The McLaughlins were a large Kansas farming family who initially settled in either Compton or Wilmington in the mid 1870s. Sons William (1867-1924) and George (1869-1942) later owned land in Mar Vista (then called Ballona and/or The Palms), hence McLaughlin Avenue. According to a Mar Vista historian, the brothers purchased some 100 acres from John Charnock in 1884, but as they would have been mere teenagers at that time, I’m skeptical of that date. Regardless, Will McLaughlin was living here by 1888. He married Laura Kitzmeyer (1869-1953), a Carson City girl, in 1891 and they went on to have two daughters: Inez and Lulu. The four of them relocated to posh Hancock Park just a couple of years before Will’s death. As for George McLaughlin, he moved here c. 1895 after a few years in the Downey/Norwalk region. A twice-married father of three (daughter Hazel died at 19 from an infected tooth), he built a house on Mountain View Ave. in 1922 and resided there for the rest of his life. Will and George’s sister Minnie lived nearby with her husband Harry: see Chase Ave. for more on them. McLaughlin Ave. was named by 1920; it later absorbed another street called Eastlane.
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