Way back in 1874, “Truxton” was the working title of the city that became Santa Monica. Five miles away we have Truxton Avenue, born on the Westport Heights tract in 1940. Was tract developer Silas Nowell, a Salt Lake City transplant (see Naylor Avenue for bio), up on his Santa Monica history? Doubtful. The more plausible theory is that Nowell or one of his colleagues (mis)named this street after the Naval destroyer USS Truxtun, one of several such vessels to honor Thomas Truxtun (1755-1822), among the first commodores in the U.S. Navy. (Truxtun’s own name was misspelled “Truxton” so many times that it’s uncertain how the man himself spelled it.) Three other Westport Heights avenues – Vicksburg, Yorktown, and Kennebec (now part of 83rd Street) – were also names of Navy ships, so consider that.
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