Here’s the short answer: Vine Street is named for a vineyard that once grew here. Here’s the long, scandalous answer: When Harvey and Daeida Wilcox announced their Hollywood tract in 1887, one of their streets was called Weyse Avenue. It was in honor of Otto Günther Weyse, who at the time was partnering with Harvey Wilcox and Ivar Weid on railroad and hotel interests. But it wasn’t to be: Weyse was declared insolvent in 1888 and Weid took control of his debts. The following year, Weyse “accidentally” shot himself. The year after that, his sensational divorce from his wife Louise (née Naud) made headlines, with Louise recounting horrific details of abuse. And in 1893, he died at the tender age of 34. It’s hard to understand why Harvey Wilcox, a staunch prohibitionist, ever went into business with a liquor dealer like Weyse in the first place. (Wilcox himself had passed away in 1891.) Anyway, in the midst of this chaos, former U.S. Senator Cornelius Cole (R-California) was quietly establishing his Colegrove tract south of Hollywood. He named Vine Street after his grapevines by 1894 and the name eventually crept up and took over Weyse Avenue. If Ida Wilcox – no friend of Cole’s – ever had an interim name for this street, it’s unknown.
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