There are no clues as to who or what inspired “Rosenell”, but I can tell you about the landowners who coined the name. Robert C. Thompson (1860-1951) was an Irishman who had settled in Los Angeles by 1888, the year he married German immigrant Katharina Eva Korber (1861-1953). Although records confirm the 1888 date, later in life the couple claimed, in several human interest news articles, that they tied the knot in 1886. They might have fudged the year as their eldest daughter Sophia was born just five months after their recorded wedding date, suggesting that she was conceived out of wedlock. In any event, the family lived just a block away on Rosemont until 1909, when they moved to a four acre lot on Temple – right at the corner of what would become Rosenell Terrace in 1929. Of the Thompsons’ four daughters, the youngest was Rosina Frieda, so it’s possible that “Rosenell” comes from her name (there were no Nells or Eleanors in the family), or else from nearby Rosemont Ave., or else from some now-obscure source. In any event, “Bob and Katie”, as friends called them, lived in that Temple Street house with their parrot Polly for the rest of their long lives. The house is long gone.
Find it on the map:
