Wilshire Boulevard ( ) is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire (1861–1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire Boulevard in the 1890s by clearing out an unassuming twelve-hundred foot path in his barley field. The road first appeared on a map under its present name in 1895. A historic apartment building on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and S. Kenmore Ave., the Gaylord, carries his middle name.