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- Do you have any information on Leland Weaver, the man after whom the library is named?
- Do you have any information on the history of South Gate?
- Do you have any information on the history of Hollydale?
- What Indians lived in this area?
- Do you have any information about agriculture in early South Gate?
- Do you have any information on Glenn Seaborg, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist?
- What role has industry played in the development of South Gate?
1. Do you have any information on Leland Weaver, the man after whom the library is named?
Leland Weaver, the owner of an insurance company and later a travel service,
devoted much of his life to civic service and the betterment of South Gate.
Born in Gardena in 1900, Weaver lived in South Gate for 52 years. During that
time, he served for 24 years on the city council and as mayor from 1950-52,
1958-59, and 1962-63. But his contributions to South Gate went beyond holding
public office. He helped establish a city swimming pool, a municipal
auditorium, a girls' clubhouse, tennis courts, and an art gallery. His
commitment to the youth of his community also led him to active involvement
with the Boy Scouts. Willing to give freely of his time, he served on cultural
arts, beautification, and memorial fountain committees, as a member of the
board of directors of the Salvation Army, and on the Metropolitan Recreation
and Youth Services Council. He was also the first chairman of South Gate's
parks and recreation commission. A member of a multitude of other civic
organizations as well, Weaver received numerous honors and awards from his
community. He died in 1972.
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Print Sources:
- Thienes, Tom. Contributions toward the History of the City of South Gate, California. 1942.
Images:
- Leland R. Weaver at his desk, c. 1960s
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Leland R. Weaver at age six, c. 1906
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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2. Do you have any information on the history of South Gate?
In 1810, when the Spanish were gaining a sturdy foothold in Southern
California, the King of Spain awarded Don Antonio Maria Lugo, the son of a
prominent settler, a "vast acreage" (about 29,500 acres of land) which became
known as Rancho San Antonio. A powerful rancher with a "magnificent hacienda,"
Lugo not only owned many horses and cattle, but helped to govern the area.
After 1850, his land was divided among eight sons and daughters, with portions
eventually falling into other hands, including those of the Tweedy family which
was to lend its name to a prominent South Gate street. In the late nineteenth
century, dairy farms began to dot the countryside, with vegetable farms and
orchards springing up alongside. Michael Cudahy, a meatpacker from Chicago,
purchased several thousand acres in 1893 but died before he could introduce
the pedigreed cattle and thoroughbred horses he intended to breed there.
Following his death, the Cudahy Ranch Company was born.
By 1917, the Cudahy Ranch Company had evolved into the Southern Extension
Company and was advertising plots of lands for sale in a new community it was
calling South Gate Gardens. Paved streets, water mains, and gas lines followed
the construction of new homes, a business district was established nearby, and
in 1923 community leaders convinced the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
to incorporate South Gate as a city‹population: 500. During the Great
Depression, the city experienced severe financial difficulties brought on in
part by unwise spending decisions. In 1933, moreover, an earthquake measuring
6.3 on the Richter Scale damaged schools, businesses, and homes in South Gate
and killed five people. Despite these hardships, the city persevered, working
its way out of financial trouble and rebuilding. An industrial base begun in
the early 1920s grew and flourished during the 1940s in response to the demands
of World War II. The influx of war workers and returning veterans sparked a
postwar housing boom. In the years that followed, new inhabitants of diverse
backgrounds arrived, working with the community's changing industries to
continue to shape the city's economy. For more information on the history of
South Gate, see the following source:
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Website Links:
Print Sources:
- Thienes, Tom. Contributions toward the History of the City of South Gate, California. 1942.
- The Historical volume and reference works: Los Angeles County, vol. 4. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
- South Gate Bicentennial Committee. South Gate, 1776-1976. South Gate, CA: South Gate Press, 1976.
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Images:
- Front of the South Gate High School, 1934. Printed in the South Gate High School yearbook, the 'Rambleback.'
