Torrance, California

History

Torrance was originally part of the Tongva Native American homeland for thousands of years. In 1784 the Spanish land grant for Rancho San Pedro, in the upper Las Californias Province of New Spain and encompassing present day Torrance, was issued to Juan Jose Dominguez by King Carlos III--the Spanish Empire. It was later divided in 1846 with Governor Pío Pico granting Rancho de los Palos Verdes to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda, in the Alta California territory of independent Mexico.

In the early 1900s, real estate developer Jared Sidney Torrance and other investors saw the value of creating a mixed industrial-residential community south of Los Angeles. They purchased part of an old Spanish land grant and hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to design a new planned community. The resulting town was founded in October 1912 and named after Torrance. The city of Torrance was formally incorporated in May 1921. The first residential avenue created in Torrance was Gramercy and the second avenue was Andreo. Many of the houses on these avenues turned 100 years of age in 2012. Both avenues are located in the area referred to as Old Town Torrance. This section of Torrance is under review to be classified as a historical district. Some of the early civic and residential buildings were designed by the renowned and innovative Southern California architect Irving Gill, in his distinctive combining of Mission Revival and early Modernist architecture.

Historically the El Nido neighborhood was home to many European immigrants, such as originally Dutch, German, Greek, Italian and Portuguese people; soon joined by Mexican-American and Hispanic and Latino immigrants; employed in the growing early 20th century agriculture, petroleum, and manufacturing industries, such as the fish canneries.[citation needed]

Rapid new growth in Torrance began after World War II as wartime industries transformed into Post-war Aerospace manufacturers and related technology industries. Large housing developments were built in the 1950s and 1960s to accommodate the new population. Torrance moved on after the closure of some aerospace development and oil refinery plants in the 1990s statewide recession.[citation needed]

Torrance survived the deindustrialization, regional economic slowdowns and national recessions in the 1970s to 2000s. Large-scale Asian immigration in the past couple of decades has transformed Torrance into a diverse and multicultural city.

According to Forbes, Torrance, along with Glendale, CA, San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA, and Fullerton, CA were all named 'Cities With The Worst Drivers 2012'.