Los Angeles County is one of the original 27 countiesCreated on February 18, 1850. Territory which at one time was in Los Angeles County is now in six counties: Inyo County, Kern County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Ventura County. It went from being a small county along the coast to being a large county extending to the Nevada border and then to again being a relatively small county in area, although in 1999 it had about 29% of the state's population. The county now has territory with three different Boundary Changes:
Most of its present territory has been in the county since 1850.
A large territory was in Mariposa County from 1850 to 1851, when it was added to Los Angeles County.
Territory was in Santa Barbara County from 1850 to 1851 when it was added to Los Angeles County.
The County words los angeles literally mean "the angels" and are a contraction of the original name Pueblo del Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (the Town of the River of Our Lady, Queen of the Angeles). In 1781, Governor Felipe de Neve issued orders for the establishment of the pueblo on El Rio Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. The pueblo in time became known as the Ciudad de Los Angeles (City of the Angels), and it is from this contraction that the present name is derived. The County Seat is Los Angeles . See also County History for more historical details.
Los Angeles County Cities Include Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Arcadia, Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Beverly Hills, Bradbury, Burbank, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Compton, Covina, Cudahy, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Downey, Duarte, El Monte, El Segundo, Gardena, Glendale, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood, Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, La Puente, La Verne, Lancaster, Lakewood, Lawndale, Lomita, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Maywood, Monrovia, Montebello, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Rancho Palos Verdes, Pomona, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, San Fernando, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, South Pasadena, Temple City, Torrance, Vernon, Walnut, West Covina, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier.
CDPs(A census-designated place (CDP) is a type of place or area identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes)Include Acton, Alondra Park, Altadena, Avocado Heights, Charter Oak, Citrus, Del Aire, Desert View Highlands, East Compton, East La Mirada, East Los Angeles, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Florence-Graham, Hacienda Heights, La Crescenta-Montrose, Ladera Heights, Lake Los Angeles, Lennox, Littlerock, Marina del Rey, Mayflower Village, North El Monte, Quartz Hill, Rowland Heights, South San Gabriel, South San Jose Hills, South Whittier, Val Verde, Valinda, View Park-Windsor Hills, Vincent, Walnut Park, West Athens, West Carson, West Compton, West Puente Valley, West Whittier-Los Nietos, Westmont, Willowbrook. Unincorporated Communities Include Agoura, Agua Dulce, Antelope Acres, Athens, Bassett, Castaic, City Terrace, Del Sur, Florence, Gorman, Juniper Hills, Kinneloa Mesa, Lake Hughes, Leona Valley, Llano, Neenach, Pearblossom, Topanga, Two Harbors, Universal City, Valyermo
PLEASE READ FIRST!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information. All Departments below can be contacted by clicking the link.NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.
Los Angeles County Clerk-Recorder's Officehas Birth Records from 1866, Marriage Records from 1856, Death Records from 1877 and , Land Records from 1856. *Alcalde records from 1781. See Land Records. The County Recorder-Clerk is responsible for examination and recording of all documents presented for recording that deal with establishing ownership of land in the County or as required by statute; administers the real property transfer tax law and maintains a permanent record and indexes of all documents for public viewing plus providing certified copies requested by the public; recording of all lawful documents such as deeds, deeds of trust, judgments, liens, affidavits, Uniform Commercial Code Financial Statements, etc; and the filing of Births, Deaths, and Marriages.
Los Angeles County Clerk of Superior Court has Probate Records from 1850 and Court Records from 1850. The county Superior Court clerk has probate books and files from the county's superior court, civil court records, and naturalizations. Divorces may be here or in the Recorders Office, depending on how it was filed.
Some early court records from the various courts may have been sent to the California State Archives. Besides court minutes and judgements, these records include tax lists, wills, deeds, estate inventories, and marriage bonds. The California State Archives has microfilm of selected county records, 1850–1919.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Court Records by clicking the link below:
California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968: This database contains indexes to voter registration lists from various counties in California from 1900-1968. Information listed in these records includes: name of voter, age, address, occupation, and political affiliation.
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957: This database is an index to passenger and crew lists of ships and some airplanes arriving at Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Pedro, and Ventura in the U.S. state of California, between 1893 and 1957. Information contained in the index includes name of passenger, their age, gender, ethnicity, nationality or last country of permanent residence, arrival date, port of arrival, port of departure, and ship name. If a name of a friend or relative whom the passenger was going to join with, or place of nativity was provided, that information is included as well.
