History of Community

The Organization                              By Margrit Kendrick

When Corporal Manuel Nieto retired from the army of the King of Spain in 1784, Governor Pedro Gages granted him the use of a huge parcel land extending from the foothills above Whittier to the ocean. After grazing cattle on this broad expanse of the coastal plain for many years, the vast rancho was divided among Nieto’s children. Ranch Los Alamitos, a portion of the original grant containing about 28,000 acres, was deeded to Nieto’s son Juan Jose Nieto. The adobe ranch house built by Juan Jose in 1806 became the core of the Rancho Los Alamitos headquarters and home site, which has become a museum and historical site within the boundaries of the city of Long Beach.

In 1834 Governor Jose Figueroa acquired title to Rancho Los Alamitos for $500. Eight years later he sold it to Abel Stearns for $6,000, paid mostly with tallow and hides from the rancho’s cattle. Stearns, a native of Massachusetts, had arrived in Los Angeles area several years before and had established himself as a successful trader and shop keeper. In order to own land in California, Stearns became a Mexican citizen and joined the Catholic Church. He married the much younger Arcadia Bandini, daughter of one of Southern California’s most influential families.

During the next twenty-one years, Abel Stearns became one of the wealthiest landowners in California, having acquired many ranchos from their debt-ridden owners. During a prolonged drought in 1863-64, many of Stearns’ cattle died, forcing him to default on a $20,000 mortgage owed to Michael Reese, a money lender from San Francisco. Reese assumed ownership of Rancho Los Alamitos, but from 1866 until 1878 Rancho Los Alamitos lay fallow, until leased by John W. Bixby. In 1881, John Bixby, jointly with I.W. Hellman and the J. Bixby Company, bought Rancho Los Alamitos. After the death of Bixby in 1887, the rancho was divided among the partners and his widow.

In 1896, William Clark, a copper magnate from Montana and later a U.S. senator, founded the Los Alamitos Sugar Company. He purchased 8,139 acres of rancho land and leased an additional twenty square miles, extending from Bellflower to Seal Beach and from Signal Hill to Stanton, for growing sugar beets to support the factory. Opening on July 19, 1897, this sugar factory was the first of its kind in Orange County. The Bixby Land Company laid out the town of Los Alamitos as support for the factory. In later years, the factory built worker housing and s splendid clubhouse for social and recreational activities on Myrtle Street, now Los Alamitos Boulevard. Other street names from the old town site have also been changed. Main Street is now Reagan Street, named for the owner of an early water company.

In 1897 a non-denominational church and a post office were added to the town. A rail line, coming from Anaheim, served the sugar factory as well as the townspeople and provided the town with access to the outside world. Passenger service on this line continued until 1925. In early 1997, after 100 years of freight service, the line was discontinued.

Los Alamitos Sugar Company employed up to 400 workers per season. Most were of Mexican descent. Many of the tenant sugar beet farmers were Flemish, French, and Dutch. Coyote Creek was diverted to irrigate the nearby fields, but most of the land was dry farmed, depending on rainfall for watering. In 1911 the factory processed 180 million pounds of sugar beets.

Main Street provided entertainment for the many young and unattached seasonal workers. Two hotels, pool halls, bars, and a bawdy night life gave Los Alamitos a reputation of being like a frontier town of the old west. Contemporary newspapers report frequent shooting and stabbings. In 1919 a film, “Bond of Blood” starring Al Jennings, was filmed on Main Street. Chosen because Los Alamitos was the only town around with unpaved roads and no sidewalks, this location provided the authentic “Old West” look.

In 1923, on land donated by the Bixby Land Company, the Mexican community organized and built St Isidore Catholic Church, named after the patron saint of farmers and workers. During the Long Beach earthquake of 1933, the brick church sustained heavy damage. St Isidore’s was rebuilt by its community and masses continued to be celebrated in Spanish until its closure. The future of St. Isidore’s remains undecided for a number of reasons, including the need to retrofit the building for earthquake safety.

The sugar beets crops ended and the factory closed in 1926 because of an area-wide nematode infestation of the sugar beets in the early 1920s. The nearby oil boom and more people moving to southern California looking for housing caused land values to escalate. From 1932 to 1942 the factory was leased to the Dr. Ross Company for the manufacture of Dr. Ross Dog and Cat Food. Considerable damage was suffered by the building in the 1933 earthquake, but it continued in operation. In 1946, the Los Alamitos Sugar Company sold the factory, and in 1960 all but two buildings were torn down. The machine shop survived until 1977, when it was demolished to make way for s self-storage company. The sugar warehouse is the last building from the original complex still standing, albeit with an updated exterior.

In 1941, the Naval Air Station moved from Terminal Island, Long Beach, to Los Alamitos, where it was granted a 1, 300-acre tract and commissioned in 1942. Here the U.S. Navy, as well as pilots from Australia, where trained in naval air-war tactics. In 1973 the station was designated as an Armed Forces Reserve Center, with the Navy continuing as host until 1977 when the California National Guard assumed this role, making the Center home for units of the Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force personnel in the area. The Center, now known as the Joint Forces Training Base, is also designates as the disaster relief area for Southern California.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, several roads were developed giving Los Alamitos access to neighboring communities. Katella Avenue was finally connected to Willow Street in Long Beach, making it a major east-west thoroughfare. Now, the city is strategically located at the junction of three freeways, the 605, 405, and the 22, with two other freeways close by.

Los Alamitos Racetrack, named after the rancho, was included in the territory which was incorporated as Dairy City in 1956, but the city’s name was soon changed to Cypress. Consideration had been given to including the track within Los Alamitos, but the owner, Frank Vessels Sr., had been at odds with Los Alamitos after a dispute over the location of a proposed cemetery within the city limits. As Vessels chose to have a racetrack within the boundaries of Cypress.

Ross Cortese, a far-sighted developer, started a housing tract called Rossmoor within the Los Alamitos area in 1956. with 3,500 residences, Rossmoor was the largest planned community built in Orange County at that time. Although closely associated with Los Alamitos and sharing the post office as its city address name, Rossmoor has remained an unincorporated area in the county.

During the 1940s until incorporation in 1960, the Chamber of Commerce acted as the quasi town government. From the mid-1950s on, Chamber minutes reflect the interest of its members to incorporate the city. This was accomplished on March 1, 1960, with a population of 4,312.

Laurel School District had been formed in 1881, encompassing the area which included Los Alamitos. However, after the formation of Orange County in 1889, it seems to have disappeared from the annals. When a school was needed for the new town of Los Alamitos in 1897, it was named Laurel School for this early district. Laurel provided first through eighth grades. High School students attended schools in Anaheim or Santa Ana. In 1953, the name of the district was changed to Los Alamitos School District. Over the years, several different school buildings stood at the corner of Katella and Los Alamitos Boulevard. This first school site, on a busy thoroughfare, was sold for a commercial development known as “Los Alamitos Plaza” as schools were built elsewhere. By 1971 the district had expanded to seven elementary schools.

In 1979, voters approve unification of the K-12 grades along the existing elementary school district boundaries, and in 1983 Seal Beach joined the Los Alamitos District. Orange County High School of the Arts, a school within a school, opened its doors on September 10, 1987, at Los Alamitos High School. This special arts school was relocated to Santa Ana in 2000.

Los Alamitos is noted for other special facilities. In December 1987, the first center in the nation for the care of Alzheimer’s disease patients opened its doors here.

With a highly diversified economic base, consisting of light industry, manufacturing, commercial businesses, as well as numerous restaurants, Los Alamitos is a city that operated debt free, is well administered, and has preserved much of the original small town image. A 1980 Coro Foundation Report called it a “jewel of a city.”

Many of the original settlers’ descendants still live in Los Alamitos and are active in the community. Some can trace their ancestors in Los Alamitos for five generations. From these families came many of the historical artifacts colleted for the Los Alamitos Museum, located in a building which originally housed the volunteer fire department. The Museum features a Hall of Fame and included displays honoring local residents who have received national and/or international recognition in sports and other fields of endeavor.

The history of Los Alamitos from its rancho days through the sugar beets industry period, to the modern city that it is today with a population of about 12,000, parallels and has been a part of the exciting first 115 years of Orange County. The community, named long ago for the trees which grew along the banks of the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek, is truly a good place to live and work.

ROSSMOOR

The Rossmoor Community shares the same postal address with Los Alamitos and is a community of about 11,500 inhabitants. It was started in the mid fifties and was the largest development yet in Orange County. The community has since that time resisted incorporation and or annexations for several times and is still an unincorporated portion of Orange County. The first residents moved to Rossmoor in 1957 and the last new residents came in 1962 when the more than 3500 homes were completed. The community has kept its well-cared look and most of the homes have been remodeled or added on. Four of the Los Alamitos Unified School District’s elementary schools are located in Rossmoor.