Clipboard : Neighborhood Profile: Los Alamitos AFRC and Environs

Some towns have histories that reach back five generations, others seem to have sprung up in the past 30 years. The area around the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Los Alamitos is grounded in history yet relatively young.

The area took on its current attributes just 50 years ago, when the Naval Air Station moved from Terminal Island near Long Beach Harbor to Los Alamitos. The 1,300-acre tract was home to Navy and Marine fliers; Australian fliers trained in naval air tactics there as well. The first mission of the air station was to be an air group staging center during World War II.

Known as a training center for the “ready reserves,” the base squadrons and battalions were called to active duty during the Korean War, the Berlin blockade and the Cuban missile crisis.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson again activated the naval reservists at the center. Twenty-five officers and 156 enlisted men headed out to Lemoore Naval Air Station in the San Joaquin Valley to train for duty in Vietnam.

Once again, the center’s reservists are now readying for the potential of war, this time in the Middle East.

The base, renamed the Armed Forces Reserve Center in 1973, is also a state coordination center in the event of an earthquake.

But for neighbors of the reserve station, the only shots heard cracking on base ricochet from the driving range at the Navy Golf Course. Helicopters account for nearly 97% of the base’s air traffic.

The housing tract just north of the reserve center is a relatively quiet, desirable address. “This is the nicest tract in the city of Los Alamitos,” said Jerri West of Coldwell Banker Realtors. “There’s no noise pollution, the planes land in Seal Beach at the weapons station, not at the reserve center.”

But the proximity of the reserve base has kept local real estate prices low. “The most distinguishing feature of this tract is the difference in property values,” West said. “These homes are about $100,000 less than many comparable houses on the Orange County market.”

As a result, many homeowners in the area are choosing to keep their homes instead of moving up in the market.

“Owners go out into the county and look around,” West said. “After seeing what a prime piece of property they have for the price, rather than trading up, they upgrade.”

Longevity appears to be the mainstay for Los Alamitos. In the late 1800s, the city took root as a company town for the Los Alamitos Sugar Co. But in 1921, a worm infestation devastated the sugar beet industry and eventually put the company out of business. As the industry fell off, this company town was expected to decline as well. However, the townspeople stayed and, over time, built a city that the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce now calls “Just a Real Nice Place to Live.”

Jean Friedrichs, a docent at the Los Alamitos Museum, shares the chamber’s motto. “This is a wonderful place to live,” the five-year resident said. “Everything is close at hand--shopping, good restaurants, businesses, the beach, even Los Angeles.”

Along Katella Avenue, new strip malls are filled with a varied businesses, including a health food restaurant, a deli and dozens of specialty shops. Among the shops and offices is the caretaker of Los Alamitos’ history, the Los Alamitos Museum.

Built in the 1940s, the adobe building for 30 years housed the volunteer Fire Department. Today, the museum is filled with a hodgepodge of 19th-Century curios, but its most significant collection is a photographic display of the Los Alamitos Sugar Co. and the city’s growth over the decades.

“We have the original fire hose from the firehouse and old newspaper articles,” Friedrichs said. “I was just reading an ad from a 1918 paper. They made sugar beet farming sound like a sure-fire deal. And, up until 1921, sugar beet farming was good.”

The sugar beet industry held on through the early 1940s, then folded. Fortunately, the creation of the air base brought more income into the small city. By 1960, houses began to spring up alongside the base.

Historically, the reserve center has always been a good neighbor, sponsoring little leagues, Pop Warner football teams and providing a tennis facility.

Residents pay homage to the accomplishments of their hometown heroes through the Los Alamitos Hall of Fame, housed in the museum. It honors the achievements of local athletes, including such notables as gymnast Cathy Rigby and distance swimmer Lynne Cox.

The tone of this area is set best at the little adobe museum, where the future is represented by a recent high school track trophy and the past regained in photographs.

Population: Total (1990 est.): 8,820 1980-90 change: +5.1% Median age: 33.5 Radical/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino): 78% Black: 2% Latino: 11% Other: 9% Income: Per capita: $21,517 Median household: $48,778 Average household: $51,934 Income distribution: $100,000-and more: 5% $75,000-99,999: 7% $50,000-74,999: 23% $25,000-49,999: 38% Less than $25,000: 27% By sex and age: in hundreds Males: Median age: 32.3 years Females: Median age: 34.5 years