http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/ In Southern California, there are majestic avenues like Imperial Highway or Victory Boulevard. There are also romantic roads like Sunset or Laurel Canyon. For every street, there's a history. This summer, KPCC's Kitty Felde has found some of the stories you can find right under your tires.Are there Southland street names you're curious about? Let us know by leaving a comment on any entry below.Related Features:When the Streets Had No NamesThe Long and Winding Roads of Southern California(Photo: *Checco* on Flickr.com) en Copyright 2009 Fri, 29 May 2009 16:05:30 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss If you dig deep enough into Southern California history, you'll strike water. Settlers had to find the wet stuff if they wanted to thrive in our dry landscape. One water story can be found on a local street sign – Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas. It's a truncated version of the name of a Spanish rancho: El Rancho de Nuestra la Reina de Las Virgenes. That translates as "the ranch of our Lady of the Virgins." Barbara Marinacci says, "it doesn't mean 'Virgin' apparently, but it means a source of pure water." Marinacci wrote the book "California's Spanish Place Names." She says the earliest Spanish visitors wrote a lot about places with good water. Father Juan Crespi described the Calabasas-Agoura area as "a plain of considerable extent and much beauty, forested in all parts by live oaks and much pasture and water." Those virgin springs are still quenching thirsts in Calabasas. For more than half a century, the city's been getting its water from the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. (Airdate: 5/31/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/las_virgenes_road.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/las_virgenes_road.html Fri, 29 May 2009 16:05:30 -0800 She was said to be one of the most beautiful women in California. And she married two of the region's richest men. But all most people know about her is the tiny street that shares her name. Arcadia Street runs right next to the 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Barbara Marinacci says it's named for a woman whose beauty was legendary in the mid-19th century. "Maria Francisca Paola Arcadia Bandini." Marinacci, who wrote "California Spanish Place Names," says, "Arcadia is sort of an almost Shangri-La type of place. And it actually existed and maybe still exists in the Peloponnesian area of Greece. Very pastoral and beautiful." At the age of 14, the beautiful Arcadia married 43-year-old merchant Abel Stearns, the richest man in Southern California. He named his downtown L.A. office building and the street that ran alongside after his wife. But Arcadia was unlucky at love. She was widowed twice and died in 1912, childless, and without a will. Her estate was valued at $7 million. (Airdate: 5/30/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/arcadia_street.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/arcadia_street.html Fri, 29 May 2009 16:01:34 -0800 One of the upsides to "discovering" a new place is that you get to name everything there. You even get to hand out the wrong name sometimes. There's Aliso Circle in Laguna Beach, Aliso Street in Los Angeles, and Los Alisos Boulevard in Mission Viejo. Barbara Marinacci says, "'Aliso' I believe in Spanish means 'alder tree.'" Marinacci wrote California's Spanish Place Names. There are native red alder trees in Southern California, but Marinacci says that isn't what the early settlers meant. "When the Spanish came into this area, starting in 1769, they named things based on what they saw." And what they saw were the huge trees that dominated Southern California's landscape, trees that shed their bark in sheets and often lean precariously to one side. She says, "It really was the California sycamore they were talking about." Apparently, there wasn't a sycamore in the Spanish-English dictionary. But for California's earliest settlers, an "aliso" by any other name smelled as sweet. And provided just as much shade. (Airdate: 5/24/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/aliso_circlestreet_los_alisos.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/aliso_circlestreet_los_alisos.html Fri, 22 May 2009 16:03:31 -0800 In 1769, Captain Gaspar de Portola led an expedition of more than five dozen soldiers, plus a few settlers and priests, through Southern California. It was a difficult and thirsty journey. Years later, one of those soldiers, Ygnacio Machado, was given a retirement package. Instead of a pension, Barbara Marinacci says he got land. "That would be Rancho Aquaje de Centinela." Marinacci wrote California's Spanish Place Names. She says Machado named his ranch in memory of his days in the military, walking the dusty paths of Southern California. And Aguaje de Centinela? "That would be 'sentry's water hole.'" These days, California's water comes out of a pipe instead of a hole in the ground. The aquaje is gone. But there's still a Centinela Boulevard. (Airdate: 5/23/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/centinela_boulevard.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/centinela_boulevard.html Fri, 22 May 2009 16:01:09 -0800 In 1843, the Mexican governor gave the mayor of Los Angeles a plot of grazing land for his cattle. Alcalde Vicente Sanchez called it Rancho Cienega O Paso de La Tijera. Rancho Cienega means "Swamp Ranch," named for the marshes and wetlands that once lay at the foot of the Baldwin Hills. But Barbara Marinacci, who wrote California Spanish Place Names," says the Rancho – and now, La Cienega Boulevard – are misspelled. "It's spelled properly with an 'a' instead of an 'e,' so instead of Cienega, it should be Cienaga." The rancho was sold in 1875 to California businessman "Lucky" Baldwin for $60,000. Less than two decades later, oil was discovered in the rancho, now known as Baldwin Hills. Today, oil is still pumping in Baldwin Hills – and La Cienega is still misspelled. (airdate: 5/17/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/la_cienega_boulevard.