The former Commercial Avenue was renamed Hoover Avenue in August 1929 after property owners petitioned for the change. Although Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) had recently been elected President of the United States, a 1937 news article claimed that the street was actually named in honor of his wife: Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944). I have no cause to doubt this, as the First Lady spent part of her youth in Whittier and the city has both an elementary school and a public fountain named after her (in 1938 and 1977, respectively), so she obviously has a local fanbase. The Iowa-born Lou Henry came to the brand new town of Whittier with her family in late 1887 as her father Charles was preparing to establish a bank here. The bank was short-lived, however, as was the Henrys’ Whittier sojourn: they moved up to Monterey five years later, by which time Lou was working toward her teaching degree at the State Normal School (today’s San Jose State). She later attended Stanford, where she met the future president. She graduated with a BA in geology in 1898 and married Hoover the following year.
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