Almost certainly named for James Somes Manchester (1834-1891), a farmer from Maine who came to the L.A. area in the 1860s, possibly with Griffith Compton’s group. In 1885, Manchester wed Canadian immigrant Jane Fraser (1839-1916) while living in a settlement south of Florence called Green Meadow. They bought 20 acres here the following year and Manchester Avenue was named by June 1887. (It only ran between Figueroa and Central back then.) Sadly, James Manchester was hit by a train in Perris, CA and died from his injuries days later; his widow married fellow Canadian William Gould in 1898 and retired to the town of Rivera (now Pico Rivera). Manchester Avenue once extended east of Central but that portion was renamed Firestone Boulevard in 1927-1929. Meanwhile, westbound Manchester consumed the former Defiance Street west of present-day Aviation Boulevard. If that hadn’t happened, the neighborhood of Westchester might well be called “West Defiance”!
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