(Through Downey, Florence-Graham, La Mirada, Norwalk, South Gate)
Most people know Firestone Boulevard got its name in South Gate. Fewer know that La Mirada’s stretch of it had to be cut out of a working olive ranch, and that the deed still exists.
In July 1927, Firestone Tire and Rubber announced a $7 million tire factory, its first outside Akron, on 40 acres along Manchester Avenue between Alameda and Santa Fe. One month later, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors renamed the portion of Manchester east of Alameda “Firestone Boulevard.” The name rolled another mile and a half west to Central Avenue in 1929…