Florence Avenue

Florence Avenue is a major east–west street in central Los Angeles County and South Los Angeles, in Southern California.

The oldest operating McDonald's is on Florence Ave at Lakewood, in Downey, California.

Route

It is bounded in the east by Mills Road at Janine Drive in Whittier. At Telegraph Road, it changes to Florence. West of La Cienega Boulevard, it swerves into Aviation Boulevard, which is a north–south street, in the City of Inglewood.

Florence Avenue runs through the cities of Inglewood, Los Angeles, Huntington Park (where it intersects Pacific Boulevard), Bell, Bell Gardens, Downey, Santa Fe Springs, and unincorporated Los Angeles County bordering the City of Whittier.

Florence Avenue also crosses the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405), Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110), Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710), San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), and Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5).

An unconnected portion of Florence Avenue is located in La Habra and has similar west-east coordinates to the main Florence Avenue.

Public transit

Metro Local Lines: 111 and 120 run through Florence Avenue; the former runs through most of Florence starting at Studebaker Road and the latter east of Studebaker Road.

Rapid transit

The Metro A Line light rail serves the Florence station, at the intersection of Graham Avenue and Florence Avenue in the unincorporated community of Florence.

Crenshaw/LAX Line

The under construction Crenshaw/LAX Line will have 3 new light rail metro rail stations on Florence Avenue, the Fairview Heights Metro station at West Boulevard in the Hyde Park district, the Downtown Inglewood Metro station at La Brea Avenue in Downtown Inglewood and the Westchester/Veterans Metro station at Hindry Avenue near the border adjacent to the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles.

History

The roadway was formerly known as Redondo Boulevard westward from West Boulevard at the Inglewood-Los Angeles city boundary.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Land developer George E. Longan in 1927 established a new business center on Redondo Boulevard near Hillcrest Avenue, Inglewood, a Spanish stucco structure "in harmony with the nearby Inglewood Woman's Club."[8]

In 1931 West Boulevard was extended south to Florence Avenue and intersected Redondo Boulevard at the latter's easterly end.[9]

In 1934, the Los Angeles Times noted that "Florence Avenue runs into Redondo Boulevard."[6] East-west Redondo Boulevard turned north-south to traverse between Inglewood and Redondo Beach.[10]

The intersection of Florence and Normandie is noted for a racist hate crime during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles when several black men pulled white driver Reginald Denny from his truck and beat him in the intersection. The attack was televised.[11][12]

References
  1. "Work Launched on Inglewood Cemetery Unit," Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1933, image 21
  2. "New Street Favored by Inglewood," Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1929, image 13
  3. "Open Unit Six of Big Subdivision," Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1922, image 89
  4. "Inglewood Discusses Major Road," Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1927, image 92
  5. "Inglewood Has Theater Plans," Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1924, image 90
  6. "How to Get There," Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1934, image 60
  7. "New Road to Airport Asked," Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1928, image 28
  8. "Broker Building Business Center for Boulevard," Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1927
  9. "Carnival Marks Completion of West Boulevard," Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1931, image 10
  10. "Highway Information," Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1925, image 125
  11. Cannon, Lou; Thomas-Lester, Avis (May 13, 1992). "4 GANG MEMBERS ARRESTED IN BEATING OF L.A. TRUCKER" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  12. Mydans, Seth (May 13, 1992). "AFTER THE RIOTS; 4 HELD IN ATTACK AT RIOTS' OUTSET (Published 1992)" – via NYTimes.com.
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