LOS ANGELES COUNTY’S 86 CITIES

Los Angeles was the first city in the county to incorporate--in 1850--with Diamond Bar trailing 139 years later, to become the 86th city earlier this year. Here is how each community was named and the date of its incorporation.

Lancaster (1977)--Founded in 1876 by M. L. Wicks of Aberdeen, Miss., and named by officials of the Southern Pacific Railway, presumably for Lancaster, Pa.

Lawndale (1959)--Once known as Lawndale Acres and nicknamed “Billy Goat Acres,” this community was established and named by Charles Hopper in 1905. It may have been named for the green grass in the area, which was once a swamp.

Lomita (1964)--A surveyor’s map of Rancho San Pedro mentions a Lomita del Toro, meaning “Little Bull Hill,” just a few miles east of the present-day city. In 1907, the W. I. Hollingsworth Company founded the town, once known as the celery capital of the world.

Long Beach (1897)--Known in 1882 as Willmore City, after English developer William Erwin Willmore, who brought immigrants from Kansas City. When too few buyers appeared, his plans collapsed. In 1887 the Long Beach Land & Water Co. took over and gave the community its present name, chosen because of the size of the beach.

Los Angeles (1850)--Given its name from the Los Angeles River by members of the Gaspar de Portola expedition, who camped on the east bank of the river on Aug. 2, 1769, and named the river El Rio Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula, or “the River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula.” Porciuncula in Italy is the cradle of the Franciscan order, whose priests accompanied the expedition.

Lynwood (1921)--Named for Lynn Wood Sessions, wife of a dairyman who operated the Lynwood dairy.

Manhattan Beach (1912)--Formerly known as Shore Acres, this community was founded and named by Stewart Merrill in 1902, after New York’s famous island.

Maywood (1924)--The district was christened Maywood in 1919. Records indicate that it may have been named for May Wood, an employee of the Laguna-Bell Land Company, which developed 27,027 acres of Rancho San Antonio.

Monrovia (1887)--Named for William Newton Monroe, pioneer and railroad builder, who purchased 240 acres from Lucky Baldwin for $30,000 in 1875. Monroe always told his friends how to reach the ranch via Myrtle Street (named for his wife).

Montebello (1920)--Harris Newmark purchased the 5,000-acre Repetta Ranch in 1886 and subdivided 1,500 acres of it in 1900 to create Montebello and Newmark (which was later absorbed by Montebello). Montebello means “beautiful hills” and was once the site of California’s richest oil fields--which made Newmark a fortune.

Monterey Park (1916)--The name was suggested by Thomas A. Berkible, the community’s first city attorney, for the bay of the same name. Explorer Sebastian Vizcaino named the bay for his superior, the Count of Monterey, Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo.

Norwalk (1957)--At times known as New River, Seven Sycamores, Sycamore Grove and Corazon de los Valles (Heart of the Valleys), this community was renamed in 1877 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Its tracks crossed the “north walk” along the route from “Anaheim landing.” But the town also could have been named for Norwalk, Conn., the former home of a railroad official.

Palmdale (1962)--Founded by a group of German Lutherans in 1886, who called their town “Palmenthal.” It stems from the Joshua trees that cover the valley floor and that were frequently referred to as palms.

Palos Verdes Estates (1939)--The name is derived from Canada de los Palos Verdes (valley of green trees). The valley lies between what is now the Harbor Freeway and Figueroa Street, south of Sepulveda Boulevard. The western part of the Rancho Sepulveda, it was subdivided by Jay Lawyer and Frank Vanderlip in 1922.

Paramount (1957)--The name, after the motion picture company, was suggested by Frank Zamboni, president of the Kiwanis Club, around 1948. Paramount Boulevard was the main street between the former communities of Hynes and Clearwater, which merged after many years of “fence-straddling.”

Pasadena (1886)--The English hybrid of two Chippewa Indian words, pass-ka-mi-gra (valley) and pig-wa-dena (hill). Hence, a “valley between hills.” Named by Dr. Thomas Balch Elliott of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Assn., which bought 3,962 acres of Rancho San Pascual for $25,000 in 1874.

Pico Rivera (1958)--Formed when two towns became one. Pico was named after Pio Pico, the last governor of California under Mexican rule. The northern part of the city, Rivera, was so named because it was between two rivers: the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel.

Pomona (1888)--Named by nurseryman Solomon Gates, who won a town lot as a prize for suggesting its name. His inspiration: the Roman goddess of fruit and fruit trees.

Rancho Palos Verdes (1973)--Once owned by Juan Jose Dominguez as part of an 18th-Century land grant, by the early 1800s much of this land was in the possession of a youth named Jose Dolores Sepulveda, who called his land the Rancho de los Palos Verdes.

Redondo Beach (1892)--Developed in 1887 as a seaside resort and named after the adjacent Rancho Sausal Redondo, which means “round willow grove.”

Rolling Hills (1957)--This elite haven on a hill was once part of Rancho El Elastico, owned by architect and developer A. E. Hanson. In Hanson’s book “Rolling Hills: The Early Years,” he said he had planned to call the area “Folded Hills” but changed his mind after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

Rolling Hills Estates (1957)--Also part of Rancho El Elastico. The area is home to many Thoroughbred race horses.

Rosemead (1959)--Meaning “Rose’s Meadow,” this community was named in honor of Leonard J. Rose, a celebrated vintner and horse breeder. He was most famous for his Sunnyslope ranch in the Pasadena-San Marino area.

San Dimas (1960)--Formerly known as Mud Springs and later named for St. Dismas, the good thief crucified with Jesus Christ. Reportedly, the name was given to San Dimas Canyon by Don Ignacio Palomares, owner of Rancho San Jose, because the canyon was home to many cattle rustlers and horse thieves.

San Fernando (1911)--Seventeenth of the Franciscan missions, founded Sept. 8, 1797, and named for St. Ferdinand III, king of Leon and Castile. Described as a brave soldier, he is credited with having struck the blow that ended Spain’s rule of Seville and Cordova.

San Gabriel (1913)--Named for the Archangel Gabriel, one of the seven archangels of God. The 1769 Portola expedition named this area after St. Michael, and for some years it was known as San Miguel de los Temblores because of the many earthquakes in the area.

San Marino (1913)--Originally the home of J. DeBarth Shorb, son-in-law of Don Benito, the founder of Alhambra. San Marino was the name of Shorb’s boyhood home in Maryland, which was taken taken from San Marino, Italy.

Santa Clarita (1987)--The river that flows through the area to the Pacific Ocean was given the name Santa Clara by the Portola expedition. The same name belongs to another larger California river, so, to avoid confusion, the area around this river was called Santa Clarita, or “Little Santa Clara.” The city consists of the communities of Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and Canyon Country.

Santa Fe Springs (1957)--Known in 1873 as Fulton Sulphur Springs and Health Resort after J. E. Fulton, this land was purchased in 1886 by the Santa Fe Railway and renamed for that company and the nearby mineral springs. Developer Alphonzo Bell struck oil there in 1921.

Santa Monica (1886)--Named by Franciscan father Junipero Serra of the Portola expedition on May 4, 1770, the feast day of St. Monica. It is said that the group had camped near a spring that reminded the padre of the tears that St. Monica shed over her son, St. Augustine.

Sierra Madre (1907)--The name means “mother range” or “mother mountains.” One story has it that the town was named by Nathaniel C. Carter when he subdivided 1,100 acres of Rancho Santa Anita in 1881. However, the padres called the mountains the Sierra Madre because nearby ranges seemed to spring from them. They were officially dubbed the San Gabriel Mountains in 1927.

Signal Hill (1924)--In the mission days, this hill was used as a lookout and signal point; earlier, the Puvas Indians used signal fires from this point to warn of danger.

South El Monte (1958)--When the El Monte boundaries were drawn in 1912, the farmland farther south of it was left out. It was known as the “hub of the valley,” and residents eventually realized its potential in developing it into an industrial city.

South Gate (1923)--Formerly the south gate entrance to Rancho San Antonio. Much of this land--29,513-acres--was owned in 1883 by Jonathan S. Slauson, but was sold by his heirs in 1910 for $500 an acre.

South Pasadena (1888)--When Pasadena began a drive to incorporate--largely as a way to regulate the sale of liquor and eliminate saloons--South Pasadena became the refuge of the outlawed establishments. The town began an advertising campaign touting prohibitionist leanings in an attempt to attract teetotaling citizenry. South Pasadena thus became California’s second bone-dry city.

Temple City (1960)--Founded in 1922 by Walter Paul Temple--nephew of John Temple, who built the Temple block in Los Angeles where City Hall stands, and son of Francis Pliny Fisk Temple, banker and owner of 200,000 acres in the San Gabriel Valley. Walter Temple subdivided 400 acres of the land, which had been part of Lucky Baldwin’s Rancho Santa Anita.

Torrance (1921)--Named for Jared Sidney Torrance, a financier and philanthropist who came to California in 1887 and who, much later, founded the community as a site for the Union Tool Co.

Vernon (1905)--Known in 1871 as Vernondale, for Captain George R. Vernon, one of the first settlers and a Civil War hero.

Walnut (1959)--Originally this land was part of Rancho Los Nogales, or the “ranch of walnut trees.” Until 1912 the town was called Lemon because the post office was on Lemon Road, but the name reportedly was changed because Lemon just didn’t seem serious enough.

West Covina (1923)--Originally an agricultural town with many walnut and orange groves. When the citizens learned that Covina wanted to build a sewage dump just south of the freeway on Glendora Avenue, West Covina immediately took steps to incorporate.

West Hollywood (1984)--Hollywood was laid out and named by Horace H. Wilcox. Apparently, Mrs. Wilcox heard the name during a trip east and liked it so much that her husband imported two holly trees to justify the name. Unfortunately, the trees did not survive in the warm climate. West Hollywood has had its name since about 1920, and was finally incorporated because the citizens wanted rent control.

Westlake Village (1981)--This land was owned in the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst, but he sold it when he found out it had no oil. Westlake Village was built on the west side of a man-made lake.

Whittier (1898)--Originally a Quaker colony named after the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, this city is on the site of the Indian village of Sejat, meaning “place of wild bees.”

Sources: The Dictionary of California Land Names by Phil Townsend Hanna; California Place Names by Erwin G. Gudde; Chambers of Commerce, libraries and historians throughout Los Angeles County; Los Angeles Times History Center.