Named in 1923 for a family who lived on the selfsame street. Mathieu Reynier (1852-1924) was a French sheepherder. Although records vary as to when he came to America and whether he brought his young bride Marie (1864-1948) with him or married her in the States, the two were living in Los Angeles when their eldest son John (1889-1956) was born. Then came Frank (1894-1975), Jeanne (1896-1977), and finally Rose (1900-1981), who came along around the time the Reyniers had settled here in what was then called the Ballona district. Only Rose would leave the area: in 1922, she married Frenchman Eugene Villard and moved to San Gabriel with him. Tragedy met the Villards five years later when Eugene’s brother Albert went insane and shot him and two of their brothers to death – right in front of their parents at breakfast – before killing himself. The Reyniers led a quieter life, growing vegetables here while raising livestock in the Soledad Canyon area, although it appears that Maman Marie was in a psychiatric hospital from at least 1920 to 1930, according to census records. Jeanne, who also married a Frenchman (Joseph Giraud), lived next door to her bachelor brothers John and Frank on Reynier Avenue. Their homes became the site of Reynier Park in 1978.
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