When real estate tycoon Elmanson Avery McCarthy (1870-1934) died, his L.A. Times obituary stated that “he named Melrose Avenue after the birthplace of his parents in Melrose, Mass.” How nice – except his parents were born in Oswego, New York. In fact it was his father James Polk McCarthy (1847-1924) who established the Melrose tract and avenue near Hoover in 1887. (Mother Myra L. McCarthy (1847-1938) is remembered by Myra Avenue.) Although E. Avery was just 17 in 1887, he was already part of the family business, so he might well have coined “Melrose”. If so, he was possibly inspired by Scotland’s Melrose Abbey, celebrated in prose and poetry by Sir Walter Scott. The McCarthys’ 1886 Waverly tract, north of USC, was (mis)named for Scott’s novel Waverley, so they were no strangers to his work. However, another obituary – this time for Richard Melrose (1850-1924) – cited him as this street’s namesake. Melrose was an attorney, real estate speculator, and newspaper publisher based in Anaheim, but he had strong ties to Los Angeles (he was on the board of the Normal School) and knew many of the McCarthys’ cronies, although I couldn’t find proof that he knew the McCarthys directly.
Find it on the map:
