CV Street Name Origins – Part 4

Continuing with street name origins, let’s look westward to Tujunga. But before we do, I have a couple of submissions from readers.

Joe Kroening wrote: “I live on Wiley Lane, which was named by Webster Wiley, as this was his first subdivision/development of six homes. All feature the ‘Wiley style’ though they lack the atrium entrance-way. All [are] well-built homes [and] most are remodeled or added on to now. However, all retain their original architectural style.”

As many locals know, Webster Wiley was a prolific local architect/developer in the ’50s and ’60s. His creations were of the mid-century modern architectural style. The atriums Joe mentioned were a signature style in later Wiley homes, where the front door entered into a kind of enclosed open area, often with landscaping, where you felt like you were both inside and outside the house at the same time. The Pinecrest area at the top of La Crescenta Avenue has many Wiley originals, and they are much valued by architecturally savvy buyers.

Mary-Lynne Fisher wrote: “Could you please add Reta Street to your next column on CV street name origins? In case you’re not familiar with it, Reta is a one-block street bounded by Maryland and New York, a block south of Santa Carlotta.  This same street east of Pennsylvania and west of New York is called El Caminito.  How did our block get stuck with something as prosaic as Reta? If I’d known when we moved here that we’d still be here 36 years later, I’d have launched a petition to change the name to El Caminito.”

Mary-Lynne is correct. If you look at a map, Reta is really just a block-long portion of El Caminito. (By the way, El Caminito means “small road”.) It was probably named Reta by the developer.

So, how does one change a street name? Reta Street is in Glendale, and I believe the process goes something like this: A petition to change the name has to be signed by the residents. The Traffic Commission vets it, and the City Council has the final say. It can occasionally be controversial, as in the case a couple of years ago when the City voted to change a two-block section of Maryland Avenue to Artsakh Avenue.

I don’t know a lot of the Tujunga street name origins, but I’ll take a run at it, starting on the south side.

La Tuna Canyon Road Named for La Tuna Canyon of course. La Tuna Canyon itself doesn’t actually start until after the crest of the hill heading toward Sun Valley. Tuna refers not to the fish; it’s the Spanish word for the prickly pear cactus.  Interestingly the Native-American village of Wiqangna lay somewhere in the vicinity of La Tuna Canyon and in the Tongva language “wiqangna” means “the place of the prickly pear cactus”.

McGroarty Street and McGroarty Terrace were named for John Steven McGroarty. McGroarty is a great character in Tujunga history. Trained as a lawyer, he moved to Tujunga near the turn of the century. There he gained fame and fortune as a writer. He wrote books, poems, newspaper columns and plays. His crowning achievement was “The Mission Play” and the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse was built specifically to house that wildly successful play.

In the 1930s, McGroarty was a progressive politician and was elected twice to the U.S. Congress. Even as a congressman, he had a way with words. Here’s a famous quote by him from a response to a constituent’s letter:

“One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains reforested and I have been in Congress two months and haven’t done it. Will you please take two running jumps and go to hell.”

McGroarty’s home was deeded to the City of Los Angeles and is today a cultural center for Sunland/Tujunga.

Next week, we’ll finish up Tujunga and move over to La Cañada.

  mike lawler