This 1886 street’s name surely alludes to William Wallace Stilson Jr. (1846-1888), who opened the Angeleño Heights tract that year with Everett E. Hall. (That’s right: they spelled it “Angeleño”.) Stilson was an Ohioan who spent some years in St. Louis before marrying Mary Emma Johnson (1854-1943) in Topeka in 1876. They settled there until 1885, when they moved to Los Angeles with their son Fielding (1877-1953). (Their other children Helen and William both died in infancy.) Stilson didn’t live long enough to see his tract prosper: tuberculosis took him just as L.A.’s 1886-1887 real estate bubble was bursting. It was left to Mary and Fielding to work with Hall to further develop the tract; youngest son Carroll, namesake of Carroll Avenue, assisted. P.S. There was also a Fielding Avenue, but it soon became Elysian Heights Avenue and now honors Vin Scully.
Find it on the map:
