County of L.A. 4,000 square miles City of L.A. 465 square miles.

In 1781, Governor Felipe de Neve of the Californias, then under Spanish control, hired eleven families, at a rate of ten pesos per month plus rations, to travel north and establish a settlement. Eight months later, Corporal Jose Vicente Felix led the founding party from San Gabriel Mission to El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (the town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula).

The beginning…Jose Manuel Nieto, in 1784, requests a grant to a "grazing place situated at three leagues distance" from San Gabriel Mission. Governor Pedro Fages, Neve's successor, grants the land to Nieto providing that he promise not to harm either the "pagan Indians" or the inhabitants of the Spanish enclaves. Nieto's request ultimately will include over 160,000 acres of what becomes Los Angeles. Lots that were initially apportioned by a drawing to the settlers finally became legal in 1786.

Governor Fages appoints Corporal Jose Vicente Feliz, Comisionado of the Los Angeles Pueblo in 1787. His job included community arbitrator, presiding judge, overseer of agriculture, peacemaker between settlers, the head of labor relations and he managed the employment and treatment of Indians who worked at the Plaza. Feliz was the first local government official in the settlement. Los Feliz Boulevard was named in the comisionado's honor; he was also granted the land now known as Silverlake along with some of the property that later became Griffith Park.

At the age of 28, Jose Vanegas and his 21-year-old wife, Maria Bonifacia Maxima Aguilar, made the trip north from Mexico. Venegas, one of the first pobladores (settlers), became the first elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 1796. Manuel Camero and Felipe Garcia were appointed to serve under Venegas to assist in resolving local disputes.

By 1850, there were 1,610 people in Los Angeles, not much growth for 60 years. The original census in 1790 showed 141 residents, which was up only slightly from the 44 members of the original 11 families. Indians, were not considered civilized people and did not own land, therefore they weren't counted in the census. In 1791 there were 29 dwellings in Los Angeles, a chapel, guardhouse administrative buildings and granaries. All were made of adobe and surrounded by a thick adobe wall. Grain production was becoming big business; the temperate climate encouraged grain production.

The largest crop of the decade, approximately 7,800 bushels of mostly maize with some wheat, was harvested in 1796. During rich crop years, the Spanish sold the grain at Santa Barbara or exported it by ship. In 1784, Governor Fages granted Corporal Jose Maria Verdugo permission to move cattle onto ranges north of town to the San Fernando Valley. An explorer, Gaspar de Portola had discovered the Valley as early as 1769, while on an expedition with Father Juan Crespi. The Father's diary tells of a trip through the Sepulveda Pass in which the expeditionary party met a "large village of heathen, very friendly and docile," and they established the "newly discovered basin as the Valley of Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos."

A new mission expanded to include twenty-one outposts of Christianity. The new mission was named San Fernando Rey de Espana, after Ferdinand III, a thirteenth-century Spanish King. As the mission grew, it set up an irrigation system, a wine press, tannery, smokehouse, carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, granaries, weaving room and other enterprises needed for a self-reliant community. The first residents of San Fernando included two friars, three converted Indian families and a military guard. The Indians living nearby were called Fernandenos, after the mission. San Fernando mission was an architectural improvement. The padres had discovered the arches below a red tile roof, low slung proportions that would one day be the distinguishing elements of mission architecture and design. The setting was lush and luxuriant, a center of civilization set among vineyards and orchards in a vast plain of wild mustard.

The oldest house still standing is the Avila Adobe, built in 1818, repaired in 1930, and restored in recent years. The Avila house is on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, where the pueblo began. It's directly above the original water supply from the Porciuncula-now the Los Angeles River. Adobe, sun-dried bricks of clay often mixed with straw and manure, was a practical building material for a city with limited tools and manufacturing ability. Adobe was thick; it remained relatively cool in summer and retained heat in winter. The first pre-adobe houses were much humbler, hand built huts of willow branches tied together with reeds from the river. Roofs, which were made of thick and clay like mud, were subject to cracks and collapse.

Around 1803, Santa Barbara granted Jose Bartolome Tapia the most remote rancho in the area, Rancho Topanga, Malibu y Sequit. The name originated from the Chumash Indian village of Maliwu that once thrived along the creek. This rancho was twenty-two gorgeous miles that stretched along the coast with canyons and mountains. In 1848, a twenty-six year old Frenchman named Leon Victor Prudhomme bought the Tapia land from the heirs for 400 pesos. Ten years later Don Mateo Keller paid ten cents an acre for the property and resold it just before the turn of the 20th century to Frederick Hastings Rindge for ten dollars an acre. Try though she might and all the way to the Supreme Court, the widow May K. Rindge could not hold on to the property and keep it from development, state roadways and public intrusion.

The settlers who had traveled north from Mexico were illiterate and education was not encouraged in the pueblo. Education was a threat to ranching. Children were needed in the fields not in the classrooms. In 1794, by Spanish order, the first school was opened in San Jose, the first California settlement. It wasn't until Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola ordered one to be built that Los Angeles had its first school in 1817. Although the community wanted emphasis on religion, Maximo Pina who was a disabled former soldier and was hired to run the school wanted reading and writing to be prioritized. The school closed two years later when Pina left.

The Mexican Flag is raised and the Spanish one is brought down. In 1822, Mexico proclaims independence from Spain and California pledges allegiance to Mexico. The sleepy town of Los Angeles is barely fazed and California finds out about the Mexican revolution six months after it happened. A treasurer and a secretary were added to the local government in Los Angeles. 1835, Mexico decree's that the "pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California is erected into a city, and it will be in the future the capital of that territory." The governor of the existing capital in Monterey protests. He maintains that Los Angeles, is a town of saloons & brothels, gambling houses and inappropriate, uncivilized behavior and unprepared with no public buildings worthy of government, no hotels for guests and no residence for a governor. There is mob violence and insurrection. They refused to comply and remained in Monterey.

Again, it would not last. Don Ygnacio Coronel started a school in 1836 without much support from the community and women were allowed for the first time. An earlier Governor had once denied education for women stating that they would learn only to write love letters, which would distract both the boys and themselves.

From Laurel Canyon looking East towards Hollywood, c.1990

During the Mexican period, grants establishing ranchos continued. In 1839 Agustin Machado was given La Ballona; Francisco Marquez received Boca de Santa Monica; and Don Antonio del Valle got Rancho San Francisco, beautiful hillside country north of San Fernando Valley. Today, more than 600 descendants of the original families turn out every year for a celebration.

Abel Stearns from Massachusetts and Harvard educated, was arraigned as a smuggler in 1840. Public pressure earned Abel his release because although smuggling was illegal, people considered it a reasonable occupation, so the charges were dropped. For the inconvenience and as consolation, Stearns was appointed administrator of customs for Los Angeles! He ultimately became the largest cattle baron and landowner in the region when he bought Rancho Los Alamitos. He was elected to the new state legislature when California became part of the United States but went broke and lost Los Alamitos when he couldn't afford to pay about $150 worth of taxes.

In 1846 war was finally declared between the United States and Mexico. Governor Pio Pico who had established Los Angeles as the capital of California, asked for volunteers but there were few that were still loyal to Mexico. Although victory would be short, Commodore Robert F. Stockton successfully led a force into the city and proclaimed California a territory of the United States. Within that year, General Jose Flores retook Los Angeles for Mexico. After the battle of La Mesa in 1847 that took place near what is now Vermont Boulevard, a local peace treaty was signed at an adobe on the site of what is today Lankershim Boulevard and directly across from the entrance to Universal City Tours and Amusement Park. The final peace treaty between Mexico and the United States is the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo and was signed later.

The 1850's

Los Angeles was broke. The Americans decided to sell some land to build up the public treasures. Once the land was surveyed, lots were sold for between $50 and $200. In 1850 California becomes the thirty-first state of the Union. The first wooden house is built. The city begins being built brick by brick. Brick replaced adobe making multistoried construction possible for the first time. A major effort to teach the citizens began in 1855 with a real schoolhouse on the corner of Spring and Second Streets. The Star noted a discrepancy: "There are now 1,191 children between the ages of four and eighteen in Los Angeles, El Monte, and San Gabriel school districts; yet not more than 150 in all attend school." The citizens were still primarily interested in raising cattle. Schools didn't receive much in the way of public funding until 1860 when the state allocated $2,500 for education in Los Angeles County.

