Named for San Gabriel Valley pioneer Richard “Dick” Garvey (1838-1930). An Irish lad who came to the U.S. alone at the age of 12, Garvey spent some years in Savannah and Cleveland, then trekked out to Los Angeles in 1858. There he was appointed U.S. Army mail carrier, leading mule trains 320 miles across the desert between L.A. and Fort Mohave, AZ. Garvey befriended various miners during this period, above all Lucky Baldwin, which led to his own profitable mining investments. In 1879, as Baldwin’s trustee, Garvey took over some 5,000 acres of the SGV’s Rancho Potrero Grande and Rancho de Felipe Lugo and grew grain and raised livestock. He was a confirmed bachelor before his sudden marriage to 20-year-old Tessie B. Mooney in 1884; sadly, less than two years later, she and their second son Peter died in childbirth. (First son Richard Jr. perished in a 1948 car crash in Tijuana.) Garvey, who never married again, subdivided his holdings here in 1892; Garvey Ave. was named at least a year before that.
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