First laid out in 1947 between Sherman Way and Hart Street, before Van Nuys Airport was expanded to abut it, Sophia Avenue was named by landowners Benjamin Burakoff (1888-1963) and Sophia Burakoff (née Cherkovsky, 1894-1976) and obviously honors the missus. The couple hailed from Kyiv, Ukraine, back when it was part of the Russian Empire. Along with their young children Meyer (“Mike”) and Raya, they came to the U.S. shortly after 1919, surely to escape the pogroms – antisemitic massacres – that exploded in their hometown that year. They settled in Chicago, where Ben found his calling in gas stations. The Burakoffs would split their time between the Windy City and Benton Harbor, MI but Ben (and maybe Sophia) did reside in Los Angeles in 1947, the year Sophia Ave. was born, to establish a plywood company which I assume was short-lived.
Find it on the map:
