SIDEWALK SIGNATURES 
William L. Greenleaf

Long Beach’s sidewalks contain impressed “signatures” of many pavers who plied their trade in the city. If your ancestor owned a construction company or worked for one of those cement contractors, our “Sidewalk Signatures” series will be of interest to you.

photo: QHGS

William Leland Greenleaf was a cement contractor who laid sidewalks in Long Beach during the 1920s. When he registered for the WWI draft on September 12, 1918, he was working for the Adamson Concrete Co., but soon after he started his own firm. In the 1923 Long Beach City Directory he is listed as living at 1805 Erie Street. He married Juanita Fielder in 1931, and, during the Great Depression year of 1935, he was a packer for the Dalton Coffee Company here in Long Beach. William L. Greenleaf died in 1954.

RESEARCH TIP: When you research a stranger, look at many possible sources for information; then, apply the research techniques you have learned to your own immediate ancestors.