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Article on South Gate development in the 'Southgate Gardener', 1919
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Front page of the 'South Gate Gardener' anniversary issue, 1918
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Poem proclaiming virtues of South Gate, 1938
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Ozenne bungalow in Southgate Gardens, 1918
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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3. Do you have any information on the history of Hollydale?
Like South Gate as a whole, the Hollydale area began as a planned community,
with a development company laying streets and sidewalk and constructing a
handful of homes in the early 1920s. Factories quickly sprang up near the
railroad tracks traversing the area, and a few shops and a post office soon
made up a serviceable downtown. The onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s
ended development for nearly a decade, leaving the scattered residents already
installed in their homes as the town's only inhabitants. Under the
federally-mandated Works Progress Administration, empty land between houses
was rapidly covered with green cornstalks and leafy tomato and potato plants.
During these years, the harsh economic conditions prevented some landowners
from paying taxes on their property and other buyers soon stepped in, sometimes
purchasing plots simply by paying back taxes. A building boom ensued and when
World War II hit, new neighbors had joined the Hollydale community. The global
conflict had an immediate impact on Hollydale's citizens as the town's
factories got busy manufacturing materials for the war effort. Hollydale even
had an anti-aircraft gun stationed near the railroad tracks behind a knitting
mill that had begun producing aircraft parts. In the years that followed, the
community continued to mature and grow. Forty years after World War II ended,
Hollydale was home to approximately 5,000 people. Having been annexed by
South Gate early in its history, Hollydale has not always been completely
satisfied with its status and has not lost sight of its unique identity, with
some residents agitating for independence as recently as the mid 1980s.
Nevertheless, at the dawn of the twenty-first century Hollydale remains an
important part of South Gate.
Images:
- Cover of a brochure extolling the advantages of
Holldydale, c. 1929. Features a drawing of a residence with industrial
smokestacks in the background.
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Map of South Gate showing Hollydale subdivision in lower right corner, 1972
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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4. What Indians lived in this area?
Native Americans who lived in the Los Angeles area spoke a language distinct
from their neighbors to the North and South of them. They have come to be
known as Gabrielinos, because many of those who survived European diseases
and the disruption of their normal trade patterns and culture went to the
Mission San Gabriel, some voluntarily, others only when confronted by force.
The Gabrielino lived in domed, circular structures with thatched exteriors.
Both men and women wore their hair long and used a vegetable charcoal dye and
thorns of flint slivers to tattoo their bodies. They required very few
clothes, though women usually donned deerskin or bark aprons, and all might
wear animal skin capes in cold or wet weather. Like most California Indians,
the Gabrielino of the South Gate area ate roots and berries, rabbits, antelope,
squirrels, crows, and other birds.
The first European to visit the future home of South Gate discovered many
Indian villages between the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel mountains. Two
villages, probably known as Tibahag-Na and Ahau, are thought to have been
located within the boundaries of the present community. Passing through during
the mid 1700s as part of Spaniard Gaspar de Portola's famous expedition from
San Diego to Monterey, Padre Juan Crespi observed that the Indians in the area
were very friendly. Nevertheless, during the late 1700s and early 1800s, after
dominating the Los Angeles basin area for hundreds of years, those Gabrielino
who did not flee were gradually moved to Spanish missions. Many became
laborers for local landowners. Most eventually adopted a new, more European
lifestyle. By the twentieth century, few traces of Gabrielino culture
remained.
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press; Novato, CA: Ballena Press, 1996.
- The Historical volume and reference works: Los Angeles County, vol. 4. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
- South Gate Bicentennial Committee. South Gate, 1776-1976. South Gate, CA: South Gate Press, 1976.
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5. Do you have any information about agriculture in early South Gate?
In the 1800s, cattle ranchers occupied the land which was to become South Gate.
In the latter part of the century, sheep grazing, dairies, and farming became
common. An 1880 study reported that the key crops grown in the area included
alfalfa, barley, beets, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins. This
agricultural focus would continue into the early twentieth century. When in
1917 developers first sold tracts of land in the new South Gate Gardens, their
advertisement talked of the many apple orchards in the vicinity, and
prospective landowners who ventured out to view available tracts found broad
expanses of cauliflower fields. Eventually these farms conceded nearly all of
their territory to the new cities of Los Angeles County. [SOURCES: "South Gate
1776-1976;" "South Gate Police Annual 1927"]
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- Thienes, Tom. Contributions toward the History of the City of South Gate, California. 1942.
