Video Showcase on "The Streets of Los Angeles: a Brief Look at the People Behind the Street Names"

Los Angeles did not just happen.  It was built by real people - and they were as diverse as today's populace.

Combining a blend of historic photographs from the Seaver Center for Western History Research along with contemporary images, the following video is an homage to our everyday street names in Los Angeles and the people behind them.

There are many poignant stories about those pictured in the video, more than the short video can express - among images of families, couples, and single men in the once dusty, remote city.  Further below is a description guide to the people portraits in the video.

Music credit to the song "Time and Space," goes to Darryl Holter, singer, songwriter, and historian.

Apologies that the video resolution is poor on the big screen!  BlogSpot can only handle a small video file.

A Guide to the People Portraits From the Video

John Gately Downey, an Irishman, was California governor during the Civil War.  There was once but no longer, Downey Avenue, in the city.  Today there is Downey Road in East Los Angeles, and there is the city of Downey named after him.  His wife Maria Jesus Guirado was a Californio.  She died tragically in a train crash in the Tehachapi Mountains in 1883 after married for 31 years.

Pio de Jesus Pico is today remembered as the last governor of Alta California, during the time when the region was a part of Mexico.  His country estate, El Ranchito, was located in present day Whittier, not far from much of the properties owned by John Downey.  Pictured are his wife, Maria Ignacia Alvarado along with her niece by her side, Maria Anita Alvarado.  Next to Pico is his niece (his sister's daughter) Trinidad Ortega, for whom Spring Street was named.  Here is an earlier post about Pico and also the mothers of Pico.

Ferdinand Vignes and his family, shown about 1890.  Ferdinand was a nephew to Jean-Louis Vignes, the pioneering French settler.  Ferdinand's uncle was one of the earliest and most prolific in California viticulture.  The Vignes property included Vignes Street, named in 1874.  The second photo above is dated about 1870 of Louis and Ferdinand Vignes.

Horace Bell was probably as gruff in manner as was his appearance in the above photo, but he tussled with the city streets committee to retain his dear wife's complete street name "Georgia Bell," and to prevent it from being changed to Nevada Street.  Today Georgia Street remains in the lively L.A. Live area in Downtown.  Read more in the L.A. Convention Center blog post.

Prudent Beaudry, originally from Quebec, Canada, served as mayor of Los Angeles from 1874 to 1876.  He is best known for developing the once residential Bunker Hill.  Streets associated with him and his brother Victor, include Beaudry, Bellevue, Victor, and Mignonette.  More about Prudent Beaudry at an earlier post.

Lieutenant Edward Otho Cresap Ord gave the city its first American land survey.  Ord Street was named for him in 1890.  Read more here.

New Mexican Julian Chavez settled in the hills later known as Quarry Hills and Elysian Hills.  Chavez was a member of the newly formed L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 1852.

Jose Dolores Sepulveda and his wife Louisa with daughter, were among a whole bunch of Sepulveda's active in the region, prompting the naming of Sepulveda Boulevard.  More on Jose and Louisa having lived on Date Street - a part of the Macy Street neighborhood blog post.

Shown above are Rafaela Cota de Temple, Gregorio Ajuria, and John (Juan) Temple.  John Temple was a very early foreigner from Massachusetts to settle in Mexican Los Angeles.  Temple Street came up for a street name change five times between 1921 and 1953.

Juan Resurrecion Ramirez (1839-1922) was a third generation Californian.  Ramirez Street was the subject of an earlier blog post.

Third-generation Californian Arcadia Bandini de Stearns de Baker married Abel Stearns (she was 14, he was 43), and the couple hosted many parties at their home, El Palacio.  Arcadia Street runs near their former place of residence.  Following Abel's death, she remarried to Robert Baker.  With Baker she co-founded the city of Santa Monica.  Abel Stearns was a highly successful cattle baron.  He also held title to Rancho Los Alamitos, which is why there is Stearns Street in nearby Long Beach.

Bearded Antonio Franco Coronel was married to Mariana Coronel, although the lady seated by him does not resemble her.  The power couple hosted writer Helen Hunt Jackson in her travels to southern California which led Jackson to complete her novel Ramona.  Coronel was city mayor, state treasurer and a forward-thinking individual.  Much of the papers, photographs and material artifacts collected by the Coronels are today housed in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.  Coronel Street, located at the base of Elysian Park, was named in 1887, while the yard pictured above may have been his home at 8th and Alameda.  Read more here.

This endearing portrait of Mrs. Stoneman (Mary Oliver Hardisty from Baltimore) and Governor George Stoneman was taken about the time of their marriage.  He had served in the Mexican War and the Civil War and was a California governor from 1883 to 1887.  Stoneman Avenue in Alhambra is named for him.

At first glance one might guess the photo above to be of a father and child.  The man was Romulo Pico, son of Andres Pico (and nephew to Pio Pico).  The girl was Catalina (or Catarina), a ward of Andres Pico, and later was married to Romulo.

Trinidad Ortega, mentioned earlier above in the Pio Pico family portrait, appears in this later full-length photograph.  She was the "primavera" for which Spring Street was named.

