Originally K Street, this road was renamed in 1917, supposedly in memory of Captain Willard Kittredge (1829-1886), proprietor of San Fernando’s first hotel. (There’s a tiny unconnected Kittridge Street in San Fernando, named decades earlier.) The press often misspelled his name “Kittridge” – and his tombstone reads “Kitteridge”! – so the discrepancy is allowable. The Maine native came to California in 1851 to be a miner but joined the Army ten years later. In 1866, while stationed in Salt Lake City, he married 19-year-old poet Daisy Wiley. They moved to Wilmington a year later and Kittredge became a hotelier. Daughter Charmian was born in 1871 – more on her in a moment. Kittredge opened the Railroad House Hotel in 1874 during San Fernando’s early days and opened another hotel (Kittredge House) in 1877. That would prove to be a grim year, with Daisy dying of consumption, Charmian being sent off to Oakland to be raised by her aunt and uncle, and Kittredge going bankrupt and losing his hotel. He spent his later years fighting ill health while his daughter grew up to be a writer, feminist, and bohemian. In 1905, Charmian Kittredge married The Call of the Wild author Jack London (1876-1916) and would edit and promote his later work. She died in 1955.
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