A preliminary correction. Crcucial reading for anyone who wants to make sense of the second correction, further down. In yesterday's asteroid post, I wrote the following: I believe "McCollum" is actually "McCollum." (Has she gone mad? Has she found the key to fathoming the universe? Is she wrong?) What I meant to write was: I believe "McCullum" is actually "McCollum."

Which leads us to a response by Nathan Marsak, author of the asteroid post on the 1947 Project. Nathan ignored the error in my post and went right to the heart of the matter:

Yeah, I wondered about the McCullom/McCollom spelling as well; the paper printed the address as McCullom, and while I think that was some just some sloppy note-taking on a reporter's part, I left it as it was. I even peered into my Thomas Guide from 1945 and it was McCollom then...probably was in 1907 as well. I was going to make mention of this little oddity in reportage, but since the address comes up as McCollom in the map link, I figured it would work itself out.

Of course, now some chap has added a comment that it probably wasn't an asteroid at all, but that, should we apply Occam's razor, the explosion was more likely to be terrestrial in origin. He has a point. Still, what fun is that? To me, it will be always be our little Edendale Asteroid!

If you go into the files at the Deptartment of Building and Safety downtown you'll find many Echo Park Streets whose names have changed. Single letter changes? My guess is not so many. Asteroids? For those you probably have read between the lines.