Cities named for missions, smoke signals, even a poet

Some towns were named for nearby historic missions. One stemmed from the fact that its site had been used for smoke signals. Still others were based on simple geography. Los Angeles County has 88 cities, each with its own story. Here’s how some of them got their names, along with the year they incorporated.

San Dimas (1960)

The area known as Mud Springs served as a watering spot for animals when explorer Jedediah Strong Smith passed through in 1826. But the name San Dimas had taken hold by the time a town started to develop in the 1870s. Some say that Don Ignacio Palomares, owner of Rancho San Jose, named the area for St. Dismas -- the good, repentant thief crucified with Jesus Christ -- because many cattle rustlers and horse thieves lived here. Others say Palomares simply named it after his small hometown of San Dimas in Mexico.

San Fernando (1911)

Like the Valley itself, the name for the city comes from the nearby Mission San Fernando Rey de España. The 17th of the Franciscan missions was founded Sept. 8, 1797, and named for St. Ferdinand III, king of Leon and Castile in the 1200s. The Valley’s first town site, San Fernando was founded in 1874 by a pair of former state senators: promoter Charles Maclay and farmer George K. Porter. The mission is technically in Mission Hills, under the jurisdiction of the city of Los Angeles

San Gabriel (1913)

The town evolved as an outgrowth of Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in the early 1850s. The mission and town were named for the Archangel Gabriel, one of the seven archangels who stand at the throne of God. The mission itself was founded in 1771 by Franciscan Father Junipero Serra; it was the fourth of California’s missions.

San Marino (1913)

This area was once home to James de Barth Shorb, son-in-law and business manager of Benjamin D. Wilson, who founded Alhambra. Shorb named his rancho San Marino after his grandfather’s plantation in Maryland, which itself was named for the Republic of San Marino, a tiny state surrounded by Italy. Shorb’s estate was purchased by Henry E. Huntington in 1903 and is now the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

Santa Clarita (1987)

The Portola expedition of 1769 named the river that flows through this area Santa Clara. The land became part of the Rancho San Francisco land grant. In 1875, former ‘49er and San Francisco auctioneer Henry Mayo Newhall bought more than 40,000 acres of ranchland and started the town of Newhall.

When the communities of Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and Canyon Country banded together to incorporate, the name Santa Clara had already been taken by a city in the Bay Area. So, to avoid confusion, the area around this river was called Santa Clarita, or “Little Santa Clara.”

Santa Fe Springs (1957)

This area was part of the Rancho Santa Gertrudes. During the 1870s and ‘80s, it became known as Fulton Wells after Dr. J. Fulton, who discovered a sulfur spring and built a fashionable hotel and health resort there. The Santa Fe Railroad purchased the land in the late 1880s, renaming it for itself and for the nearby mineral springs. Oil was struck there in 1921.

Santa Monica (1886)

The community was named by Father Junipero Serra of the Portola expedition on May 4, 1770, the feast day of St. Monica. Reputedly, the group camped near a spring that reminded the padre of the tears that St. Monica shed over her wayward son, Augustine. Her prayers paid off; the son reformed and became St. Augustine.

Sierra Madre (1907)

The name, chosen by the San Gabriel Mission padres, means “mother range” or “mother mountains.” In the early 1870s, it was a destination for health-seekers and tuberculosis patients. Later, they flocked to the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel and Sanitarium -- which, if it still existed, would be in Pasadena. In 1881, the town was founded and named by Nathaniel C. Carter. The range was officially designated the San Gabriel Mountains in 1927.

Signal Hill (1924)

Hundreds of years before oil drilling began in the 1920s, the 365-foot hill near Long Beach was populated by Native Americans who sent smoke signals from its peak. Historical references note that even then, oil factored into the hill’s daily life: It was used to waterproof canoes.

South El Monte (1958)

When El Monte’s boundaries were drawn in 1912, the farmland farther south was left out. Residents eventually realized its potential, developing it into an industrial city.

South Gate (1923)

Formerly the south gate entrance to Rancho San Antonio. During World War I, when the rancho was carved up to make other cities, this section was called South Gate Gardens. City fathers dropped the “Gardens” when the town incorporated.

South Pasadena (1888)

In the late 1880s, when Pasadena began to enforce “anti- saloon” laws, bars crept into the southern part of the city. To stop the onslaught of saloons, the south broke away and incorporated into South Pasadena.

Many residents bristled because the name gave the impression that the city was part of Pasadena, or even implied an inferior Pasadena on “the wrong side of the tracks.” The name has prevailed despite efforts to change it to San Pasqual, Raymond or even Bajadena.

Temple City (1960)

Founded in 1922 by Walter Paul Temple -- the nephew of John Temple, who built the Temple Street block in Los Angeles where City Hall stands, and the son of Francis Pliny Fisk Temple, banker and owner of 200,000 acres in the San Gabriel Valley.

Torrance (1921)

Named for Pasadena financier and philanthropist Jared Sidney Torrance, who founded the “garden-industrial” city in 1911. He envisioned a community where people could live, work and play. Hence, Torrance’s motto: “A Balanced City.”

Vernon (1905)

In the 1870s, this community was known as Vernondale for Capt. George R. Vernon, who was one of the first settlers and a Civil War hero. More than 30 years later, settler John Baptiste Leonis founded Vernon as an industrial town with a group of farmers. Leonis was a descendant of the legendary Miguel Leonis, a towering Basque shepherd known as the King of Calabasas.

Walnut (1959)

Originally, this land was part of Rancho Los Nogales, or the “ranch of walnut trees.” Although farmers planted both lemon and walnut trees, lemons were the major agricultural product. At first the town was called Lemon, because the post office was on Lemon Road. But in 1912 the community changed its name, supposedly because “Lemon” didn’t seem serious enough. After all, no one wants to drive a lemon; who wants to live in one?

West Covina (1923)

This began as an agricultural town with many walnut and orange groves. When the citizens learned that Covina wanted to build a sewage dump on Glendora Avenue, West Covina immediately took steps to incorporate. And since it’s southwest of Covina, the name followed logically.

West Hollywood (1984)

This famous 1.9-square-mile city, sandwiched between Beverly Hills and Hollywood, came about because some residents wanted rent control and others wanted civil rights for gays and lesbians. The name is geographical -- the area is west of Hollywood.

Westlake Village (1981)

William Randolph Hearst was among the owners of this land on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties -- until the 1920s, when he learned it had no oil. Westlake Village was built in the 1960s on the west side of a man-made lake that had been created largely by billionaire magnate Daniel K. Ludwig, once one of the nation’s richest men.

Whittier (1898)

Originally a Quaker colony named after Quaker poet and reformer John Greenleaf Whittier, this city is on the site of the Indian village of Sejat or Suka, meaning “place of wild bees.” Its most famous citizen? Richard Nixon.

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cecilia.rasmussen@latimes.com

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Sources: “1000 California Place Names” by Erwin G. Gudde; “The Dictionary of California Land Names” by Phil Townsend Hanna; “Los Angeles A to Z” by Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt; “South Pasadena 1888-1988: A Centennial History” by Jane Apostol; “The San Fernando Valley: Then and Now” by Charles A. Bearchell and Larry D. Fried; Chambers of Commerce and city websites; Los Angeles Times archives