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/la_cienega_boulevard.html Fri, 22 May 2009 15:56:00 -0800 There's a grammar problem on street signs in Los Angeles. It involves a busy Westchester street with a name that means "scissor." Not "scissors." Just "scissor." La Tijera Boulevard will take you from the airport to the Baldwin Hills. But you need two "tijeras" to make a pair of scissors. Barbara Marinacci, who wrote the book California Spanish Place Names, says there are several theories about La Tijera. "Well, it could be scissors, and it could be also like a water channel, I believe, or a blade, and it comes from the name of a rancho that existed right in that area: the Rancho Cienega O Paso de La Tijera." The name translates roughly as "Swamp Ranch or Scissor Pass." Some say the two paths that crossed the Baldwin Hills looked to early Californians like a pair of open scissors – which still doesn't explain the grammar problem. Today, those paths through the hills are known as La Tijera and La Cienega boulevards. (airdate: 5/16/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/la_tijera_boulevard.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/la_tijera_boulevard.html Fri, 22 May 2009 15:12:02 -0800 There's a Sparr Boulevard in Glendale. John Newcombe says, "William Sparr was one of the pioneers of fruit." Filmmaker John Newcombe says Sparr grew lemons and other citrus all over Southern California in the early 1900s. "As Los Angeles started to boom, he realized the land was a heck of a lot more valuable than the boxes of fruit he was selling, so he began dicing up the land." Newcombe, maker of the documentary "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now," says Sparr opened up a huge real estate office in what is now north Glendale. He sold land and built the Oakmont Golf Course. In 1922, Sparr donated a community building to the city of Glendale. At the time, it was the only building in the area. It was used for scout groups, birthday parties, and various meetings. Groups still use the building, with its mission-style facade, for similar events today. (Airdate: 5/10/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/sparr_boulevard.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/sparr_boulevard.html Mon, 11 May 2009 15:12:38 -0800 Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It placed Japanese citizens and Japanese-Americans in internment camps for the duration of the war. But John Newcombe says people who suffered from lung disease couldn't go to the camps. "You know La Crescenta used to be known for sanitariums." Newcombe, whose documentary is "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now," says there were more than two dozen sanitariums in town. "And one of them was called the Hillcrest Sanitarium at the top of Lowell. And the government sent a lot of the Japanese interned who were suffering from lung disease to La Crescenta." A retired Quaker missionary named Herbert Nicholson volunteered at the sanitarium as a language interpreter. He ended up delivering items from pillows to pianos to the people there. After the war, the former detainees invited Nicholson to their reunions. (Airdate: 5/9/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/lowell_avenue.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/lowell_avenue.html Mon, 11 May 2009 15:08:41 -0800 The Verdugo Hills Golf Course runs along Tujunga Canyon Blvd. in Tujunga. Filmmaker John Newcombe says before the fairways, there was Camp Tuna, housing for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. "It was originally a CCC camp, and then within 24 hours of Pearl Harbor, the government turned it into what was supposed to be a temporary internment camp for pretty much all the Japanese workers that, who worked in the San Pedro fisheries." After the war, the camp became a juvenile detention center. And then in 1960, a golf course was built on the site. Today, community activists are fighting to turn the Verdugo Hills Golf Course into a regional park rather than a condo project. (Airdate: 5/3/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/tujunga_canyon_boulevard.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/tujunga_canyon_boulevard.html Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:31 -0800 In the 1930s, there was a Hindenberg Park in La Canada, just west of Dunsmore Avenue. It was owned by the German-American League. Every weekend, there was beer, German food, and polka bands. But filmmaker John Newcombe says an American Nazi group, the German American Bund, started crashing events at the park. They staged rallies and waved flags with swastikas. "At one point, they had a torchlight parade with 2,000 attendees, and they used to fly over the Crescenta/Canada Valley and drop off these Nationalist Socialist pro-Nazi leaflets." Newcombe, whose documentary is "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now," says the Bund didn't get a lot of support. "A lot of locals really, really didn't appreciate them being there at all. So they took a cue from the Nazis and flew over that rally and dropped anti-Nazi leaflets on their rally." Once the U.S. entered the war, the Bund disappeared. But German festivals continued in Hindenberg Park. Southern California's first Oktoberfest was celebrated there in 1956. The park still hosts more informal gatherings today. It's now known as Crescenta Valley Park. (airdate: 5/2/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/dunsmore_avenue.