In 1938, the former Waterloo Avenue was given a semi-homophonic new name: Waterview Street. While the change made sense – an oceanside street called “Waterview” is a no-brainer; some bureaucrat may have decided it conflicted with Echo Park’s Waterloo Street – it did break up its cute pairing with nearby Napoleon Street. But why “Napoleon” and “Waterloo” in the first place? Well, they were assigned those names in 1911 by Venice city ordinance – Venice was then its own municipality and had jurisdiction over Playa del Rey – so whoever named them was just being clever. The streets were born in 1902 as Fraser Avenue and Elliott Avenue, respectively, in honor of two Playa del Rey investors: New York-based mining magnate Charles Duncan Fraser (1857-1917) and John M. Elliott (1844-1929), president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles. P.S. In 1940, two years after Waterloo officially became Waterview, French actress Adrienne d’Ambricourt (1878-1957), who lived on the street, took credit for the change, explaining that her proud Gallic self couldn’t bear to live on Waterloo and thus forced City Council to bend to her will. Sure, Madame.
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