Buena Vista Road (Buena Vista Street)
Buena Vista Street is not one of the streets in Solano Canyon. It is included here because it provided road access to the property that Francisco Solano purchased from the City in 1866. Without the access provided by Buena Vista Street, which was 60 feet wide, development of Solano Canyon as a community would have been made difficult.
This map shows the location of Buena Vista Street relative to Solano Canyon, and it shows the proximity of Francisco Solano's property to the Los Angeles River. The text on the map gives details of the City Council resolution that created the street in 1884. [Click to view larger image]
This map shows the location of Buena Vista Street relative to Solano Canyon, and it shows the proximity of Francisco Solano's property to the Los Angeles River. The text on the map gives details of the City Council resolution that created the street in 1884. [Click to view larger image]
Map credit: SR Box 32 (23) 4
As a matter of historical interest, notice that the map scale here is given in feet; older maps used chains to reference distance. A chain, consisting of 100 7.92-inch links, is 66 feet long; there are 80 chains to a mile. [Surveying trivia: The chain described here is a 'Gunter's Chain', developed and introduced by Edmund Gunter in England in 1620. There are several other surveying chains of varying lengths, including a 'Vara Chain', with a length of 20 varas (about 55½ feet) and used for measuring Spanish land grants, primarily in Texas, and a 'Ramsden's Chain' , which has a length of 100 feet.] |
Gunter's Chain
|
Buena Vista Street was an extension of the street that ran from downtown Los Angeles to Calvary Cemetery, the original Catholic cemetery. The original name of the street was Calle Eternidad, an apt name for a street that ended at a cemetery. The name was later Anglicized to Eternity Street; then, in 1888, when Alfred Solano surveyed his father's 67 acres in the Stone Quarry Hills, the street was extended, past the Solano property to the Los Angeles River and beyond, and its name was changed to Buena Vista Road. A public sewer to Solano Avenue was authorized and built in 1889 and an extension of the sewer to Casanova Street was constructed in 1905. Buena Vista Road became known popularly as Buena Vista Street, and it survived several attempts to re-name it North Broadway; it remained Buena Vista Street until November, 1909, when its name was officially changed to North Broadway.
One historical feature on Buena Vista Street (now, North Broadway) that is á propos Solano Canyon is the historic stone retaining wall that was built of native stone that was quarried from the Stone Quarry Hills. This wall supported a level house lot in Solano Canyon Lot 100 at 1425 Buena Vista Road. The lot was allocated to María Solano, Alfred's sister and the wife of Guillermo Bouett, who built a house in which they lived until María moved to Long Beach about 1920 to live with her daughter, María Bouett Jones following the accidental death of her husband, Guillermo Bouett, a Captain in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, in the line of duty in 1913.
One historical feature on Buena Vista Street (now, North Broadway) that is á propos Solano Canyon is the historic stone retaining wall that was built of native stone that was quarried from the Stone Quarry Hills. This wall supported a level house lot in Solano Canyon Lot 100 at 1425 Buena Vista Road. The lot was allocated to María Solano, Alfred's sister and the wife of Guillermo Bouett, who built a house in which they lived until María moved to Long Beach about 1920 to live with her daughter, María Bouett Jones following the accidental death of her husband, Guillermo Bouett, a Captain in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, in the line of duty in 1913.
Native stone retaining wall at 1425 Buena Vista Road [Image: Lydia Moreno]
