This originated as New York Street on the New York tract, set up by Ralph Rogers in 1887. (See Baltimore Street for some background.) In 1899, after the City of Los Angeles annexed the Garvanza neighborhood, nearby Eureka Avenue was renamed New York Street by city ordinance. That meant this duplicate New York had to go. Some genius decided to rechristen it Means Street, which didn’t catch on. (The term “mean streets” was in use by then and it had the same connotation it does today.) So in 1909, shortly after the “new” New York Street was upgraded to York Boulevard, Means Street became Irvington Place. While there are many communities called Irvington across the U.S., it may be that whoever borrowed the name for this roadway remembered that it was called New York Street back in the day and thus was specifically inspired by Irvington, NY – itself named for writer Washington Irving, who had a home just outside that town.
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