· 1867 - There were 136 gas lamps serving a city of 12,000; the city council passed a law prohibiting all citizens-except law officers and travelers-from carrying guns, knives, swords, or even slingshots. The public refused to obey.
· 1868 - Two banks opened.
· 1882 - Attorney Eddy Feldman's 1972 history The Art of Street Lighting in Los Angeles cites the original electrical contract as a promise that "all of the streets and sidewalks…now lighted by gas shall be lighted up equally as well if not better by said electric lights…and all of said space shall be as light if not lighter than now lighted." That same year, the telephone was introduced to Los Angeles.
· 1886 - The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific were in heated competition to see which one would could carry the most people to California. Within a decade the population had jumped to 55,00, four times the amount in 1880. We were having a population explosion and along with it a business boom.
· 1899 - The automobile arrives.
· 1900 - At the turn of the century Los Angeles has 102,000 residents.
· 1907 - The first important picture is filmed in California. Due to the cold and cloudy weather in Chicago, Francis Boggs, a motion picture director, came to town to finish filming The Count of Monte Cristo. He came in search of sunshine because the scenes had to be shot outside and the weather was a necessity. He was forced to leave his crew behind and had to shoot the film with one actor in Chicago and one in Los Angeles.
· 1919 - To promote community spirit, patriotism, "beautiful creations, and productions of every sort" and as a place to perform "the finest forms of the arts and crafts and individual talents" the Hollywood Bowl was built and its first performance occurred on or about August 10th under the direction of Leopold Godowsky, Jr. H. Ellis Reed was delegated to find the site and with his father, William, he tromped over an area known as daisy dell in Caheunga Pass. The two Reeds shouted at each other from hilltop to hilltop and discovered superb acoustics in the natural amphitheater. My very own grandfather, Cantor Carl Urstein performed at the Hollywood Bowl along with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and other stars of the era.

An advertisement in a L.A. newspaper, c.1903

· 1923 - Bel Air, a new sub-division was the brain child of Alphonso Bell; big lots, bigger than in the flatlands of Beverly Hills; lush landscaping, more luxurious than other areas. It was a time of a land rush and Bel Air would become the most exclusive area in all of Los Angeles. Architect Mark Daniels planned most of the area in the 20's. The winding streets were named with more than a hint of Old World charm and romance: Perugia, Chalon, Stradella, Siena, Gates were built to assure privacy and prestige.
· 1923 - Stop signs first appeared.
· 1930 - While the rest of nation suffered inexplicably, Beverly Hills was bragging about its growth and prosperity. Within this decade, Beverly Hills boasted a population increase of 2,487 percent. It was an American record which couldn't be proven otherwise. On a day when Franklin Roosevelt declared a bank holiday for financial institutions that couldn't pay their depositors in the midst of an economic collapse, Beverly Hills boasted a bank that stayed open. Beverly Hills is still today, one of the richest little cities in the United States.
· 1931 - Traffic lights are introduced.
· 1979 - It snows in Palm Springs, California.

Above: In 1912 a trackless trolley began running on Laurel Canyon Road as part of a real estate development plan. Left: Too many aspiring actors were arriving in Hollywood. In 1921 the Chamber of Commerce took out this ad to discourage them! The allure of the city's new industry was so grand they were afraid of being inundated with out-of-work actors. Below: In 1923 the dedication ceremony was held for the Hollywoodland sign atop Mt. Lee.

And the story continues................. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse back in time. It took me back to my childhood days and preparing book reports. I thoroughly enjoyed the process but can't take credit for much besides retyping and copying a lot of great information that I got from a wonderful book which is unfortunately out of print. If you'd like a copy, there's an incredible book store in Santa Monica called Hennessey and Ingalls and they have some in stock!

Los Angeles 200 - A bicentennial Celebration
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York
Text by Art Seidenbaum
Published 1980
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number : 80-10967

Photographs were borrowed from another wonderful book...

Hollywood: The First 100 years
Copyright 1979 by Bruce T. Torrence
Published by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce & Fiske Enterprises
Published November 1979
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 79-91339