It’s no joke, although someone must have been having a laugh: Thorne Street was originally called Rose Street. This was back in 1886. Fourteen years later, after Los Angeles annexed this neighborhood, the Board of Public Works decided that Rose Street would be renamed Thorne Street, so as not to create postal or service conflicts with DTLA’s own Rose Street. This new name was surely a tongue-in-cheek solution – so why not spell it “Thorn Street”? Bernice Kimball, the great L.A. street name researcher of the 1980s, posited that “Thorne” was a nod to homebuilder Edwin C. Thorne (1868-1935), who lived a couple blocks away at what is now Garvanza Ave. and Avenue 64. Plausible if unprovable.
Find it on the map:
