I have heard many stories abut the Youth Center’s beginnings in the Los Alamitos area, but never a definitive, documentable explanation. And I suspect, as often happens with institutional histories, many innocent errors have morphed into “truths.” So the point of this article is to try to begin a process to document the real origins … Read more
While not officially incorporated as a city until 1960, Los Alamitos has had a very definite presence since it was first laid out as a sugar factory town in 1896. An early 1897 LA Times article listed the new community as one of the top three towns in Orange County — along with Anaheim and … Read more
The June 11 entry in Chris Jepsen’s OC Historical Roundup blog features one of the classic photos of early Los Alamitos, most likely taken in the late 19 teens or early 1920s. I believe this originally comes from the First American OC History photo archives. You can see why the small western town of Los … Read more
This article was originally published in the Anaheim Historical Society’s January 2010 newsletter. I have been in touch with the author and we have shared much information on Ross Cortese, who developed and built four very distinctive tracts of single-family residential homes, before going on to even more success as the developer of the Leisure … Read more
A valuable tool for any history buff are the the Sanborn Maps. Originally created to assess fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States, the maps are now seen by historians, genealogists, sociologists, preservationists and even city planners as a valuable guide to tracking the growth of a town, state or country. The … Read more
Before Los Alamitos, before Seal Beach (even before Long Beach), there was Anaheim Landing. Now it’s swallowed up by the US Naval Weapons Station, but it was the first major European/non-Native American settlement in the Los Alamitos-Seal Beach area. It got its name because of its use by the merchants and residents of the Anaheim … Read more
Before they were channeled in high concrete walls, the San Gabriel, Los Angeles, Santa Ana Rivers as well as Coyote Creek used to frequently flood during heavy rains. More often than one might think, these rains were enough to cause the rivers to change courses, only to later revert back during another storm. The Santa … Read more
To the left is a late 1896 USGS map showing the lower portion of “the Downey” quadrangle, the upper portion of the Bolsa quadrangle and the west portion of the Anaheim quadrangle, but mainly focusing on Rancho Los Alamitos and the surrounding area. The sugar factory would be constructed later that year but the early … Read more
The young town of Los Alamitos had a reputation as a rough place, and this incident did nothing to change that image. It is culled from the files of The Pacific Rep0rter which summarized the legal cases (including appeals) along the Pacific Coast. 1907, August 25 – Murder in Los Alamitos TAGGART, J. Defendant … Read more
1899-1900 Orange County Directory Belt Fine Publishing, Santa Ana — $2.00 March 1899 [p.153] LOS ALAMITOS Is located on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad some 14 miles northwest of Santa Ana. It is the heart of the sugar beet section and the Los Alamitos Sugar Beet factory is located there. This establishment alone distributes … Read more