Tract centered on a street named after developer’s horse?

On August 18, 1954, Roy Boyd Warring (c. 1901-1969) and Florence Allen Warring (1899-1979) filed Tract number 19364 with the County of Los Angeles, laying out ten homesites along a new street – Girla Way – between Sanford Adler’s contemporaneous developments: California Country Club Estates and Hillcrest View Estates.

Mr. Warring was an owner and breeder of thoroughbred horses, including “Girlaway” (1946-?) – likely named after famed 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway (1938-1953).

Permits for building all ten homes were obtained by different owners; however, all but one show the same architect, C. A. Williams of 3557 Dunn Drive in Palms. The exception was the home at 9914 Girla Way built by Gerald Bernard Surfas (1916-2009), founder of Surfas Culinary District. Two of the homes were listed for sale as new in 1955, including the one built by Warring at 9919 Girla Way.

Roy Warring (1920).

Along with providing the above photo, LAStreetnames.com reports more about Mr. Warring:

As for Roy Warring, he was a Sacramento boy with an especially somber childhood: orphaned at five, he was raised by his grandparents – who orphaned him again at thirteen. A neighbor evidently adopted him, but Warring would soon serve as a cadet observer during WWI and had moved to Chicago by 1920, where he embarked upon a career as a machinist. In 1926, he married Florence Allen Davis (1899-1979) and helped raise her son Elgan. The Warrings were in Los Angeles by 1947. Roy was running his own machine shop at this point, which clearly made him enough money to own more than a dozen horses, stabled at his own ranch in La Puente.

Girla Way street sign with Baldwin Hills in the background.

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