Lake, Martha (1896 - c. 1959 )

Martha Lake (1896 - c. 1959 ) was an American Map Seller. Her husband, Wesley G. Lake (d. 1942) had begun in 1933 to sell his 'Souvenir Map and Guide to Starland Estates,' a guide to the Beverly Hills home addresses of Hollywood Stars of the day. Martha continued the business after her husband's death in 1942 and the map, regularly updated, was a successful enough venture that their daughter Vivienne Welton (December 25, 1915 - November 9, 2007) would continue the business for over forty years. The city attempted to curtail the sales of these maps in order to control tourist traffic, but the state Supreme Court struck down that legislation in 1976 in a lawsuit spearheaded by Welton. Her daughter continued the business after her death in 2007, making the assiduously updated 'Souvenir Guide' the oldest continuously published map of its kind.