Chapter 3 Settlement

Settlement 

Before the arrival of the Spanish there was about 25 Tongva villages existing in what will become Los Angeles County with a population about 300 to 500 people. 

The Tongva also called the Gabrielino Indians were thought to have migrated from the Mojave area somewhere between 200-500 A.D. They intermingled and sometime displaced the Chumash who dominated the northwesten portions of the county.

Governor Felipe de Neve visits the future site of the new pueblo to clear the land and mark it off. Forty-four men, women, and children begin life at the new pueblo, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River)(September 4). Only two of the original adult settlers are white Spaniards. The other settlers are of Indian, Mestizo, African, and Mulatto descent. Twenty-two are children.  

In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed and the Mexican-American War ends. California is ceded over to the United States (February 2). Governor Mason appoints Stephen C. Foster to be Alcalde (Mayor) of Los Angeles.

In 1881 Los Angeles is linked to the rest of the nation by the Southern Pacific Railroad and later in 1885, a second rail line is opened by the Santa Fe Railroad spurring competition and a fare war begins, the price of a ticket drops to one dollar from Kansas City to Los Angeles and the population explodes from 11,000 in 1880 to 50,000 in 1890. Also, in 1877 the refrigerator boxcar is invented and California produce inundates the country with fresh products as the myth of Southern California continues to grow in the minds of Americans. 

In 1911 the first Hollywood production company, Nestor Film Company opens in an abandoned tavern. Soon, neighbors erect signs reading “No dogs, no actors.” Later in 1913 Cecil B. de Mille shoots the first Hollywood movie called “Squaw Man,” The climate allows for year around filming and there is influx of artist and businessmen from the east coast of the United States. 

WWII - Shipbuilding becomes the primary business of the Port of Los Angeles, employing some 90,000 workers. One-third of U.S. warplanes are manufactured in Los Angeles. After the war in 1950 the population grows again as suburbs and cheap housing stretch into the valleys and down the coast towards Orange county. The population creeps up on 2 million by the end of 1950.  

In 1980 spurred on by further migration and immigration Los Angeles surpasses Chicago as the second largest city in the nation.   The city becomes so large that it is the first to have two area codes (818) (213) and in the 1990s (310) is added.  Late in 1990 the tallest building on the west coast opens in downtown Los Angeles called the U.S. Bank Tower. 

 In 2006 the cities population hovers just under 4 million and the county itself is the most populated in the country with 10,245,572. 

Sources: LA Almanac

Los Angeles City Historical Society

Socal History.org