La rue is French for “the street”, but unless someone planned for some awkward redundancy here (“The Street Street”?), La Rue Street more likely honors Eugene Clyde LaRue (1879-1947), a Riverside boy who grew up to be a top hydraulic engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey. The street was named as La Rue Avenue on a 1920 tract owned by Frank X. Pfaffinger (1853-1940), longtime treasurer of the Los Angeles Times and friend of Times publisher – and major Valley developer – Harry Chandler. Pfaffinger was also treasurer of Chandler’s Colorado River Land Company, which suggests a significant link between him and E.C. LaRue, who’s remembered for his adventure-packed efforts in surveying and controlling the Colorado River. Although I found no explicit connection between the two men, LaRue definitely knew Chandler, so there is that. At any rate, LaRue fell out with the USGS in 1927 over his opposition to the Hoover Dam and spent the rest of his career as flood control engineer for Los Angeles County.
Find it on the map:
