Mar Vista, Spanish for “sea view”, is a common enough place name around SoCal, whether you can see the Pacific from said place or not. Yet it took a long time for the Whittier roadway to assume the identity. 1955, in fact, was when City Council decreed that the former Baldwin Street, 6th Street, La Sexta Street, and Ocean View Lane be combined into Mar Vista Street – and that was after more than a year of squabbling. While Whittierites were in consensus that the thoroughfare suffered from multiple personality disorder, few could agree on what its One True Name should be. Of the candidates, including Seaview Lane and Nixon Street (Richard Nixon was then U.S. Vice President and had of course been educated in Whittier), Mar Vista Street, suggested by councilman Jack Reed, finally won out. Reed may have been inspired by Mar Vista Elementary School, which was nearing completion at the time – and was addressed upon Ocean View Avenue.
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