San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists Vol. I [1850-1864]: The volume offered here is a reprint of the first volume in a series dealing with passenger arrivals at the port of San Francisco between 1850 and 1875, though this first volume contains a selection of passenger lists extending only though 1864.
San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists Vol. II [1850-1851]: Volume II is based on completely different sources than the first volume in the series, which covered the years 1850-1864, and it encompasses an additional 16,500 passenger arrivals at San Francisco Bay during the 20-month period from April 1850 to November 1851.
San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists. Vol. III: November 7, 1851 to June 17, 1852: Volume III covers a seven-month period during which approximately 25,000 persons arrived at the port of San Francisco--nearly 50% more than the number of arrivals for the preceding 18-month period covered in Volume II. The year 1852 witnessed a surge in migration to California, and this volume reflects the initial thrust of that surge.
Click Here to Search California Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
California Department of Public Health, Office of Vital Records,
MS 5103, P.O. Box 997410, Sacramento, CA 95899-7410; (916) 445-2684. They have the following records:
Birth & Death Certificates: The state of California began issuing certificates for births and Deaths in July 1905. Birth and death records for current year events and one year prior are available from the county health department; records for all years are maintained by the county recorder.
If not, you should submit your request to the County Recorder’s Office in the county where the birth or death took place or order the birth / death certificate online through VitalChek.
Cost: $14.00 per birth certificate & $12.00 per death certificate.
Processing Time: 12-14 weeks when ordered by mail (Application for Birth or Death Certificate) or 2-5 Days when you order online
Marriage Certificates: The state of California began issuing certificates for marriages since July 1905, except for 1987 to 1995 (The state does not have indexes for the years 1987-1995 so you must request these from the county). Certified copies of public marriage records are available from both the California Office of Vital Records and the County Recorder’s Office in the county where the public marriage license was issued. However, the Office of Vital Records is limited in its ability to search the records, and it can take up to 2-3 years to obtain a certified copy from thier office. Therefore, we recommend that certified copies of public marriage records be requested directly from the County Recorder’s Office or online.
Cost: $13.00 per certificate.
Processing Time: 2-3 years when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order online
Divorce Certificates: Certified copies are not available from State Health Department. Certified copies of actual divorce decrees are only available from the Superior Court in the county where the divorce was filed. The Office of Vital Records issues a Certificate of Record that includes only the names of the parties to the divorce, the county where the divorce was filed, and the court case number – it is not a certified copy of the divorce decree and does not indicate whether the divorce was ever finalized in court. The Office of Vital Records only has information for divorces that were filed with the court between 1962 and June 1984, and our processing times can take up to 2-3 years or Online with VitalChek.
Cost: $12.00 per certificate. Fee is for search and identification of county where certified copy can be obtained.
Processing Time: 2-3 years when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order online
PLEASE READ!! A certified copy fee must accompany all requests for copies of vital records. Requests received without the appropriate fee will be returned to the sender. Make your check or money order payable to the Office of Vital Records. Checks must be drawn on a United States bank. Money orders must be drawn on a United States bank or issued by the United States Postal Service. Do not send cash. If no record is found, they will issue a Certificate of No Public Record and retain the fee for the search according to State law. Before submitting your application to the Office of Vital Records, please view the processing times to make sure they are acceptable for your needs.
Order On-Line: To obtain a certified copy of a vital record by on-line purchase with a credit card, please link to VitalChek
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
California Birth Index, 1905-1995: This database is an index to over 24.5 million births occurring in California between 1905 and 1995.
California Death Index, 1940-1997: his database is an index to the death records in State of California, USA, from 1940 through 1997. The database provides such valuable information as first, last and middle names of the descendants, birth dates, mother's maiden name, father's last name, sex, birth place, death place, residence at time of death, death date, social security number (when available), and the age of the individual when they died.
California Divorce Index, 1966-1984: This database is an index to over 3.5 million divorces that were filed in California (U.S.A.) from 1966-1984. Information that may be found in this database includes spouses' names, divorce date, and divorce county or city.
California Marriage Index, 1960-1985: This database contains a statewide index to over 4.8 million marriages that were performed in California between 1960 and 1985. Information that may be found in this database includes the bride's and groom's names, their ages, the marriage county, and the marriage date.
California Marriages, 1850-1877: This database contains information on individuals who were married in select areas of California between 1850 and 1960. Note that not all counties are included in this index and within the counties that are included not all years within the date range...
