CV Street Name Origins – Part 7

Last week we were talking about the origins of some of the street names in La Cañada. We were moving west to east across the top of the valley. We just crossed Hillard, and now approach Palm, then up the hill to Alta Canyada.

Palm Drive – In the late 1800s, the Dunham family settled on a ranch on the slope directly north of today’s Crescenta-Cañada YMCA. Their long driveway down to Foothill Boulevard was Dunham Avenue. In 1895 a magnificent double row of palm trees was planted on their driveway, and still thrives there today, thus the name Palm Drive. Where the palms end is about where the Dunham house was.

Lyans Drive – Heading up the hill we find Lyans, named for the Lyans family who had a big house there. Descendants of the Lyans family still live locally.

Alta Canyada Drive – Up farther we have the Alta Canyada neighborhood. “Alta” is Spanish for upper. The drive retains the old spelling of “Canyada” found in old newspapers and maps when most Easterners were perplexed by the Spanish pronunciation of Cañada.

El Vago Street – Gotta love this one! I don’t know why this street was named so, but my Spanish translation says it means “the lazy.” So there you go, residents of El Vago Street. What’s that all about?

Earlmont Avenue, Earl Drive, Earl Canyon Motorway, Jarvis Avenue – These are all family names from developer Edwin T. Earl and his son Jarvis. They developed the 500-acre Alta Canyada tract in the late teens, about the same time that Frank Flint was developing Flintridge. The tract is noted for its beautiful mature deodar trees.

A word here about Edwin Earl. Edwin Earl was one of those amazing characters of the late 1800s who made a fortune in developing Southern California. Edwin was born into a pioneering California freight hauling and fruit ranching family in 1858. At the age of 18, Edwin combined the two businesses and made some of the earliest fruit shipments to the east, what was to become a huge business. In 1890, Edwin revolutionized the business further by developing the refrigerated train car to keep fruit fresh. A decade later he recast himself as a newspaper publisher by buying the Los Angeles Express, thus becoming a major force in Los Angeles politics. At the same time he began investing in real estate and was part of the syndicate that used insider information to buy land in the San Fernando Valley in anticipation of the Owens Aqueduct (similar to the movie “Chinatown”). Seemingly everything Earl touched turned to gold.

Hall Canyon Road – A little to the east of Alta Canyada is Hall Canyon Road, named for the pioneering Hall Family, some of the first settlers of La Cañada. In 1874 Col. Thomas Spencer Hall acquired 1,000 acres above the Rancho La Cañada land, including Hall-Beckley Canyon and Winery Canyon, planting citrus and grapes. Interestingly enough, a big chunk of the Hall Ranch still exists, not by Hall Canyon Road but over on the other side of Alta Canyada, near the intersection of Linda Vista and Alta Canyada. The big acreage has the original 1890 house and barn on it.

Castle Knoll Road – One would think that Castle Knoll Road has some relation to Castle Road, just two blocks to the east, but it doesn’t. Castle Knoll refers to a completely different castle than that of Castle Road. Castle Knoll leads to the driveway of the Wallace Castle, lately known as the Strong Castle, but more familiarly known as the Pink Castle. The Pink Castle has a long and storied past. It was built in 1911 by Lt. Gov. Albert Wallace and modeled after Carnegie Castle in Scotland. Soon thereafter it became the property of Frank Strong, a rich philanderer. It’s said that his angry wife had it painted pink as an act of revenge. It remained pink for several decades until cooler-headed owners returned it to its original gray color.

Next week we’ll wrap this up with La Cañada street names from the south side of Foothill.

  mike lawler