One of the many Lincoln Boulevards in Southern California runs from Santa Monica to Westchester. It's one of the oldest streets on the Westside and it owes its route to a court case.

When the heirs to Rancho La Ballona sold 20 square miles of their Spanish land grant to outsiders, there was one problem: the land wasn't divided. In 1868, the new owners John Young and George Sanford took the issue to court. The judge decided the fairest way to divide the land was to give each owner a portion of the most valuable and the least valuable farmland. The judge decided the most valuable land was along Ballona Creek. It had water. Next was farmland that could be irrigated, and then pasture. Glen Howell, cofounder of the Mar Vista Historical Society, says the least desirable was the land that ran along the beach.

"Lincoln Boulevard traces its origin back to the dividing line according to the court between the pasture land and the beach land, the sand dunes and so forth. That's Lincoln, how it came about, Lincoln Boulevard."

Mar Vista has two famous presidents commemorated on city streets: Lincoln and Washington.

(Airdate for this story: 2/9/08)