Possibly named for Edward Healey Sweetser (1844-1916), a jeweler-turned-real estate developer whose claim to fame was cofounding the Palms neighborhood in 1886. The case against Sweetser as namesake: the obvious spelling discrepancy; Sweetzer Avenue is nowhere near Palms or any of Sweetser’s other interests. The case for Sweetser as namesake: I found no other prominent Sweetsers or Sweetzers from his day; this street was in fact labeled “Sweetser Av.” when it first appeared on an 1887 map of the stillborn Cahuenga townsite (see Fountain Avenue) and it’s plausible that later developers misspelled it when reviving the moribund roadway in 1905. There are too many unknowns to make a conclusion – was this man involved in that doomed Cahuenga townsite? I found no evidence – but here’s a brief bio: Edward H. Sweetser was born in Massachusetts, fought for the Union in the Civil War, and came to California with his wife Elisabeth in the early 1870s. Initially settling in San Jose, they moved down to Ventura and then to Los Angeles before becoming permanent Santa Monicans in 1888. Sweetser was big into horticulture and chaired the county forestry department towards the end of his life.
Find it on the map:
