Although several Angelenos had the first or last name Corliss in 1916, when this street was named – Corliss was also a type of steam engine – civil engineers actually chose it as a soundalike replacement for “Curtiss”. Curtiss Avenue was in fact this street’s original moniker, given in 1910 to honor American aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss (1878-1930) and making a pair with neighboring Paulhan Avenue, named for Curtiss’s friendly rival Louis Paulhan. (See that street for why these two pilots were so lauded.) Why the change? Because the City of Los Angeles, which had just annexed Eagle Rock, already had a Curtis Street.
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