- The Historical volume and reference works: Los Angeles County, vol. 4. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
- South Gate Bicentennial Committee. South Gate, 1776-1976. South Gate, CA: South Gate Press, 1976.
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6. Do you have any information on Glenn Seaborg, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist?
What was his connection to South Gate? Although Glenn Seaborg spent his
earliest years in Michigan, in 1922, when he was ten, his family moved to
Home Gardens‹a community later annexed to South Gate‹where he completed
grammar school. Seaborg went on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University
of California at Berkeley and immediately thereafter joined the university's
faculty. Just three years later, in 1940, Seaborg discovered a new radioactive
element, plutonium. His work led the U.S. government to call upon him for
assistance during World War II. As part of the Manhattan Project, he developed
a process that enabled the U.S. to produce a quantity of plutonium sufficient
for an atomic bomb which was later used to bomb the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
In 1951, he earned a Nobel Prize for his discovery of plutonium. In his work
at Berkeley, Seaborg participated in the discovery of a total of 10 elements
and more than 100 isotopes of existing elements. A man with a busy and varied
career, Seaborg also served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission,
chancellor of UC-Berkeley, a founding father of the Pacific 10 athletic
conference, and an activist in support of a number of causes. In 1994, the
scientific community named a new element seaborgium in his honor. He died in
1999 at the age of 86. [SOURCES: "Chemistry Nobelist Glenn Seaborg Dies," and
Current Biography 1948.]
Website Links:
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7. What role has industry played in the development of South Gate?
Nearly from the city's creation, industry was part of South Gate, with early
real estate literature emphasizing the industrial advantages of the area. The
city's founders recognized that for a city to grow, it needed jobs for present
and future citizens, and industry represented jobs. Just a few years after
developers sold the first plot of land, South Gate had welcomed a number of
small industries. A.R. Maas Chemical Company, a firm later bought by Stauffer
Chemical Company, opened its doors in 1922. Bell Foundry started operations
in 1923. Firestone Tire and Rubber Company followed, digging up a bean field
to build a new factory that it hoped would facilitate distribution of its
products on the West Coast. Royal Dairy Farms arrived soon after. Attracted
by inexpensive land as well as easy access to light and power, water supplies
and sewers, and major highways, railways, and waterways, Star Roofing Company
(later U.S. Gypsum), General Motors, and the American Concrete and Steel Pipe
Company were among the firms that arrived in the vicinity in the 1930s. By
1940, South Gate boasted more than 35 factories manufacturing chemicals,
furniture, roofing, machinery, and other products. This industrial saturation
meant South Gate was a hive of activity during World War II, filled to the
brim with war workers keeping machinery humming from early in the morning until
late at night, if not twenty-four hours a day. When the war ended, many
workers who had moved to South Gate to keep the factories running decided to
remain. In 1945, South Gate organized a Chamber of Congress which began
promoting the community, luring still more industrial operations to the area.
In 1976, over 400 industries were operating in South Gate. While General
Motors and Firestone eventually left, other firms took their places. The
remaining industries, moreover, continued to play an integral part in the life
of the community.
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- The Historical volume and reference works: Los Angeles County, vol. 4. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
- South Gate Bicentennial Committee. South Gate, 1776-1976. South Gate, CA: South Gate Press, 1976.
Images:
- Advertisement for Aztec Tile produced in South Gate, 1927
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Drawing of National Paper Company factory in South Gate, 1927
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- California Clay Products factory in South Gate, 1927
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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Agoura Hills |
Antelope Valley |
Carson |
Catalina Island |
Claremont |
East Los Angeles
Gardena |
Lakewood |
La Puente Valley |
Pico Rivera |
San Dimas |
San Fernando
San Gabriel |
South Gate |
Willowbrook
