L.A. Street Names – Los Angeles Street Names – their origins, their histories, their meanings

Welcome to L.A. Street Names, the origin stories of street names across Los Angeles County, from the shortest cul-de-sacs to the longest boulevards. Mysteries solved, myths debunked, scandals exposed, history revealed. This is an ongoing project with more than 2,200 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.

Featured Major Street

Lankershim Boulevard

North Hollywood, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake

Isaac Lankershim (c. 1818-1882) was arguably the first person to see opportunity in the San Fernando Valley. A Bavarian Jew, Lankershim (probably altered from “Lankersheim”) immigrated to St. Louis in 1836. There he made his living in livestock and grain. He became a Baptist upon marrying his wife Annis, but remained welcome in Jewish communities throughout his life. (Harris Newmark was a friend and partner.) Lankershim relocated to the Napa Valley in 1854 and became one of California’s biggest grain exporters. Eager to expand his holdings, he eventually set his eyes on the SFV and in 1869 purchased 59,500 acres of it from Pío Pico, who needed money to fund his new hotel Pico House. Lankershim got the better deal: he would make a fortune here growing wheat. He had help from one of his investors, a Napa shopkeeper named Isaac Van Nuys, who moved down here and became his son-in-law. Lankershim’s actual son, James Boon Lankershim (1850-1931), was even more involved in the development of this region, and in fact the town of Toluca was called Lankershim from 1907 until 1927. You know it now as North Hollywood. Lankershim Blvd. itself was named c. 1911.

Featured Offbeat Street

Toluca Lake Avenue

Burbank, Toluca Lake

There’s a city in Mexico called Toluca, and Toluca Street popped up outside DTLA in 1888. But who brought “Toluca” over to this side of the hill, and when, and why? It’s hard to say. In December 1892, the Lankershim school district was (briefly) changed to the Toluca school district, so the name was definitely here by then. In May 1893, the Toluca post office was established, with William C. Weddington as postmaster. The town of Toluca was renamed Lankershim in 1907, then North Hollywood in 1927. As for Toluca Lake, it started out as the Toluca Ranch, set up by Charles Forman (1835-1919) as early as 1888. (The oldest published mention of the ranch was in 1894.) So I’ll buy theories that it was either Forman or James Boon Lankershim who named this area “Toluca”, though I’m less convinced that either man thought it meant “fertile valley” in the Paiute language, as some claim. Regardless, the first mention of a “Lake Toluca” on Forman’s ranch was in 1903. It was just a muddy spring. Developers cleaned up the spring and subdivided the ranch as Toluca Lake Park in 1923-1924.