Centinela Avenue is a 10.2 mile major street in the Westside region of

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

Geography

Centinela Avenue is a major thoroughfare in

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

Inglewood Inglewood may refer to: Places Australia *Inglewood, Queensland * Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area *Inglewood, South Australia *Inglewood, Victoria *Inglewood, Western Australia Canada * Inglewood, Ontario *Inglewoo ...

, Ladera Heights,

Mar Vista Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006. History Mar Vista was called Ocean Par ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

, and

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

. It is named after the 19th century

Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Ygnacio Machado. The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in Spanish, and refers to the artesian water in the area exemplifie ...

, whose site of former ranchlands it passes through.

Route

The street runs primarily north–south, with a southern east–west section. Centinela Avenue is not a continuous street but is separated into northern and southern sections, with a jog connected by Ocean Park Boulevard.

Northern section

The northern section of Centinela Avenue is a minor two lane street. It begins near the Brentwood Country Club in

Brentwood, Los Angeles Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles. History General Modern development began after the establishment of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors in the 1880s. A sma ...

. It proceeds south, ending at Ocean Park Boulevard and the Santa Monica Airport, a block west of the southern section of Centinela Avenue. It is the official dividing line between the cities of Santa Monica and Los Angeles. This section of Centinela has two discontinuities. Going north, staying on Centinela requires a half-block jog west at Olympic Boulevard, and another half-block jog northeast at

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

Southern section

The southern section of Centinela Avenue is a four-lane major thoroughfare. It starts off as Bundy Drive at

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

in Brentwood, passing through

to the Santa Monica Airport, where at Stanwood Drive its name changes to Centinela Avenue. Centinela crosses and offers entry points to the following bike paths:

Expo Line Bikeway The Expo Line Bikeway is a Los Angeles County, California rail with trail bicycle path and pedestrian route that travels roughly parallel to the Metro’s E Line train tracks between the Exposition Park area near the USC campus and downtown ...

(see Expo/Bundy station),

Culver Boulevard Median Bike Path The Culver Boulevard Median Bike Path is Class I rail trail bicycle path, walk route and linear park on Culver Boulevard in western Los Angeles County, California. Route The path is currently in length. The northeastern terminus is Elenda S ...

and

Ballona Creek Bike Path The Ballona Creek Bike Path (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh" or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is a Class I bicycle path and pedestrian route in California. The bike path follows the north bank of Ballona Creek until it reaches Santa Monica Bay at the Pa ...

. At its intersection with

Jefferson Boulevard Jefferson Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles and Culver City, California. Its eastern terminus is at Central Avenue east of Exposition Park. At its entrance to Culver City, it splits with National Boulevard. North of Sawtelle Boulevard, it ...

, Centinela Avenue angles southeastward to become an east–west street. It runs parallel to/on the south of

Slauson Avenue Slauson Avenue is a major east–west thoroughfare traversing the central part of Los Angeles County, California. It was named for the land developer and Los Angeles Board of Education member J. S. Slauson. It passes through Culver City, Lad ...

. Centinela Avenue ends at the intersection with

Florence Avenue Florence Avenue is a major east–west street in central Los Angeles County and South Los Angeles, in Southern California. 150px, The oldest operating McDonald's is on Florence Ave at Lakewood, in Downey, California. Route It is bounded in th ...

. Centinela Park and Centinela Hospital Medical Center are located within here.

History

The southern section was laid out in the 1890s. As reported by the ''Los Angeles Times''’ Inglewood column in 1896, the route was laid out to connect Mesmer Station along the Santa Fe Railroad line (later the

Venice–Inglewood line The Venice–Inglewood Line is a former Pacific Electric interurban railway line in Los Angeles County, California. Service was very sparse, providing a suburban route between Venice and Inglewood. History The branch line was built by the Atch ...

of the Pacific Electric) and “the brick-kiln northerly of here” (property that later became Centinela Park). The proposed line of the -wide road ran along “the northernly boundary of the Centinela grant” and rights-of-way were offered by Daniel Freeman and one Mrs. Cook.

Public transport

The north–south portion of the avenue is served by

Santa Monica Transit Big Blue Bus (stylized, big blue bus) is a municipal bus service serving the city of Santa Monica and the greater Westside region of Los Angeles County. The service, operated by the city of Santa Monica, was founded on April 14, 1928 and thro ...

line 14 and the west–east portion by

Metro Local Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . , there a ...

line 110. The Bundy/Expo Metro station of the

Metro E Line The Metro E Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Edina. The route will operate from Southdale Center Transit Center in Edina, Minnesota to Westgate station in St. Paul. Running mostly on France Avenue, Hennepin ...

is located on Bundy Drive south of Olympic Boulevard.

Notable residents

Nicole Brown Simpson Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the ex-wife of the former professional American football player, O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992. She was the mother of their two children, Sydney an ...

lived at 875 South Bundy Drive with her and O. J. Simpson's children, Sydney and Justin, at the time Nicole and

Ron Goldman Ronald Lyle Goldman (July 2, 1968 – June 12, 1994) was an American restaurant waiter and a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the American football player O.J. Simpson. He was murdered, along with Brown, at her home in Los Angeles ...

were murdered in the courtyard of that address, on June 12, 1994. The house sat empty for two years, until the next owner extensively remodeled it and had the address changed to 879 South Bundy Drive.

References

Streets in Santa Monica, California Streets in Los Angeles Culver City, California Inglewood, California Mar Vista, Los Angeles West Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County) {{California-road-stub