Monday, December 17, 2007

The Two Westmorelands


Amongst those confusing things geographic in West Adams are the two Westmorelands. This isn't a case of street and place, parallel, and alongside. Rather they're exactly one mile apart, still close enough to confound.

Westmoreland Boulevard, two streets East of Western, runs only a block, between Venice and Washington Boulevards.

Just East of Vermont, Westmoreland Avenue (or South Westmoreland Avenue) assumes the course of Ellendale--at Venice Boulevard and continues North through the Byzantine-Latino Quarter into Wilshire Center and beyond.

It is believed that the Westmorelands are named for a place (possibly a former county in the Lake District in the Northwest of England, now part of Cumbria), not a person, and certainly not General William Westmoreland, born in 1914.

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Anonymous Danny said...

It's a pain. I live on the boulevard and people ALWAYS go to the avenue, even though I emphasize the address and say that we're two blocks east of Western. I found a 1926 L.A. Times article in which the residents of the two blocks were begging the city council to intervene and change one of the names. Apparently they took no action!

6:41 PM  

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