Named by and for landowner Bert Van Ruiten (1899-1989), who ran a nearby dairy. He was born Hubertus Stephanus van Ruiten outside of Haarlem, Netherlands and came to California in 1920 to work as a milker for his brothers. In 1926, he married Louise Verheul, who was also born in Holland but grew up in Hanford, CA. They settled on Maplewood Street in Dutch-friendly Bellflower, had five children, and established a dairy (most likely where the Kaiser Permanente complex now sits) that grew from five to thirty-five acres. In 1938, days after serving as matron of honor at her sister’s wedding, the 33-year-old Louise killed herself by swallowing strychnine. (Newspapers delicately reported that she “died suddenly” and “had not been in the best of health”.) Bert married Antoinette Bontje (1908-2002), another Dutch girl, the following year and she raised the Van Ruiten kids as her own. The oldest portion of Van Ruiten Street – the curvy bit between Clark Ave. and Bellflower Blvd. – was laid out by Bert in 1947, shortly before he retired from the dairy biz and launched furniture and appliance stores in town. He spent his final years in Lodi, CA.
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