Pierre Nicolas was a Basque citrus farmer in Fullerton in the 1880s. The brothers who founded the town liked Pierre, and they named a street after him: Nicolas Avenue. But Ginny King, who wrote "The Street Where You Live: Why Did They Name It?" says the Nicolas name didn't stay on that street for long.
"Because there was already a Euclid going from east to west through all of these previous communities, it was changed to Euclid, and still is Euclid Avenue. And I guess it was originally named Euclid because somebody was a math professor and he remembered the mathematician that said the shortest distance between two is a straight line. 'Cause it is a straight shot."
A century later, Pierre Nicolas got his street back when new housing development was built in Orange County. Today, there's a Nicolas Street and a Nicolas Way in Fullerton.
(Airdate: 9/13/2008)
Comments (2)
Pierrebas Nicolas was my g-g-grandfather. He was in fact born in 1845 in the small French town of Ancelle, near Gap and left for California via ship before 1870. After moving to Fullerton at the age of 32, he bought 131 acres of orange and walnut groves along the small road that was later named Nicolas Avenue, known today as Euclid Avenue.
Posted by Mike Wood | on June 14, 2009 4:38 AM
Pierre Nicolas was my g-g-grandfather. He was in fact born in 1845 in the small French town of Ancelle, near Gap and left for California via ship before 1870. After moving to Fullerton at the age of 32, he bought 131 acres of orange and walnut groves along the small road that was later named Nicolas Avenue, known today as Euclid Avenue.
Posted by Mike Wood | on June 14, 2009 4:39 AM