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Census Records by clicking the link below:
California Census, 1790-1890: This collection contains the following indexes: 1790 Census Substitute; 1850 Federal Census Index; 1860 Federal Census Index; 1870 Federal Census Index (excluding San Francisco County); 1870 San Francisco County Census Index; 1834 Census Index of Santa Barbara; 1890 Veterans Schedule; 1890 Naval Veterans Schedule.
California Antique Maps & Atlases has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for California and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for California showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for California showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries . You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Maps. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search California Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. A list of Wars fought on American.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Military Records by clicking the link below:
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service Assessment List for California, 1862–66, is available on thirty-three microfilm rolls at the California State Library in Sacramento. The lists include names, location and description of business, and tax rate for individuals taxed.
Similar to tax records in their yearly listing of residents are the “Great Register” of California, which are miscellaneous county voting registers that exist from the mid-nineteenth century. The registers were compiled and printed about every two years. Before 1900, they show name, address, and age (but the age may remain the same after a man's first entry). From about the mid-1800s, physical descriptions are included, but after the 1898 register, only the name, address, party affiliation, and sometimes occupation are listed.
Before 1892, the lists are county-wide, but usually alphabetical only by first letter or surname. They are particularly valuable for foreign-born voters, as the date and court of naturalization are listed. Copies of the "Great Registers," (1866–1944) are at the California State Library, which also has alphabetical card file abstracts for some of the earlier registers for San Francisco. Records from 1946 are with the individual county registrars of voters.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
The California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94105; 415-357-1848 — voice; 415-357-1850 — fax; info@calhist.org — e-mail
California State Genealogical Alliance, 19765 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92330
One way to access many local and county genealogical and historical societies is through the Alliance, which publishes its own newsletter.
California State Archives, Office of Secretary of State, 1020 O Street, Room 130, Sacramento, CA 95814; Reference Desk: (916) 653-2246; General Information: (916) 653-7715; FAX: (916) 653-7363; E-Mail:ArchivesWeb@sos.ca.gov
California Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search California Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
There are no centralized repositories dealing with church records in California. Scattered records can be found in genealogical publications, the DAR compilations, and on microfilm. The Spanish missions have played a central role in California's religious history.
Printed secondary sources of transcribed cemeteries exist for most California counties. The California State Society of the DAR has collected hundreds of such records. Transcripts are housed both at the national DAR and with some local chapters and libraries.
Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Califonia Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Los Angeles County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Los Angeles County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
California Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
California Pioneer Project - The California Pioneer List (CPL) is a list of settlers to California who migrated to or were born in California prior to 1880 (included in the 1880 California Census) and obtained from those sent (e-mailed) directly from individuals doing genealogical research.
Los Angeles' first building to be built as a courthouse was considered at the time to be one of the West's finest examples of Romanesque architecture. The "Red Sandstone Courthouse" was built at Spring and Temple Streets on what was then known as Poundcake Hill. An outside elevator with windows that was later added to the building became a sightseeing attraction of the city. Damage sustained in the 1933 earthquake made the building unsafe, and it was demolished in 1936. The site is now occupied by the current courthouse.
Native Americans in the Los Angeles area
Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands of California off the Southern California coast, is the site of Arlington Springs Man, human bones dated to 10,000-13,000 B.C., among the oldest remains discovered in the Americas.
The region that became Los Angeles was settled by the Tongva tribe, sometimes called the Gabrieliños, thousands of years ago. A small, but distinct tribe of Tataviam natives lived in the northern San Fernando Valley and became known as Fernandeños. The Cahuillas occupied the eastern deserts and mountains of present-day Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Far to the south were the Kumeyaay, occupying San Diego and Imperial counties. The large Chumash tribe occupied the coast from Malibu northward to San Luis Obispo County. The Channel Islands supported Tongva and Chumash, and their active trade with the mainland led the tribes to achieve what anthropologists regard as the finest boatbuilding skill among the North American tribes. Trade in raw materials and finished products spread across Southern California; soapstone from Santa Catalina Island passed from hand to hand to be traded for obsidian from the Paiutes of the Owens Valley, 200 miles inland. Pitch from seeps like the La Brea Tar Pits was another important trading commodity. Local tribes produced notably high quality baskets, some sealed with pitch, that are prized by museums.
Explorer Juan Cabrillo stopped at present-day San Pedro in 1542 and was greeted by Tongvan men who rowed out to meet his ship in their expertly crafted ti'ats. The explorer died later that year while wintering over at Santa Catalina Island and no European was seen again locally for 227 years. At the time of the arrival of Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century, there were an estimated 5,000 Tongvans living in 31 known village sites.
In common with other California tribes in the mission system, some Tongva cooperated with the missionaries, while others took up unsuccessful, armed resistance to European conquest. Native religious and hunter-gatherer practices were redirected into Roman Catholicism and agriculture. Though destructive of their culture and depriving them of their liberty, the mission system valued the individual Native Americans and employed them on the mission farms and ranches. When the missions were disbanded, the natives were thrown back on their own much-reduced resources. The Tongva tribe still exists, with perhaps a few thousand members but no reservation. The other local tribes that have reservations have survived and have achieved new prominence with the advent of Indian gaming.
Spanish and Mexican era 1769–1850
On September 4, 1781 the 44 pobladores gathered at San Gabriel Mission and, escorted by a military detachment and two padres from the Mission, set out for the site that Father Juan Crespi had chosen. The small town received the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula, Spanish for The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels on the Porciuncula River. The name derived from that of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Italian: Holy Mary of the Angels), a town near Assisi, hometown of St. Francis. The Church of Our Lady Queen of the Angels would be the heart of the community.
Initial growth 1851-1913
April 4, 1850 saw the incorporation of Los Angeles as a city. At the same time, the old landowners started to lose their lands. Compelled to secure confirmation of their land grants in U.S. courts, 10% of the bona fide land owners of Los Angeles County had to move off their land and became reduced to bankruptcy. The more fortunate rancheros finally lost their special status as "Californios" and became absorbed into other communities, depending on their wealth or color.
Other Mexican residents resisted the new Anglo powers by resorting to social banditry against the gringos. In 1856, Juan Flores threatened Southern California with a full-scale Mexican revolt. He was hanged in Los Angeles in front of 3,000 spectators. Tiburcio Vasquez, a legend in his own time among the Mexican population for his daring feats against the Anglos, was captured in what is believed to be present day West Hollywood. The bandit was found guilty of two counts of murder by a San Jose jury trial in 1874, and was hanged in that location in 1875.
The thriving Chinatown was the site of terrible violence in 1871. A tong war between rival gangs resulted in the accidental death of a white man. This enraged the white populace and a mob of 500 white men descended on Chinatown. They killed 19 Chinese men and boys, only one of whom had been involved in the original killing, as well as a white man who tried to protect them. Homes and businesses were looted. A grand jury investigation followed, but only one man ever served prison time. This was later referred to as the Chinese Massacre of 1871.
In the 1870s, Los Angeles was still little more than a village of 5,000. By 1900, there were over 100,000 occupants of the city. Several men actively promoted Los Angeles, working to develop it into a great city and to make themselves rich. Angelenos set out to remake their geography in order to challenge San Francisco with its port facilities, railway terminal, banks and factories. The Farmers and Merchants Bank was the first incorporated bank in Los Angeles, founded in 1871 by John G. Downey and Isaias W. Hellman.
Los Angeles continued to grow steadily until it attained railway connection with the Central Pacific and San Francisco in 1876, and with the East by the Santa Fe system (through its subsidiary California Southern Railroad) in 1885. The completion of the latter line precipitated one of the most extraordinary of American railway wars and land booms, which resulted in giving southern California a great stimulus.
Phineas Banning excavated a channel out of the mud flats of San Pedro Bay leading to Wilmington in 1871. Banning had already laid track and shipped in locomotives to connect the port to the city. Harrison Gray Otis, founder and owner of the Los Angeles Times, and a number of business colleagues embarked on reshaping southern California by expanding that into a harbor at San Pedro using federal dollars.
This put them at loggerheads with Collis P. Huntington, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and one of California's "Big Four" investors in the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific. (The "Big Four" are sometimes numbered among the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age). The line reached Los Angeles in 1876 and Huntington directed it to a port at Santa Monica, where the Long Wharf was built.
The San Pedro forces eventually prevailed (though it required Banning to turn his railroad over to the Southern Pacific) and work on the San Pedro breakwater began in 1899 and was finished in 1910. Otis Chandler and his allies secured a change in state law in 1909 that allowed Los Angeles to absorb San Pedro and Wilmington, using a long, narrow corridor of land to connect them with the rest of the city.
Oil was discovered by Edward L. Doheny in 1892, near the present location of Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles became a center of oil production in the early 20th century (by 1923 the region was producing one-quarter of the world's total supply, and it is still a significant producer).
