Named in February 1917 for Homer Hamlin (1864-1920), who was nearing the end of his record-setting 11-year term as city engineer of Los Angeles. (He would be dismissed that July after criticizing the Board of Public Works for screwing up the paving of Malabar Street, but in truth he’d been at war with them for months.) Hamlin, a native Minnesotan, was a mostly self-taught civil engineer. Along with sewer building, water resource management, and street paving, he was key in the City of L.A.’s purchase of the so-called “Shoestring Addition” – that absurdly narrow strip of land that connects Greater Los Angeles to San Pedro and Wilmington – so that the City could acquire the two port towns in 1909. He also led the arduous task of renaming hundreds of streets in the wake of L.A.’s various annexations, including here in the San Fernando Valley. As thanks, chief deputy city clerk David M. Carroll sneaked in a street name for Hamlin himself. (This road was originally called Broadway.) Homer Hamlin died from a cerebral hemorrhage while on a business trip to Washington, D.C. He left behind a widow, a son, and a daughter.
Find it on the map:
