Possibly named after hotelier Frank Lawton (1860-1922), who had owned a ranch and country home in El Monte in the early 1900s, but don’t quote me on that: Lawton Street was introduced on a 1954 tract owned by fruit growers Harold and Blanche Pearson, who had no Lawtons in their family tree, and I found no sources for the other streets on their tract – Alesia, Kayford, La Madrina, and Seaman. It could very well be that all these names were arbitrarily chosen by civil engineers or bureaucrats. But if you’re curious about Frank Lawton’s story, all I know is that he left Massachusetts at the ripe old age of 11 and sailed the seas for years. He came to California in 1885 and wound up establishing several small hotels throughout the Southland, particularly in Santa Monica.
Find it on the map:
