The name of this 22-mile-long thoroughfare was first applied to its modest easternmost section. The year was 1923, and the tucked-away subdivision that introduced Glenoaks Boulevard was called, appropriately enough, Glenoaks. Its owners (including Charles T. Tryon and Walter P. Story, who have eponymous byways there) simply took “Glen-” from Glendale and added “oaks” to it; indeed, advertisements for Glenoaks touted its “thousands of wonderful oak trees”. (I can’t say how many there are today.) Its location in Scholl Canyon soon became known as Glenoaks Canyon. As for the remainder of present-day Glenoaks Blvd., it had at least five additional identities in 1923: Sierra Avenue over by Chevy Chase; Ethel Street – some of which remains – in Glendale’s Rossmoyne neighborhood; Gilbert Street in North Glendale; 4th Street in Burbank; and finally Remsen Avenue in the northeast San Fernando Valley. It appears that the three Glendale streets adopted the Glenoaks name in 1923. 4th Street followed suit in 1927, while Remsen wasn’t absorbed until 1941.
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