Named for Oscar Hugh La Grange (1837-1915), governor of “Soldiers’ Home” – forerunner to the VA Medical Center – which housed over 1,000 Civil War veterans. The New York-born, Wisconsin-raised La Grange was a veteran himself: as a colonel in the Union Army, he fought in several of the Civil War’s thickest and bloodiest battles. He ultimately received the rank of brigadier general. La Grange, who had studied law, came to California after the war and was elected district attorney of Alameda County. In 1869, he was appointed superintendent of the San Francisco Mint, which ended in accusations that employee malfeasance was happening under his nose. He then briefly served as New York Fire Commissioner before assuming his post at Soldiers’ Home in 1899. La Grange Avenue was named less than two years into O.H. La Grange’s nine year stint here.
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