Robert Miller “R.M.” Town (1844-1900) was a real estate agent who came to L.A. in 1870 from Peoria, IL. Four years later, he cofounded the weirdly-named Los Angeles Immigration and Land Co-operative Association, a syndicate of investors and fruit growers that set up the town of Pomona in 1875. (They established Artesia that same year; both developments initially failed.) Like many members of the syndicate – see Pomona Blvd. for the full list – Town honored himself with a Pomona street name, although he himself remained in L.A. until his untimely death from tuberculosis. This street was indeed born as “Town Avenue” in 1875; the “Towne” spelling slowly took over during the first decade of the 20th century, perhaps because Pomonans found the original moniker too confusing and/or plain. But the man’s name was Town.
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