Although Pacific Electric Railway owner Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) is the usual namesake of anything “Huntington” in L.A. County – see Huntington Drive – this 1874 street honors his uncle Collis Potter Huntington (1821-1900), a railroad kingpin who was then at the height of his power. (He was one of the “Big Four” industrialists who financed the first transcontinental railroad, the other three being Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker.) Huntington Street is one of many San Fernando byways that honor prominent 19th century Californians: Carlisle, Celis, Coronel, Griffith, Hewitt, Hollister, Lazard, Kalisher, Kittridge, Kewen, Mott, O’Melveny, Pico, Truman, Wolfskill, Woodworth, and Workman are the others. Collis Huntington never lived in Los Angeles but he did wage a years-long battle to make Santa Monica the city’s shipping port – mainly to further enrich himself and his company the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was a rare loss for the merciless mogul: the San Pedro/Wilmington area was chosen instead. See El Sereno’s Collis Avenue for more on the man.
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