In 1912, Santa Monica overlord Robert C. Gillis named this street for his friend Henry Nelson Mabery (1875-1949), a local realtor. Born and raised in Winchendon, MA, Mabery and his songwriter wife Margaret came to California in 1905, hoping the mild climate would soothe Margaret’s chronic ailments. They settled in the Westgate area (now Brentwood), where Mabery made big sales across the burgeoning Westside. Alas, Margaret died in 1909: a sad little want ad from 1911 had Mabery seeking “furnished bungalow in Los Angeles, by single man.” (Perhaps Mabery Road was Gillis’s cheer-up gift for the lonely widower.) By 1914, when he married San Francisco actress Clara Spray Phipps (1879-1964), Mabery was filthy rich from his land, railroad, and mining investments – and Clara had been divorced for just one day. This union also ended in divorce; Mabery married a third time late in life. Although he lived on his eponymous Silver Lake tract for many years (see Westerly Terrace), Mabery ultimately wound up in a small house in Mid-City.
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