Right in the middle of Crescent Heights Blvd., the street changes names twice – to McCarthy Vista and Carrillo Drive – in just four blocks, before becoming Crescent Heights again. That’s because these two tiny streets were laid out long before Crescent Heights came down to envelop them. This neighborhood, originally called Carthay Center, was established in 1922 by a wily character named J. Harvey McCarthy (1870-1935). (“Carthay” is a riff on “McCarthy”; the area takes its current name, Carthay Circle, from a grandiose movie theater that premiered Disney’s Snow White in 1937 and was demolished in 1969.) McCarthy Vista technically honors McCarthy’s father Daniel O’Connell McCarthy (1829-1919), a Gold Rush miner turned newspaper publisher. (“Dan the Miner”, a bronze statue at McCarthy Vista and San Vicente, stands in tribute to him.) McCarthy fils named other Carthay Center streets after California pioneers, aided by the Native Sons of the Golden West (including R.F. del Valle).
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