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Columbus Tustin showed a lack of originality
in 1870 when he named the streets dividing Tustin City’s 100 acres into
300-square-foot blocks. He used numbers for east and west streets with First
on the north side of town and Sixth on the south. North and south streets
received alphabetical names, A through H.
Fourth Street became Main Street as
businesses congregated there, and Fifth Street never got off the plat map. D
Street doubled as State Highway 101 after 1914, but was renamed El Camino
Real in 1968.
More original, but unexplained names, such as
Pasadena, Myrtle, Pacific, California, Yorba and Mt. View, were attached to
streets added later on the west side. Some streets surrounding Tustin were
named for their destinations, Irvine Boulevard, Newport Avenue, Tustin
Avenue, and Red Hill Avenue.
David Hewes, who relocated to Tustin from San
Francisco in 1881, building a Victorian mansion at the corner of Main and B,
inspired Hewes Avenue, which lead to Anapauma ranch, agricultural property
he acquired between Tustin and El Modena. Vanderlip Avenue memorialized
Nelson Vanderlip, a banker and Tustin resident who served as treasurer of
the Santa Ana, Orange and Tustin Street Railway in early 1886.
John Holt, a Swedish immigrant, who owned
property on First Street as well as near the present Civic Center, inspired
Holt Avenue. Browning Avenue was named after Felton P. “Frank” Browning,
owner of Red Hill and its mercury mine.
When the 1950s brought mass development to
Tustin and the surrounding area, developers and landowners came up with both
commonplace and unusual names for the streets in the new subdivisions.
However, some of the names selected honored early residents and ranchers.
Fourth Street was reincarnated when it was
cut through the orange groves as a continuation of Santa Ana’s Fourth Street
in the 1950s. Later it was extended into Irvine Boulevard and renamed. Utt
Drive in South Tustin recalled Lysander Utt who came to Tustin in 1874 as
well as his son, Tustin entrepreneur C. E. Utt, and grandson James, both a
state assemblyman and a congressman representing Tustin. Mitchell Avenue
identifies Ralph Mitchell, a South Tustin rancher.
Preble Drive honors the Preble family,
including brothers Samuel and James as well as cousin George. Nisson Road is
named for Mathias Nisson, a Denmark native, who established himself in
Tustin in 1876. His grandsons are still Tustin residents. Warner Avenue,
Williams Street and Kenyon Drive were named for Frank Warner, Albert C.
Williams and Chester Kenyon, who farmed in the area.
Ebel Road remembers the Ebel family which
traces its Tustin roots back to the early 1900s. Marshall Lane was created
when Joseph Marshall subdivided his orange acreage. Enderle Center Drive
leading to Enderle Center harks back to Herman Enderle who came to Orange
County in 1892.
More recently, streets in Tustin Ranch have
been named for civic leaders and war heroes.
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