Presumably named for John A. Pirtle (1856-1919), who passed away just four months after this street was laid out on a 1919 tract. I say “presumably” because I found no connection between Pirtle and the tract, but our subject was quite prominent in his day and was in fact the only Pirtle listed in city directories at the time. He was also associated with boisterous developer Marshall Hartranft, who aside from developing Tujunga might have also been behind this tract – it’s hard to say. (For what it’s worth, I found no pattern to the tract’s other new streets: Queen, Rich, Blimp, Blake.) John Pirtle was a Tennessee-born real estate broker who spent some years in Little Rock, AR before coming to Los Angeles. His doctor father got here first, in 1884, to operate a health spa at Fulton Wells (now Santa Fe Springs). Pirtle arrived three years later with his wife (and second cousin) Mollie and their two daughters. They would have two more. Here Pirtle made it big not only in real estate but also in banking and construction.
Find it on the map:
