When Santa Monica was mapped out in 1875, its east-west avenues were given names of western U.S. states and territories. In the central townsite, from top to bottom, you had Montana, Idaho, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and Utah avenues. One territory was curiously overlooked: the street you now know as Colorado Avenue was called Railroad Avenue until 1902. Further inland you had Nebraska, Dakota, and Texas avenues – Nebraska alone has survived. (West L.A.’s Texas Avenue has different origins.) Oregon became part of Santa Monica Blvd. in 1912 and Nevada adopted Wilshire Blvd.‘s name in 1913. As for Utah Avenue, which had no Los Angeles boulevard to connect to, property owners successfully petitioned the City of Santa Monica to change it to Broadway in April 1924. Why? According to then-mayor John C. Steele, the Broadway name “would add materially to property values” along the street. If there was any anti-Utah sentiment, it was not recorded.
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