilman. (Mark Street is for Clement’s brother.) Born in DTLA into an Irish Catholic family, Molony became a priest at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1897 – the first native Angeleno so ordained – and one of his first duties was to help lay out Calvary Cemetery in East L.A. In 1903, Molony was asked to establish a new parish called St. Agnes. It took years, hindered no doubt by the crippling arthritis that hampered him for much of his life, but Molony took a former orchard at Vermont and Adams and built a church and school upon the land. Both were replaced by modern edifices in 1953. P.S. If you’re wondering whether nearby Lord Street honors Father Molony’s boss, developer Isaac W. Lord is its actual namesake.
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