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/05/dunsmore_avenue.html Wed, 06 May 2009 11:56:23 -0800 Castle Knoll Road is named for a castle built almost a century ago in La Canada-Flintridge. Lieutenant Governor Albert Wallace built it, but quickly sold it to multimillionaire real estate developer Frank Strong. Documentary filmmaker John Newcombe says Strong had a wandering eye. "He was a real philanderer and his wife got really mad at him when he went off to a convention in Chicago with some other women, and she painted the castle bright pink as revenge." The Chicago convention Strong attended was the 1920 Republican National Convention. Strong's good friend, Ohio newspaperman-turned-politician Warren Harding, was nominated for president, and won the election. It was a convention trip Strong would never forget. That bright pink castle was a daily reminder for the rest of his life – and beyond. It stayed that color for 70 years. (Airdate: 4/26/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/castle_knoll_road.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/castle_knoll_road.html Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:41:37 -0800 There's a Castle Road in La Canada. And yes, it really is named for a castle. Filmmaker John Newcombe says it was built on the estate of California political royalty. "In 1911, the lieutenant governor of the state moved here. His name was Albert Wallace. He was a Methodist minister and he decided to build a castle here in La Canada." Newcombe says it was patterned after the Scottish summer home built by industrialist Andrew Carnegie. But as stately as it was, Lieutenant Governor Wallace's wife hated living there. She detested the rural lifestyle of early La Canada and insisted on moving. Just three years after it was completed, Wallace sold his dream castle. (Airdate: 4/25/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/castle_road.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/castle_road.html Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:40:56 -0800 As you'd expect, there's a Montrose Avenue in Montrose. The name didn't come from the two men who developed the Crescenta Valley land. Filmmaker John Newcombe says their names were Walton and Holmes. "I think only Walton ever came up here because Holmes was so allergic to poison oak that the first time he visited, his eyes shut or something, and so he fled and never came back. Only developed Montrose on paper." Walton and Holmes didn't have a name for their city, so they sponsored a contest. The winner was a homesick lieutenant governor who named it after his hometown in Pennsylvania. Newcombe, whose documentary is called "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now," says there is a rose in Montrose, though you can only see it from the air. The developers laid out the streets in circles to resemble the famous flower. (Airdate: 4/19/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/montrose_avenue.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/montrose_avenue.html Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:49:10 -0800 Earl Drive in La Canada/Flintridge is named after Edwin Earl. Filmmaker John Newcombe says Earl was a rich landowner and businessman in Southern California at the turn of the last century. "He had made millions inventing or patenting the refrigerated rail car. He then went into the newspaper business." Newcombe produced the documentary film "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now." He says at the start of the 20th century, Edwin Earl bought the Los Angeles Express newspaper. He later started a morning paper – the Los Angeles Tribune. Earl and L.A. Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis got into a public tiff over a Times story about "a coterie of Long Beach men whose unnatural tendencies caused them to make advances to other men." Thirty defendants paid fines to avoid publicity. One pled "not guilty" and went on trial. Edwin Earl thought publishing the story before any convictions was exploitative, saying his papers would "throw such matter in the wastebasket." The battle escalated to a libel suit that Earl won. But his newspapers lost the circulation war. (Airdate: 4/18/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/earl_drive.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/earl_drive.html Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:15:50 -0800 There's a badly-spelled street in La Canada called Alta Canyada Road. Filmmaker John Newcombe says that was the name of the Hall family's ranch. Newcombe produced the documentary "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now." He says in the 1890s, brothers Tom and Sam Hall teamed up for the battle of La Canada. A group of students had begun using the schoolhouse for Saturday night dances. "There was a split in La Canada where the town split in half over the issue of whether they were going to allow dancing in the schools. And this was the waltz, we're talking. But a lot of them considered it immoral." Especially since the building where the dances were held also housed the town's only church. The Hall brothers were on the pro-dance side. Sam even provided some of the music. A vote would decide the issue. Just before the polls closed, Tom pulled up in a wagon filled with his Mexican ranch hands. He insisted they be allowed to cast ballots – and they did. The waltz won, but the town split into La Canada and La Crescenta. (Airdate: 4/12/2009)

]]> http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/alta_canyada_road.html http://www.publicradio.org/columns/kpcc/streetstories/2009/04/alta_canyada_road.html Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:15:12 -0800