With such a simple and pervasive moniker, you’d think something called White Street would have more presence in Los Angeles than one tiny crooked block in Sun Valley. Stranger still, I could find no reason for its name. It was laid out in 1922 on a tract co-owned by Alex and Anne Ratner, who obviously named neighboring Ratner Street after themselves. But if White as a surname – or white as a color – had any special meaning for them, it’s not something they made public. The tract’s co-owners were John and Esmeralda “Essie” Carlson, a Swede and a Canadian, respectively, but they had no known ties to any Whites or whites either.
Find it on the map:
