, namesake of the street. The street is named for General
José Figueroa (1792 – September 29, 1835), the
Mexican governor of
Alta California from 1833 to 1835, who oversaw the
secularization of the
Spanish missions in California. Figueroa Street was originally called
Calle de los Chapules, which translates to "Street of the Grasshoppers".
Chapules is the plural of
"chapul", which is not the standard
Spanish word for grasshopper (that being
"saltamonte"), but rather a word from the
Nahuatl of
Durango and
Nayarit (also known as
Mexicanero). Later in the 1880s it became known as "Pearl Street". Figueroa Street originally was a few blocks west of Pearl but joined Pearl Street further south. Pearl Street was changed to Figueroa and the northern portion of the old Figueroa Street was renamed Boylston. The section of what is now Figueroa in Highland Park above Avenue 39 was known as "Pasadena Avenue" until Figueroa was extended through Elysian Park. The portion of what is now Figueroa between the Los Angeles River and Avenue 39 was originally known as Dayton Avenue until the Arroyo Parkway went through. Prior to construction of the
Harbor Freeway, Figueroa St. carried
U.S. Route 6 to Pacific Coast Highway south from the
Four-Level Interchange. Until 1977, the
Guinness Book of Records deemed Figueroa to be the longest street in the world. At the request of writer Jay Myers, it was supplanted by
Yonge Street in Toronto. On April 2, 2011, a portion of Figueroa Street at
Jefferson Boulevard was blocked off for the "Orange Carpet" and the grandstand for the broadcasting of the
2011 Kids' Choice Awards. In
South Los Angeles, Figueroa Street has the highest number of
prostitution-related arrests in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles
Lakers, the Los Angeles
Kings and Los Angeles
Rams have used Figueroa as the parade route for their respective championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010 for the Lakers, 2012 and 2014 for the Kings and in 2022 for the Rams. ==Future==