Dr. Leonce Hoover (1792-1862), né Huber, was a Swiss-born physician who brought his family to Los Angeles in 1849 after some thirty years in Pennsylvania and Indiana. Although he studied medicine in France and reportedly served as a field surgeon during Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia, it’s not known if he practiced in L.A. He was, however, a pioneer in the city’s wine industry. Hoover Street was named in 1875 – Hoover’s son Vincent (1825-1883), a well-connected banker and subdivider, is its actual namesake, as the road was established on his Hoover tract at present-day Hoover and Adams. Geography note: Hoover Street was once the western boundary of the city of Los Angeles. (City leaders even renamed it West Boundary Street in 1892, but it didn’t stick.) If you look at a map of Central L.A., you’ll notice that the streets west of Hoover are on a strict north-south grid whereas east of Hoover they’re at a 36° angle. See 1st Street about that incongruity.
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