Every day, California history subject specialist Kelly Wallace descends the four floors to the History and Genealogy Department at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Wallace says she’s worked there for 14 years and enjoys showing one of 200,000 maps and 2,000 atlases housed there. 

“You can see that the streets tell a story, tell the history,” she said. “As they change and grow and expand, they tell the story of the area of the city.”

Wallace tells the history of Rosecrans Avenue, which begins in 1869 when she says U.S. Union General William Starke Rosecrans came to Southern California after the Civil War to buy thousands of acres of land in the historic ranchos of LA.

Now, his legacy lives on in the 27 mile thoroughfare connecting dozens of cities through LA and Orange counties.