If you’ve used Google Maps in a major metropolitain area, you may have noticed one or two “neighborhood labels” that seemed bizarre and new to you even though you know the area quite well.

Here is a link to Home Junction on Google Maps.

As best as I can determine, some of these names go back to the 1960s. The reason I think that is because of a little area in west Los Angeles that on Google Maps is labelled Home Junction.

If you look at the intersection of the Santa Monica freeway and the San Diego freeway (I-10 and I-405 respectively), Google Earth has a little label for the area and that label says “Home Junction.”

In fact, if you drive around the area where National crosses under the 405 there is one of those weird blue City of LA signs denoting that you are in a “named region” of the city. It also says, “Home Junction.”

Home Junction? WTF is that? I like to think I know the west L.A. area quite well — between the different neighborhoods and their historic origins — I find that stuff interesting. Palms, Sawtelle, Mar Vista, Rancho Park — it’s my albatross.

So, what I’ve pieced together is this: the junction was so named because it was the meeting point between the spur line and the main trolleyway that once connected Santa Monica with downtown Los Angeles. The spur line connected to the Veterans Administration facility via a little street called Sawtelle. Back then the VA was called “The Old Soldiers’ Home”, hence, Home Junction.