Ygnacio Del Valle was a member of the family that operated Rancho San Francisco that straddled today's Los Angeles and Ventura counties.  Unclear whether he was a son of the patriarch with the same name.  Another family member, Reginaldo, is better remembered for being one of the founders of UCLA.

Actress Mabel Normand at the site of the very early Biograph motion picture studio at Pico and Georgia Streets near today's L.A. Live.

Mr. and Mrs. William Marcus Moore of Pasadena.  He was a tailor, and she worked as a nurse.

Mrs. Soo Hoo Mon Sing, pictured above in a Christmastime portrait, 1908.  She was an affluent Chinese woman in early Los Angeles, with a complete family.  She was profiled in this blog post.

The unidentified Chinese man in the foreground, donning a western-style boaters hat, had a weary, forlorn expression.  He quite possibly had a wife and family back in China.

Members of the Dominguez family with friends.

The Hotel Figueroa, and Figueroa Street Name Origins

The Hotel Figueroa

At the completion of a Saturday morning breakfast at The Pantry at 877 South Figueroa, the walk southward brought me past the 1926-era Hotel Figueroa.  The mid-1920s building boom in L.A. included many structures along Figueroa, including the hotel, the Friday Morning Club across the street, and the Automobile Club of Southern California further down on the Figueroa Corridor.  The Pantry Restaurant was established at this location in 1924.

Located at 939 South Figueroa, Hotel Figueroa opened August 15, 1926.  It was promoted as "the largest project of its kind to be built, financed, owned and operated by women."  The project was backed by the Y.W.C.A. and cost $1,250,000.  At first the hotel was intended for female business travelers, but soon men were welcomed with their families.  The 13-story building was designated with Spanish names in its public spaces, like sala de recepcion, and its "el corredor" led to Spanish decor design elements.

Less than two years later, the hotel was in financial trouble.  A fundraising campaign ensued, and the hotel managed to pull out of its hole.

1950s postcard

Ad from the Hotel & Motel Red Book, 1965

Northward on Figueroa, bypassing the main downtown business district, The Orsini at 606 North Figueroa, is a contemporary development and one of the last multi-residential structures located at the northern edge of downtown before Figueroa Street is interrupted by the Pasadena Freeway.  The handsome and imposing buildings on all sides of Sunset Boulevard could have been named "The Orsini at 606 Pearl" if "Figueroa" not replaced the former street name of "Pearl."

Origins of Figueroa Street

Since the signing of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the U.S. War with Mexico and transferring California to the U.S., Los Angeles instituted the land survey tradition to clarify its boundaries.  In 1853, city fathers sought to increase the size of the city and did so on its maps, even though the real authority, the U.S. Land Commission, wouldn't even confirm its original Spanish tradition "four square leagues" until 1856 (correction:  the city lands were confirmed in 1856, but the final surveyed patent was issued in 1866 by the U.S. General Land Office .  Confusingly, a new patent was issued in 1875 after the 1866 patent was deemed invalid due to a technicality; BUT in 1881 the original 1866 patent was upheld as valid.)

Early Los Angeles maps show municipal intent to expand in all four directions, with the main north and south arteries being named for the Mexican governors of Alta California:  Manuel Micheltorena, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Jose Figueroa, and Jose Maria de Echeandia.  East/west roads running south of 12th Street were named Pico Street (for Pio de Jesus Pico, the final Mexican governor of Alta California), followed by U.S. Presidents in their order of succession:  Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Jackson streets.

Maps prior to 1870 showed an earlier Figueroa Street running further west than the present day Figueroa Street.  And later 19th century maps showed both Figueroa Street and Pearl Street.

The earlier road called Figueroa Street extended from about where Boylston Street is north of Sunset Boulevard, down to Washington Boulevard.  Surveyor George Hansen likely designated the early Figueroa Street, naming it after the Alta California Governor, Jose Figueroa.  Coincidentally, a Mexican-era home, the Ramon Figueroa adobe, sat at Jefferson and Figueroa, until the mid-1950s.  Ramon was not related to Governor Figueroa, though numerous books cite that as a fact.  Ramon’s parents Manuel Figueroa and Gertrudis Silva appear on an 1804 census.  Ramon and his bride, Guadalupe Reyes y Botiller, resided at the adobe.  Though the date the adobe was built is not known for certain, some sources state 1846-47, although some sources also state that the couple vacated the adobe when, the war during those same years, caused them to leave.  Today the adobe at 3404 South Figueroa is gone.  In its place is the USC Galen Center, across the street from the iconic Felix Chevrolet dealership.

The original western border of the city, Calle de Las Chapules, later Anglo-sized to Grasshopper Street, changed to Pearl Street, and finally what we know it today, Figueroa Street.

See updated map below

Update 1.27.2019:  a new blog post on The Tale of the Two Figueroa's and community organizer Darryl Holter.

Update 11.1/2020:  Nearly five years after this posting, Nathan Master's fine KCET article from 2015 "The Lost Plan to Honor L.A.'s Mexican and American Past Within Its Street Grid" revealed an 1857 map from the Los Angeles City Archives showing the intent for a lengthy Figueroa Street.  This finding coupled with additional research prompted this blogger to modify her own map.  Importantly the 1857 map suggests that Figueroa Street to extend beyond Washington (Boulevard) Street, probably to the southern boundary which was at today's Exposition Boulevard.