In order to sustain future growth, the city needed new sources of water. The only local water in Los Angeles was the intermittent Los Angeles River and groundwater replenished by the area's minimal rain. Legitimate concerns about water supply were exploited to gain backing for a huge engineering and legal effort to bring more water to the city and allow more development. 250 miles (400 km) northeast of Los Angeles in Inyo County, near the Nevada state line, a long slender desert region known as the Owens Valley had the Owens River, a permanent stream of fresh water fed by the melted snows of the eastern Sierra Nevada that collected in the shallow, saline Owens Lake, where it evaporated.
Sometime between 1899 and 1903, Harrison Gray Otis and his son-in-law successor, Harry Chandler, engaged in successful efforts at buying up cheap land on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. At the same time, they enlisted the help of William Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Water Department (later the LADWP), and J.B. Lippencott, of the United States Reclamation Service. Lippencott performed water surveys in the Owens Valley for the Service while secretly receiving a salary from the City of Los Angeles. He succeeded in persuading Owens Valley farmers and mutual water companies to pool their interests and surrender the water rights to 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land to Fred Eaton, Lippencott's agent and a former mayor of Los Angeles. Eaton then resigned from the Reclamation Service, took a job with the Los Angeles Water Department as assistant to Mulholland, and turned over the Reclamation Service maps, field surveys and stream measurements to the city. Those studies served as the basis for designing the longest aqueduct in the world.
By July 1905, Chandler's L.A. Times began to warn the voters of Los Angeles that the county would soon dry up unless they voted bonds for building the aqueduct. Artificial drought conditions were created when water was run into the sewers to decrease the supply in the reservoirs and residents were forbidden to water their lawns and gardens. On election day, the people of Los Angeles voted for $22.5 million worth of bonds to build an aqueduct from the Owens River and to defray other expenses of the project. With this money, and with a special Act of Congress allowing cities to own property outside their boundaries, the City acquired the land that Eaton had acquired from the Owens Valley farmers and started to build the aqueduct. On the occasion of the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct on November 5, 1913 Mullholland's entire speech was five words: "There it is. Take it."
The growth of Los Angeles in this period, and the initial establishment of suburbs, transportation corridors and commuting patterns, was influenced to a great extent by the Pacific Electric Railway, the electrically powered passenger and freight railway established by Collis P. Huntington's nephew, Henry Huntington, in 1901. The Pacific Electric was the largest electrically operated railway in the world at its peak, with over 1,000 miles of trackage, and passengers could take interurban trains from locations as far afield as San Fernando, Santa Monica, San Bernardino, Long Beach, and Newport Beach to central Los Angeles, with destinations over three counties.
Boom town 1913 - 1941
Stub section, which could include: World War I, Prohibition, Great Depression (Okies), Film industry, Mayor Shaw and charter reform.
The first round-the-world trip by airplane began on March 17, 1924 in adjoining Santa Monica. Four open cockpit planes built by Douglas Aircraft Company took 175 days to travel more than 26,000 miles before returning (one was destroyed in a crash, but the crew survived). Another round-the-world attempt also began locally, but ended in tragedy. On May 21, 1937 Amelia Earhart began her final, fatal trip at nearby Burbank Airport.
Los Angeles hosted the 1932 Summer Olympics. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which had opened in May, 1923 with a seating capacity of 76,000, was enlarged to accommodate over 100,000 spectators for Olympic events. It is still in use by the USC Trojans football team. Olympic Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, honors the occasion.
The devastating Griffith Park Fire on October 3, 1933, killed 29 and injured another 150 workers who were clearing brush in Griffith Park.
Annexations
The City of Los Angeles mostly remained within its original 28 square-mile (73 km²) landgrant until the 1890s. The first large additions to the city were the districts of Highland Park and Garvanza to the north, and the South Los Angeles area. In 1906, the approval of the Port of Los Angeles and a change in state law allowed the city to annex the Shoestring, or Harbor Gateway, a narrow and crooked strip of land leading from Los Angeles south towards the port. The port cities of San Pedro and Wilmington were added in 1909 and the city of Hollywood was added in 1910, bringing the city up to 90 square miles (233 km²) and giving it a vertical "barbell" shape. Also added that year was Colegrove, a suburb west northwest of the city near Hollywood; Cahuenga, a township northwest of the former city limits; and a part of Los Feliz were annexed to the city.
The opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct provided the city with four times as much water as it required, and the offer of water service became a powerful lure for neighboring communities. The city, saddled with a large bond and excess water, locked in customers through annexation by refusing to supply other communities. Harry Chandler, a major investor in San Fernando Valley real estate, used his Los Angeles Times to promote development near the aqueduct's outlet. By referendum of the residents, 170 square miles (440 km²) of the San Fernando Valley, along with the Palms district, were added to the city in 1915, almost tripling its area, mostly towards the northwest. Over the next seventeen years dozens of additional annexations brought the city's area to 450 square miles (1,165 km²) in 1932. (As of 2004, the area of the city is 469 square miles (1,215 km²).)
Most of the annexed communities were unincorporated towns but ten incorporated cities were consolidated into Los Angeles: Wilmington (1909), San Pedro (1909), Hollywood (1910), Sawtelle (1922), Hyde Park (1923), Eagle Rock (1923), Venice (1925), Watts (1926), Barnes City (1927), and Tujunga (1932).
World War II and postwar 1941 - 1950
During World War II, Los Angeles grew as a center for production of aircraft, war supplies and ammunitions. Thousands of African Americans and white Southerners migrated to the area to fill factory jobs.
By 1950, Los Angeles was an industrial and financial giant created by war production and migration. Los Angeles assembled more cars than any city other than Detroit, made more tires than any city but Akron, made more furniture than Grand Rapids, and stitched more clothes than any city except New York. In addition, it was the national capital for the production of motion pictures, radio programs and, within a few years, television shows. Construction boomed as tract houses were built in ever expanding suburban communities financed by the largess of the Federal Housing Administration.
Los Angeles continued to spread out, particularly with the development of the San Fernando Valley and the building of the freeways launched in the 1940s. When the local street car system went out of business, Los Angeles became a city built around the automobile, with all of the social, health and political problems that this dependence produces.
The famed urban sprawl of Los Angeles became a notable feature of the town, and the pace of the growth accelerated in the first decades of the 20th century. The San Fernando Valley, sometimes called "America's Suburb", became a favorite site of developers, and the city began growing past its roots downtown toward the ocean and towards the east.
This is also the time when General Motors persuaded most urban regions in North America to shut down their light rail street car systems and replace them for more flexible, but polluting and inefficient, bus systems. This drastically changed growth and travel paterns in the city in subsequent years and contributed to the severe air pollution events that Los Angeles became famous for.
The years 1950 - 2000
Beginning November 6, 1961, Los Angeles suffered three days of destructive brush fires. The Bel-Air—Brentwood and Santa Ynez fires destroyed 484 expensive homes and 21 other buildings along with 15,810 acres (64 km²) of brush in the Bel-Air, Brentwood, and Topanga Canyon neighborhoods. Most of the homes destroyed had wooden shake roofs, which not only led to their own loss but also sent firebrands up to three miles away. Despite this, few changes were made to the building codes to prevent future losses.
The repeal of a law limiting building height and the controversial redevelopment of Bunker Hill, which destroyed a picturesque though decrepit neighborhood, ushered in the construction of a new generation of sky scrapers. Bunker Hill's 62-floor First Interstate Building (later named Aon Center) was the highest in Los Angeles when it was completed in 1973. It was surpassed by the Library Tower (now called the U.S. Bank Tower) a few blocks to the north in 1990, a 310 m (1,018 ft) building that is the tallest west of the Mississippi. Outside of Downtown, the Wilshire Corridor is lined with tall buildings, particularly in the vicinity of Westwood. Century City, developed on the former 20th Century Fox back lot, has become another center of high-rise construction on the Westside.
A subway system, developed and built through the 1980s as a major goal of mayor Tom Bradley, stretches from North Hollywood to Union Station and connects to light rail lines that extend to the neighboring cities of Long Beach, California, Norwalk, and Pasadena, among others. Also, a commuter rail system, Metrolink, has been added that stretches from nearby Ventura and Simi Valley to San Bernardino, Orange County, and Riverside. The funding of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority project is funded by a half cent tax increase added in the mid 1980s, which yields $400 million every month. Although the regional transit system is growing, subway expansion was halted in the 1990s over methane gas concerns, political conflict, and construction and financing problems during Red Line Subway project, which culminated in a massive sinkhole on Hollywood Boulevard. As a result, the original subway plans have been delayed for decades as light rail systems, dedicated busways, and limited-stop "Rapid" bus routes have become the preferred means of mass transit in LA's expanding series of gridlocked, congested corridors.
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