The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west, and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern part of Los Angeles County. Surrounding landforms and other features include:
the San Gabriel Mountains to the north the Crescenta Valley to the northwest the San Rafael Hills to the west the Repetto Hills to the southwest, with the Los Angeles Basin beyond the Puente Hills to the southeast, with the coastal plain of Orange County beyond; the Chino Hills and San Jose Hills to the east, with the Pomona Valley and Inland Empire beyond
The San Gabriel Valley derives its name from the San Gabriel River that flows southward through the center of the valley, which itself was named for the Spanish Mission San Gabriel Arcángel originally built in the Whittier Narrows in 1771.
Once predominantly agricultural, the San Gabriel Valley today is almost entirely urbanized and is an integral part of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country. Covering about in area, the valley includes 31 cities and five unincorporated communities. It is located entirely within Los Angeles County.
Pasadena is the largest city in the San Gabriel Valley. It was incorporated in 1886, making it the fourth city in Los Angeles County, following Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and Anaheim. The latter two are both now located in Orange County, which broke off from LA County in 1889. More recently, statewide droughts have further strained the San Gabriel Valley's and Los Angeles County's water security.
Cities and communities
The incorporated cities and unincorporated neighborhoods of the San Gabriel Valley include:
Alhambra Altadena Arcadia Avocado Heights Azusa Baldwin Park Bassett Bradbury Claremont Charter Oak Citrus City of Industry Covina Diamond Bar Duarte East Pasadena East San Gabriel El Monte Glendora Hacienda Heights Irwindale La Cañada Flintridge La Puente La Verne Mayflower Village Monrovia Montebello (northern portion) Monterey Park North El Monte Pasadena Pomona Ramona Rosemead Rowland Heights Rose Hills San Dimas San Gabriel San Marino San Pasqual Sierra Madre South El Monte South Pasadena South San Gabriel South San Jose Hills Temple City Valinda Vincent Walnut West Covina West Puente Valley
Whittier, like Montebello, is considered a part of the Gateway Cities region. An unincorporated portion of Whittier, Rose Hills, sits below the Puente Hills. While Montebello is considered to be part of the Gateway Cities region, the northern portion of Montebello is part of the San Gabriel Valley.
Claremont, La Verne, and Pomona are adjacent to the San Gabriel Valley, and though they are properly considered part of the Pomona Valley, they are also commonly considered part of the San Gabriel Valley. The 57 Freeway (Orange Freeway) is generally considered the dividing line between the Pomona and San Gabriel valleys. However, for statistical and economic development purposes, the County of Los Angeles generally includes these three cities as part of the San Gabriel Valley. The community of El Sereno, in the city of Los Angeles, is situated at the westernmost edge of the Valley. Unofficial estimates place the combined population of the San Gabriel Valley at around 2 million—roughly a fifth of the population of Los Angeles County.
Early history
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the land along the Rio Hondo River, a branch of the San Gabriel River, was populated by the Tongva people. The Tongva occupied much of the Los Angeles basin and the islands of Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, San Clemente, and Santa Barbara. In the northern part of the valley were the Hahanog-na Indian tribe, a branch of the Tongva Nation (part of the Shoshone language group) who lived in villages scattered along the Arroyo Seco and the canyons from the mountains down to the South Pasadena area. In 1542, when the explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived off the shores of San Pedro and Santa Catalina. The Tongva were the people who rowed the remarkable Ti'ats (plank canoes) out to meet Cabrillo. The language of the Tongva was different from the neighboring Indian tribes and it was called Gabrielino by the Spanish. The Tongva also provide the origin of many current names; Piwongna – Pomona, Cucomog-na – Cucamonga. The Gabrielinos lived in dome-like structures with thatched exteriors. Both sexes wore long hair styles and tattooed their bodies. During warm weather the men wore little clothing, but the women would wear minimal skirts made of animal hides. During the cold weather they would wear animal skin capes. European diseases killed many of the Tongva and by 1870 the area had few remaining native inhabitants. Today, several bands of Tongva people live in the Los Angeles area.
The first Europeans to see inland areas of California were the members of the 1769 Portolà expedition, which traveled north by land after establishing the first Spanish settlement in today's state of California at San Diego. On July 30, the expedition crossed the San Gabriel River and continued north toward what is now the city of Los Angeles. To cross the river, the expedition built a rough bridge, which gave the name La Puente to today's San Gabriel Valley city, and hills to the south are called the Puente Hills. A few years later, a mission was established near the river crossing.
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel was founded by Franciscan Father Junipero Serra, first head of the Spanish missions in California, on September 8, 1771. Its original location, called Mission Vieja, was near where San Gabriel Boulevard now crosses the Rio Hondo, which is also near the present day Juan Matias Sanchez Adobe. Angel Somera and Pedro Cambon were the first missionary priests at the new mission, which marked the beginning of the Los Angeles region's settlement by Spaniards. The San Gabriel mission was the third of twenty-one missions that would ultimately be established along California's El Camino Real.
The San Gabriel mission did well in establishing cattle ranching and farming, but six years after its founding a destructive flood led the mission fathers to relocate the establishment to its current location farther north in present-day city of San Gabriel. The original mission site is now marked by a California Historical Landmark.
During the early years of the mission, the region operated under a Rancho system. The lands which now compose the city of Montebello were originally parts of Rancho San Antonio, Rancho La Merced, and Rancho Paso de Bartolo. The Juan Matias Sanchez Adobe, built in 1844, remains standing at the center of old Rancho La Merced in Eastern Montebello in the La Merced area. Recently restored, it is the city's oldest structure.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel served a central role in Spanish colonial society, with many of the area's first Mexican settlers being baptized at the mission, including Pio Pico, who was born and baptized at the mission in 1801. He became governor of California twice, in 1832 and in 1845 and the city of Pico Rivera was named honoring him as the last Mexican governor of California.
The Battle of Rio San Gabriel took place in Montebello on January 8, 1847, on the banks of the Rio Hondo. This battle gave the control of Los Angeles and Alta California to the United States and was a decisive battle in the Mexican-American War. Two days later, after several battle losses and defeats, Mexico was forced to cede Alta California to the United States. By 1852, after USA occupation, San Gabriel became one of the first townships in the County of Los Angeles. Today the battle site is California State Historical Landmark #385, and there are two old cannon and a plaque commemorating the battle overlooking the river on Bluff Rd. and Washington Blvd.*
In 1853, with a contingent of Army Engineers passing through searching for the best route to build a railroad, Geologist William P. Blake observed that the once-extensive vineyards were falling to decay, with fences broken down and animals roaming freely through it. However, the mission church was still in use. Blake predicted, "I believe that when the adaptation of that portion of California to the culture of the grape and the manufacture of wine becomes known and appreciated, the state will become celebrated not only for its gold and grain, but for it fruits and wines.
Following the U.S. Civil War, some 5,000 acres (20 km2) of the East Los Angeles region were owned by an Italian settler from Genoa, Alessandro Repetto. After Repetto's death in 1885, his brother sold his rancho to a consortium of five Los Angeles businessmen including banker Isaias Hellman and wholesale grocer/historian Harris Newmark for $60,000, about $12 an acre.
Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and South Asian pioneers and settlers first came to the San Gabriel Valley in the mid-19th century. These emigrants worked the fields, picked the grapes and citrus fruit, and built part of the infrastructure of today's San Gabriel Valley. In the 1920s Japanese immigrants arrived in Monterey Park to work as farmhands.
The discovery of oil by Standard Oil Company in the Montebello hills in 1917 brought about a revolutionary change to the locality. The agricultural hills soon became a major contributor to oil production. By 1920, the San Gabriel Valley's oil fields were producing one-eighth of California's crude oil. For several decades, the hills were dotted with active oil wells.
The cities of Whittier, Covina, and Pasadena were formerly the sites of the citrus industry. In addition, the oil, dairy, and cattle industries used to flourish in the southern part of the region. Many equestrian trails in the San Gabriel Valley — specifically, those in Covina and Walnut — have disappeared or fallen into disuse. The remaining rural areas include the land between eastern West Covina and Cal Poly Pomona and in Walnut, Diamond Bar, and La Puente.
Demographics and ethnic diversity
The total population of the San Gabriel Valley in the 2000 Census was 1,510,378 people, of which 1,425,596 were living in the 30 incorporated cities. The average size of a household in the San Gabriel Valley according to the 2000 Census was 3.28 persons compared with 2.98 persons for Los Angeles County as a whole. Eight cities in the Valley have average household sizes of over four persons, while an unincorporated area, the South San Jose Hills, was at a significant 5.07 persons per household. (Most addresses do not use South San Jose Hills as the city but use La Puente, West Covina, or Valinda.) At the other end of this scale is Sierra Madre, at 2.20 persons per household.
The age distribution in the San Gabriel Valley was a little unusual when compared with the county. A larger share of the population was aged 10–19, 15.5% versus 14.8% for the county. Also, the Valley had a higher share of people over 45 years of age. The income ranges in the San Gabriel Valley area are also quite wide. The highest median household income was found in San Marino ($117,267), followed by Bradbury ($100,454). At the other end of the scale was El Monte with a median household income of $32,439. Four other cities in the Valley had household incomes of less than $40,000.San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California – 2006 Economic Overview & Forecast, 11/05.
Significant percentages of all major ethnic groups reside in San Gabriel Valley communities, and the area is in general one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country. The largest groups residing in the San Gabriel Valley are those of Hispanic and Asian-American origin. The communities of Glendora, La Verne, Claremont, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Pasadena, South Pasadena, and San Dimas have significant White populations.