In the 1850s, businessman and entrepreneur Phineas Banning built a landing in what was called "New San Pedro" to bring people and supplies to Southern California. The town later changed its named to Wilmington. Susan Ogle, Director of the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum in Wilmington, says that wasn't the only name change.

"Wilmington streets have all been renamed. Well, not all, but almost all of them have been renamed. And Canal Street is the most obvious. Because Canal Street was literally a canal. The buildings were built up high, they were on stilts because this was a mud flat and it flooded all the time. So they ended up filling in the street so that when you look at it now, the buildings that are there, some of the old buildings, the first floors are now the basements."

Canal Street is gone. It's now known as Avalon Boulevard.

(Airdate for this story: 7/14/07)