We must presume that this 1924 street honors John B. Leonis, head honcho of nearby Vernon (see Leonis Blvd. for a biography), unless it’s for one of his siblings, which is unlikely. Leonis was treasurer of the Bandini Petroleum Co. in the early 1920s, and this street was named on a tract owned by the Bandini Baker Estate Co., represented by San Pedro’s John T. Gaffey, nephew-by-marriage of this land’s late owner Arcadia Bandini de Baker, but the Bandini name is the only connection: these were very much separate enterprises. In fact Gaffey complained to the Los Angeles Times in 1925 about Leonis’s (failed) attempt to absorb this neighborhood into Vernon that year. Perhaps in 1924 the two men were on friendly terms? I cannot say.
Find it on the map:
