It’s not true that Winnetka was named by chicken farmer Charles Weeks (1873-1964) in honor of his hometown of Winnetka, Illinois. For starters, Weeks was actually from Swayzee, Indiana. And although he did indeed establish a poultry colony here on Winnetka Avenue in 1922, the street was named by 1916, long before he came to L.A. (Weeks’s colony was originally called “Runnymede No. 2”, after his first Runnymede poultry colony in East Palo Alto, so at least we know he named Runnymede Street.) Then quite rural, this neighborhood was alternatively known as Weeks Colony and Weeks Community until February 1935, when it was officially dubbed Winnetka, after the street. (Weeks and his family had shoved off to Florida by that point.) The original Winnetka – a posh, village-like suburb of Chicago – obviously inspired whoever named this street. But it wasn’t Charles Weeks.
Find it on the map:
