You Are Here-
Think of Hawthorne as being on the edge of a continent. Beneath you, the Pacific Plate chunk of the earth’s crust dives beneath the North American Plate and lifts California up with sometimes disastrous consequences. Within two miles, you can wet your toes in the Pacific Ocean where it fills in the fold.
Southern California is a “desert” in pop culture, but Hawthorne’s climate is actually one of lower-end rainfall, lesser extreme temperatures and constant influence of the ocean, one of the main components of the earth’s climate.
In the most recent geological age, this generated a pattern of environments across the future city of Hawthorne that included Coastal Prairie, Coastal Scrub and vernal pools – areas of grasses combined with wildflowers, areas of densely spaced subshrubs (native sages, buckwheat, sagebrush), ponds where winter rain collected and then dried out during spring. Trees were suppressed by frequent fires (even before human help), but the environments were favorable for many living creatures.
Humans-
Temperate coastal environments are believed to be particularly favorable to humans. Food and other necessities can be taken from the ocean, the shore and the land. Less effort must be spent to protect people from the dangers of the elements. The casual California outdoor lifestyle has ancient roots.
The earliest known Southern Californian was a woman about 25 years old whose remains were preserved in the La Brea Tar Pits about 10,500 to 10,250 years before the present. The European concept of history based on fixed dates and evidence or document-based fact is presently the most common way we tell one another the story of the past, so the following narrative is based on (conscientiously reasoned) speculation until 1492 (AD/ME).
Climate Change – It’s Been Done Before
-50,000 to 17,000 years ago The last Ice Age (Wisconsin Glaciation Period) froze up a lot of water and exposed land between northeastern Siberia and Alaska.
-16,500 years ago People moved east from Siberia to Alaska, Canada, then southward into the last two uninhabited continents.
-13,500 to 13,000 years ago Humans were widespread in North America.
I Love LA!-
-10,500 to 10,250 years ago First sung by La Brea Woman (above).
26 Miles Across the Sea-
-9,000 years ago Archeologists say there is evidence of human habitation on Santa Catalina Island.
-3,500 years ago People from the southern Nevada region moved into Southern California. (They may have gradually displaced a group of predecessors)
Locals-
The people living in Southern California when Europeans first visited are called the Tongva (TONG-vay, as recorded by an ethnologist in 1903). They lived across the LA Basin and through the Channel Islands, an area of about 4,000 square miles. They may have numbered as many as 15,000 persons spread through as many as 100 small villages. [Note that Hawthorne had 88,083 residents in 6.1 square miles at the 2020 census].
They were not one big integrated tribe (as some were elsewhere in America), but structured their society around each settlement. The villages were often located near reliable, year-round sources of water – a practice essential to all peoples who came to inhabit the American Southwest. They spoke at least two different languages, perhaps five, that were unintelligible to people outside their own group. They traversed the basin and the islands to exploit seasonal food and materiel sources and for extensive trading, even beyond the region. They must, at least, have walked through the future Hawthorne.
Fast Forward-
-1492 A Genoese navigator, Christopher Columbus, is hoping he has struck it rich. He had a great idea: a shortcut to the East Indies to load up on luxury items – pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and so on, and express them back to Europe duty free. He shopped his business plan around the big money of Europe for years, and finally, the couple who headed Castile & Aragon decided to back him. Now he has run into the Bahamas and two continents in the way, but he still thinks he’s in the running for Businessman of the Year.
-1493,-94 Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal settle where each gets to claim any undiscovered lands. Portugal gets the “nose” of Brazil; Spain gets anything to the west. Interested more in the discovery, the other European powers ignore this little deal. Spanish adventurers get busy putting together expeditions to the Caribbean islands and the nearby coasts of Central- and South America. Exploration is the goal, but any gold or treasure will be happily shared between conquistadors and Crown.
Surf’s Up!-
-1513 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean on the far side of the Panama Isthmus and claims everything it touches for Spain.
Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind-
-1518, -19 Hernan Cortés lands in Yucatan and forces his way onward toward the Aztec capital.
-1521 He conquers Tenochtitlan and deposes Moctezuma. Mexico and everything north are now New Spain .
The Spanish held themselves responsible to improve the lives of the indigenous peoples to the poorest and most subjugated of the Kingdom. They also saw their duty – in close alliance with the Roman Catholic Church – to induct the indigenous into mandatory worship and obedient service to the “true religion.”
The Spanish found gold and silver in New Spain, useful in the constant competition of the various monarchs for dominance in Europe, but they did not find the pepper that Columbus was looking for. Instead, they were introduced to chilies, the tomato and the potato (ultimately making Del Taco, Shakey’s and McDonald’s possible).
In exchange, the indigenous people eventually got wheat, the horse and, accidentally, a slate of deadly viruses and bacteria to which the Europeans were now substantially immune.
See LA / Get Discovered-
-1542 The Viceroy of New Spain sends Juan Cabrillo, commanding three ships, to the unexplored west coast of America. Perhaps he can find, (1), new “trade” opportunities, (2), the actual way to China, (3), the anticipated sea-route from Hudson’s Bay, Canada, to the west coast.
Cabrillo’s little fleet sails farther north than Europeans have gone before, passing Punta Baja on the peninsula’s coast. They anchor in San Diego Bay, go north to San Pedro Bay – which he calls (fascinatingly) the “Bay of Smokes,” – land on Catalina, where they experience the first cautious meeting between Californians and Europeans, anchor in Santa Monica Bay and visit the Channel Islands.
They continue north with more adventures, more meetings, until they reach the Russian River (missing the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay, strike one) and are compelled by weather and privation to head back to Mexico. Cabrillo injures his leg, develops gangrene, dies and is one of the first, if not the first, Europeans to take up “permanent residence” in California – on San Miguel Island.
-1565 Having established an outpost at Manila in the previous year, Spanish explorers make the first roundtrip between Acapulco and the Philippines, creating a route for Oriental luxuries exchanged for American silver to get to Mexico via an annual galleon, and then on to Spain.
Cool Britannia-
-1579 Frances Drake, working for Queen Elizabeth I, sails up the California coast looking for a Spanish galleon he can relieve of its treasure. Missing the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay (strike two), he finds Drake’s Bay and heads back to jolly olde England.
-1602 The winds that blow the Manila galleons to the east send them toward Northern California, so the Viceroy of Mexico City sends Sebastian Vizcaino to map the coast and find a good anchorage. Vizcaino chooses Monterey, changes the names of places Cabrillo named, misses the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay (strike three) and heads back to Mexico.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle-
California, a remote and uninteresting part of the Spanish Empire, goes back to sleep for the next 167 years while the Europeans carry on exploiting newly-discovered lands and warring among themselves.
-1607 The London Company founds a British settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, 2,332 miles east of the future Hawthorne.
East Coast Girls Are Hip, I Really Dig Those Styles They Wear-
-1620 The Pilgrims come ashore in Massachusetts thinking they want to govern their own affairs. Other settlers have the same idea, kings disagree. The argument continues for 156 years.
-1633 – 1763 The Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedes get busy on the East Coast, establishing settlements and taking over those of their European neighbors as wars in Europe are exported to the North American continent: King William’s War [War of the League of Augsburg], Queen Anne’s War [War Of the Spanish Succession], England vs Spain [War of Jenkin’s Ear], King George’s War [War of the Austrian Succession], the Seven Year’s War [French & Indian].
-1733 Georgia becomes the thirteenth and last British colony established in America.
-1763 – 1775 As American colonists are spreading westward, the British government is devising taxes, duties and impositions on them for the benefit of Great Britain. The colonists are unhappy, resistant and eventually, rebellious.
-1767 Throughout their Empire in North- and South America, the Spanish have worked in partnership with the Roman Catholic Church to colonize their new territories by sending priests of various orders protected by small units of Spanish soldiers to establish missions+presidios (outposts). Here the surrounding native populations are inducted into Christianity, put to work in agriculture, grazing and simple industry, and introduced to the rudiments of Spanish society and culture (leaving is prohibited). Colonists are recruited to settle nearby in support of some of the missions+presidios. Leaders of the religious orders govern these regions. In this year, the Bourbon King of Spain expels the Jesuits from New Spain in order to gain royal control over their missions.
-1769 The Spanish king, worried by Russian exploration of Alta California, orders the governor of the Californias to develop a chain of missions here. Gaspar de Portola and Fr Junipero Serra establish the first, Mission San Diego de Alcala [San Diego].
-1771 de Portola, Fr Fernandez de la Somera and Fr Cambon found Mission San Gabriel Arcangel alongside the Rio Hondo in the Whittier Narrows [San Gabriel].
-1773 In Massachusetts, Bostonians fed up with oppression from London turn their bay into a big Tea Party.
The Spanish Crown awards five land grants in Southern California.
-1774 Twelve of the American Colonies form the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia to coordinate action against the policies adopted by the British government to punish the Colonists for their resistance.
The Viceroy of New Spain sends an expedition led by Juan de Anza to establish a good land route from Mexico to the newly established missions in Alta California, now including San Francisco, San Jose and Monterey. They travel from what is now Tucson across the Colorado River to San Gabriel, then on to the northern missions and return. They repeat the trip during the next two years.
-1775 Armed Colonists try to prevent the British Army from destroying military stores in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts with some success. The Second Continental Congress is called together in Philadelphia. An army is established; George Washington is appointed commander-in-chief. The Americans confront the British at Bunker Hill. The Americans are routed but the British are bloodied, as well. Both recognize a war has begun.
-1776 The Declaration of Independence
-1777, -78 First France, then Spain enter the war in alliance with the Americans against the British.
-1780 At Yorktown, the British surrender and peace negotiations begin.
Five Roads That Lead to Hawthorne, #1
-1781 The governor of the Californias sends 44 settlers and 4 soldiers to found
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles, a secular village 12 miles west of Mission San Gabriel.
The ratified Articles of Confederation adopt the name “the United States of America” for the new nation.
-1783 The United States and Great Britain sign a peace treaty. The Mississippi River becomes the western boundary of the US.
-1789 The United States Constitution is ratified to replace the inadequate Articles. The British, French, Spanish and others get back to fighting amongst themselves until unrest among the French commoners begins the French Revolution.
-1793 France declares war on Spain.
-1803 The United States buys Louisiana and lands westward to the Rocky Mountains from France, though the boundaries of Florida and further west are disputed with Spain.
-1804 Having gained power through successful military campaigns, Napoleon is declared Emperor of the French.
Lewis and Clark lead a two-year long expedition through the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific coast at the Columbia River and back.
-1807 Napoleon induces the King of Spain and his heir to abdicate. Joseph, Napoleon’s brother, is declared King of Spain.
-1821 The Mexicans proclaim their independence. Alta California is a thinly populated and tax revenue-poor region, ranked as a territory. In 27 years of Mexican possession, it sees 40 governors who make about 455 land grants (commonly called “ranchos”), mainly to government officials, relatives and presidio soldiers.
-1834 – 1836 The missions are secularized, left unsupported, abandoned and ownership of their land is assumed by the government. In 1835, the Mexican Congress declares Los Angeles a city and capital of Alta California. Texans rebel against the Mexican government and, in 1836, establish the Republic of Texas.
-1837 Antonio Avila receives the grant of Rancho Sausal Redondo encompassing the present South Bay from Playa del Rey to Redondo Beach. Neighbor Ygnacio Machado is granted a portion of the area which he had encroached upon, known as Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela, now Inglewood and part of Westchester. Title litigation ensues.
-1845 Los Angeles is the most populous of the four pueblos [3,500] established by the Spanish [the others: San Diego, Santa Cruz, San Jose].
The United States annexes Texas.
-1846 Numerous grievances on each side spark the Mexican – American War. Fearing government reprisal, American settlers bloodlessly seize the garrison in Sonoma and declare the “California Republic” (a 26 day wonder). The US Navy lands sailors and marines at Monterey. With the support of most settlers in the north, the US flag is raised.
-1847 In Southern California, Mexican loyalists oppose American settlers and their allies in several small confrontations: the battles of San Pasqual, Rancho Dominguez, Rio San Gabriel.
-1848 A discovery of gold is made at a sawmill run by John Sutter 60 miles east of Sacramento.
US General Winfield Scott battles through Mexico and captures the capital city. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed. The United States buys California for $15,000,000 and promises to honor all confirmed land titles.
-1849 The Gold Rush begins. Across the Pacific, overland, around the Horn, young men come flooding into California to seek their (phenomenal) fortune – about 86,000 by the end of this year; more than seven times the population prior to the discovery.
The Golden State-
-1850 Congress admits California to the Union: a free [no slavery] state in accordance with the Missouri Compromise.
Nathaniel Hawthorne gets The Scarlet Letter published.
-1855 Land Commissioners confirm Avila the legitimate titleholder to Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela.
-1860 Two years after Avila’s death, most of the Rancho is sold to Sir Robert Burnett, a Scot land entrepreneur.
-1861 After decades of intensifying division, the Southern states secede from the Union, form a Confederacy and initiate the Civil War by bombarding Fort Sumter.
Five Roads That Lead to Hawthorne, #2
-1862 President Abraham Lincoln signs the first of three acts chartering two railroads to build, from opposite ends, a transcontinental railroad line linking St. Louis to San Francisco.
-1865 The Civil War ends in Appomattox, Virginia. President Lincoln is assassinated.
-1868 Burnett acquires the remainder of Rancho Sausal Redondo and combines it with Centinela.
-1869 The Transcontinental Railroad is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah with a Golden Spike.
Five Roads That Lead to Hawthorne, #3
-1873 Catherine, the wife of Canadian-born Daniel Freeman, leases 25,000 acres of Burnett’s land with an option to buy as Burnett returns to Scotland, apparently to assume the baronetcy of Leys. Her husband runs 22,000 sheep on the lease and begins planting vast groves of fruit and nut trees – orange and almond, later to be joined by olive, lemon and lime (some were said to still be growing in mid-20th century Hawthorne).
When the sheep succumb to a drought, Mr. Freeman is the first to succeed in growing a wheat crop in Southern California, and when he turns to barley (an ingredient essential to brewing), he accumulates a fortune.
-1874 Daniel Freeman pursues business opportunities in downtown Los Angeles, building a commercial bloc and an exhibit venue. He makes his first attempt to develop a township on his “ranch,” but is unsuccessful.
-1876 Southern Pacific Railroad links Los Angeles to San Francisco with completion of a line through the Newhall tunnel.
-1880s, 1890s The blocks adjoining Main, Second and Spring Streets grow into the central business district of Los Angeles.
-1884 Ramona, a novel by author and indian-rights advocate Helen Hunt Jackson, is published to great success. Jackson has twice visited Southern California as a Department of Interior agent to investigate poor treatment of Mission indians by settlers and government officials. Though her romantic tale of an orphaned indian girl raised as a daughter by the dueña of a rancho, only to share the persecution of the noble young indian whom she loves and marries, moves federal officials to small improvements in conditions for indigenous people, the story captures greater attention and sentiment for its alluring depiction of vanished rancho days.
Five Roads That Lead to Hawthorne, #4
The increasing number of tourists coming to see Southern California – promoted throughout the rest of the country for its climate, natural wonders and opportunity – is becoming a flood. Many decide to return and take up residence.
-1885 Southern Pacific’s underdog competitor, (Atchison, Topeka &-) Santa Fe Railway connects Los Angeles to Chicago by a southwest route.
Freeman exercises the option to purchase the combined Ranchos Centinela/Redondo.
-1887 A group of investors, including Daniel Freeman, form the Centinela – Inglewood Land Company to sell 11,000 parcels in a development to be named for Freeman’s birthplace in Canada.
The California Central Railway buys Freeman land to build a right-of-way from Los Angeles to Redondo Beach. At this time, Redondo Beach is developing as a seaside resort and a landing where large ships can dock by aid of its near-shore submarine canyon.
To take advantage of railroad access, investment groups begin to buy acreage from Freeman in order to develop townsites. The Hawthorne Land Company is one of them.
-1892 Edward L. Doheny is credited with making the first discovery of oil developed into a producing well in Southern California, in the vicinity of present Echo Park and Dodger Stadium. Soon, discoveries are made across Southern California. By 1923, Southern California is the largest producer of oil in the US and contributes one quarter of the world’s oil production.
Five Roads That Lead to Hawthorne, #5
Interurban Railways. With the Civil War ended, the two coasts joined by rail and the new territories inhabited, young cities begin to grow to greatness. They do it by manpower (including womanpower, of course). Manpower raises the buildings and installs the infrastructure – as we now call it. Manpower collects the materials, makes the products, moves the goods. And men must be moved from their places of rest to their places of work. The automobile will not roll on Los Angeles streets until the next chapter. To get where they need to go, men walk, or ride horses, or ride in horse-drawn buckboards or wagons or carriages. By the 1870s, many small companies work to expedite this travel by covering Southern California with a web of rails. First, the conveyances are horsecars; by the 1880s, cable cars and steam-drawn cars; by 1887, electric streetcars.
In 1898, Henry Huntington and a San Francisco syndicate buy five trolley lines and consolidate them as the Los Angeles Railway Co., known afterwards as “the Yellow Cars.” In 1900, Huntington founds the Pacific Electric Railway, “the Red Cars.” At its peak, it is the largest electrical interurban railway system in the world with far-flung routes connecting Los Angeles with Hollywood, Pasadena, San Pedro, Long Beach, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Ana and Newport Beach. Their routes intersect, ready to move people, in what is about to become the center of Hawthorne.
Little Deuce Coupe-
-1897 The first car is driven on Los Angeles streets. For years, the automobile will remain a novelty for well-heeled visionaries, a long shot for reckless investors or a prestige object for the wealthy. In 1921, just twelve cars are registered in Hawthorne for more than 2,000 people – seven are the car working people can afford: the Ford Model T.
Tasked by Congress, the Army designates San Pedro as the official port of Los Angeles, beating out Redondo Beach and Santa Monica, but cargo is still being landed at-, and shipped from each and rail routes are built connecting each to the others, and all to downtown LA.
-1905 Benjamin L. Harding and Harry Dana Lombard form the Hawthorne Improvement Company and buy 80 acres from the Hawthorne Land Co. to develop as a townsite. The pre-determined name is the preference of Harding’s daughter, Laurine, who shares her day of birth, July 4th, with renowned American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
-1906 The Improvement Company sells the first lot and begins to bring together the necessary improvements and services: cement curbs and sidewalks, graded and oiled roads, abundant piped water and access to a post office, schools, churches, stores and four factories in operation (for employment). Realtors also recommend the affordable lots for truck gardening, fruit raising and especially, poultry raising, since two of the largest poultry ranches in Southern California are nearby. And, there are three electric streetcar stations on the town site.
You Oughta Be in Pictures-
-1910 D. W. Griffith shoots the first movie made in Hollywood.
Come Fly with Me-
-1910 The Los Angeles International Air Meet, the first large air show held in America, is conducted at Dominguez Field, now in Rancho Dominguez. Among the prizes is one for a locally designed- and built aircraft. Over 11 days, more than a quarter million people pay to attend.
-1914 Built by the United States, the Panama Canal is opened, a boon not only to American commerce, but to global trade and travel.
-1914 An Austrian archduke is assassinated on a visit to Serbia, setting off a cascade of war declarations amongst European states, eventually dragging in countries around the world, starting with Austria, Serbia, Germany, Russia, France, Belgium, England, Montenegro, Japan and Turkey.
-1914 The railroad line linking the newly developed [1911] Standard Oil refinery in El Segundo to the Hawthorne terminus and onward, is inaugurated. It is the only track from the original center of Hawthorne to survive into the present day (crossing Hawthorne Blvd between Broadway and the future 126th St.)
-1917 When Germany renews unrestricted submarine warfare on all ships crossing the Atlantic between Great Britain and America, the US enters the war against Germany.
-1918 With US involvement, Germany is defeated. The Treaty of Versailles and several others are signed with long-ranging consequences for established and newly-formed nations around the globe.
An east-side section of Hawthorne Blvd is paved, the first paved street in the town site. At that time, the east and west lanes of the Boulevard were divided by the “Yellow Car” and “Red Car” tracks.
-1918 – 1920 The “Spanish” flu epidemic (which probably originated in Kansas) begins to circle the world. After four successive waves, 500,000 to 850,000 Americans are dead from the virus. The two schools of Hawthorne, Ballona and Hawthorne Grammar are closed for a period to prevent spread of the illness.
Built to last!-
-1920s Hawthorne streets are graded and oiled by the laborers and mule teams of the Oswald Bros. firm. In an ongoing project, teams form curbs and sidewalks, block by block. Mules are kept in a yard at the current site of Northrop Corp.
-2022 The impression of the Oswald Bros. stamp can be seen in some of the still-serviceable sidewalk panels around the city.
Happy Birthday!-
-1921 A movement grows in the community to gain the advantage of incorporating as a city, an election is held and . . .
-July 12, 1922 Hawthorne is incorporated as a city (-“sixth class”).
A Police Department of four officers is established. 12 volunteers are recruited for a fire brigade.
Roaring 20s-
During the 20s, Hawthorne’s population gradually grows to more than 6,000. Businesses and services fill in around a downtown section centered between Hawthorne Blvd’s crossing with Broadway and “the Plaza” – originally the circular park where Acacia Ave joined Broadway.
Hawthorne is briefly a part of an oil boom that sweeps across Southern California from Huntington Beach, through Signal Hill and Torrance, to Inglewood.
Dissenters prompt at least two votes to reverse incorporation.
-1924 The first fire hydrant is installed in the city.
-1926 The Post Office makes the first mail deliveries (mail was previously picked up at the postmaster’s location). The Plaza Theatre opens as a stage venue, soon to be converted to a movie house exhibiting films with the latest innovation – sound! [see 1942 to pinpoint its location].
-1927 The Police- and Fire Departments are combined and the first fire truck is purchased.
Kelly Field, a small privately-owned airfield, bounded by Raymond Ave (120th St), Inglewood Ave, Broadway and (approximately) Felton Ave, is a hint of the city’s future. (Aircraft of the time did not require as much land for runways and equipment as do their 21st century progeny).
Black Friday-
-1929 Hawthorne’s petition to be annexed by Los Angeles is declined by the LA City Council, completely overshadowed by-
A panicked sell-off of shares on the New York Stock Exchange sets off a chain reaction that affects everyone in the world for most of the next decade. Banks fail, people lose their savings, businesses collapse, people lose their jobs, their homes, hope. Unemployment and poverty skyrocket and governments have no resources to cope. The world enters the Depression.
-1932-1933 This period is usually regarded as the lowest point of the Depression, awaiting the newly-elected Congress and Roosevelt administration to create a swarm of programs and projects to assist the people and give them work. Across the country, communities ultimately benefit from these public works, including Hawthorne.
-1932 For a brief interval of optimism, Los Angeles hosts the Olympics.
-1935 By this year, 45% of Hawthorne’s population is on relief and about 3,000 parcels in Hawthorne are in arrears of property tax. The county seizes title to many of these properties, sells them to the State, which transfers them to a public agency that rents them to indigent families for $5 per month.
-1939 After dissolution of his partnership with Donald Douglas in El Segundo, pioneering aviation engineer, John K. “Jack” Northrop decides on Hawthorne as the location for his new factory and corporation. The city agrees to develop an airstrip alongside the site he has purchased on Broadway between Prairie Ave and Crenshaw Blvd. The US Army Corp of Engineers and the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) undertake the runway construction, which is completed in 1942.
-1939 After two decades of treaty negotiations and alliances, the hardships of the Depression and the rebellion of people longing to govern themselves, opposing forms of government, democratic and dictatorial, have come into confrontation. The Germans, the Italians and the Japanese have embarked on military conquests. In Poland, the Germans ignore the British demand to withdraw. The British announce they are at war with Germany and a Second World War begins.
-1940s Witnessing the aggression of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan), the US government starts to change its position from strict neutrality to indirect assistance for the British Commonwealth and France, adversaries of the Axis, and preparation for homeland defense. American industries begin to shift to the production of weapons and war materiel. The numerous aircraft manufacturers in Southern California expand to accommodate this need. Employment booms. People from around the country head to the region to take advantage of the well-paid work on offer. The need for housing booms. In Hawthorne, long-vacant lots sprout foundations, framing and finished residences.
-1941 Los Angeles grows faster than any other major metropolitan area in the country with a population, by 1943, larger than 37 states.
-1941 The Japanese government recognizes the United States as an obstacle to its ambition to control the countries of eastern Asia and the islands of the eastern Pacific. They plan to destroy the US Navy Pacific Fleet at its base in Hawaii, by surprise. In response to their attack, America enters the war against Japan and its partners, Germany and Italy. Large changes come to American life as vast numbers of young men and women enter military service, others go to work in the defense industry and civilians feel the pinch of rationing: gas, tires, meat, sugar, butter, eggs, “fancy” clothing, no new cars, “lead” pennies.
-1942 Somehow in Hawthorne, life carries on: a new fire station is built at 138 Plaza Square (originally Hawthorne Circle, the square at the intersection of Acacia Ave and Lennox Ave, later 126th St, where the Plaza Theatre stood, not to be confused with the Broadway Circle at the center of Acacia Ave and Broadway, first known as “the Plaza,” all demolished about 1969 to clear space for the Hawthorne Plaza mall . . . don’t ask).
-1944 The Hawthorne Police Department moves to a new station at 180 W. 126th St.
-1945 World War II ends with the defeat of Germany in the spring and the capitulation of Japan in the summer. Land development grows to become the principal industry of Southern California.
-The Post-War era Young people returning from military service want to resume their interrupted lives in a more hopeful world. They want good jobs, marriage, families and homes of their own. Business expands and America, undamaged by war, steps up to aid and rebuild many countries, allies and former enemies, wasted by the conflict. Home construction continues in Hawthorne and throughout Southern California.
-1948 A new City Hall is dedicated at 4460 W. 126th St. The Hawthorne Municipal Airport is opened to private citizens. The Soviet Union blocks international passage to Berlin, Germany’s capital, within the sector of the occupied country under Soviet control. The Allies (Britain, France, United States) respond with a massive airlift of supplies for the encircled city. A new era of more subtle conflict – the Cold War – begins.
-1949 The Soviet Union conducts its first successful detonation of an atomic weapon. In the coming years, Civil Defense warning sirens spring up in cities throughout America.
-1950s A feared downturn in the aircraft industry resulting from terminated contracts for warplanes does not occur. A great demand for passenger airplanes is an effect of American prosperity and the government is seeking new military systems to match the new circumstances in world politics that are the consequences of the years of conflict. Los Angeles becomes a major manufacturing center for car assembly (second only to Detroit), tires, furniture and garments. In these years, the last “Yellow Car” from Hawthorne follows its big sister “Red Car” on the track to oblivion.
-1950 The United States dispatches large military forces to the Korean peninsula to oppose the assault on the government by communist Korean and Chinese forces.
Be True to Your School-
-1951 Hawthorne High School, the first in city limits, is opened for freshman and sophomore instruction. The first four-year class is graduated in 1954. Hawthorne secondary students attended venerable Adolph Leuzinger High School in neighboring Lawndale from 1931 and some continue to be educated there.
-1952 While Hawthorne Blvd remains in the jurisdiction of the State, the City takes the initiative to relieve frequent floods and to pave the center median for parking.
-1954 To accommodate the growth [1950 population: 16,316], the Water Department builds four large above-ground reservoirs, each of 1,858,000 gallon capacity.
-1955 Southern California spawns yet another new form of entertainment when Walt Disney opens the first theme park in Anaheim.
-1956 The Eisenhower administration and Congress pass the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway system. Southern California is a major beneficiary.
Space, the Final Frontier-
-1957 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first earth-orbiting satellite.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea-
-1957 The City of Hawthorne Swimming Pool welcomes its first users. Facilities include changing rooms, a large pool for recreational or competitive swimming, a wading pool and a diving pool.
Drop a Pin in It!-
-1958 The Water Department erects the definitive Hawthorne landmark: the 128-foot tall tower emblazoned with the city’s name. It was originally painted International Orange, as required by Federal safety regulations and could be seen for miles by the new jet airliners approaching Los Angeles International Airport.
-1958 As so many have before, the Dodgers recognize the Major League standing of Los Angeles and migrate to the West Coast.
Little Surfer Girl-
-1959 Columbia Pictures releases Gidget, a movie fantasy about surf culture, soon to be recognized as a fundamental part of the South Bay identity.
Barbie, another young lady representing the Southern California lifestyle, is introduced to the public by Hawthorne-incorporated Mattel Toys. Her popular, ever-evolving persona will outlast Mattel’s residence in Hawthorne, ending in 1991.
-1960s The tale of this decade cannot be told without speaking of the unrest wound through it. Many Americans sought to expose the various scars of inequality that were masked by our national image and to bring about their correction. An elevating “conflict” in Viet Nam drew Americans into face-to-face opposition over our involvement. The curse of poverty was gradually addressed. A new generation questioned the conventional, static views of life and sought better answers by numerous means.
Yet this was a decade of unimaginable technological advancement and unbounded creativity, too – a legendary piece of our story.
-1961 Yuri Gagarin is the first person to orbit the earth in the Soviet Union’s Vostok I. Southern California’s aircraft industry is transforming into the aerospace industry.
-1962 The City Council announces a project to re-number all city addresses to conform with Los Angeles’ numbering system for the efficiency (/convenience?) of the postal service, emergency services, delivery services (, lost tourists?).
Good Vibrations-
-1963 All sons of Hawthorne, a local band lays the foundation of their permanent position in American pop culture with the release of their #1-selling song, “Surfin’ USA.” The Beach Boys will go on to influence pop music worldwide and build a legacy of creativity.
-1963 The segment of Interstate 405 crossing Hawthorne – “the San Diego Freeway” – is opened to motorists with profound effects for the region.
-1963 Americans are stunned by the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas.
-1965 The City Council establishes an agency to study the planning and feasibility of redeveloping Hawthorne’s commercial district.
-1966 The mayor and a councilman meet in Sacramento with the Lieutenant Governor (a first-generation Hawthornian), the Speaker of the Assembly and a Highway Commissioner to oppose the routing of the “Century Freeway” (Interstate 105) across Hawthorne.
-1969 The final route of the 105 is being set. At the same time, three lanes in either direction are to be added to the 405 Freeway from Rosecrans Ave to El Segundo Blvd and the Century Blvd, Imperial Hwy, El Segundo Blvd, Rosecrans Ave and Inglewood Ave connections are to be reconstructed.
-1969 Just about everyone with a TV is glued to it watching the Apollo 11 crew step down onto the Moon’s dusty surface.
-1969 Dairy farmer Max Yasgur lets some young people (400,000) onto his place outside Woodstock, NY, for a three-day music festival.
-1969 In a future-altering flash, a digital transmission from UCLA to Stanford University is made on a system named ARPANET.
Heroes and Villains-
-1970s Not to be outdone, this decade was about to dish out a mixture of economic upheaval, political theater, technological wonder and cultural landmarks.
-1970 After ticker-tape parades for the Apollo 11 crew, Americans are reading between the lines of the somewhat downplayed reporting on the Apollo 13 mission. Something is wrong and they just hope they’ll get the crew home. They do.
-1973 The United States signs a peace treaty with the Viet Namese communists.
American troops are withdrawn from the country.
-1973 OPEC, the oil-exporting group of mostly Middle Eastern states votes to withhold their product from nations supporting Israel. Shortly afterward, Americans are waiting in blocks-long lines of cars inching toward gas pumps. Driving toward them are slow economic growth, higher unemployment, higher inflation and higher interest rates. Hope they still have gas when I get to the pump!
-1974 Rather than face impeachment, Richard Nixon resigns the Presidency after he is ordered by the Supreme Court to turn over damning evidence to House and Senate investigators showing that he conspired to burgle Democratic Party headquarters for the 1972 election and afterward, used the executive branch to thwart the investigations.
-1974, -75 Nine years after the City Council creates a Redevelopment Agency to study, plan, inform, acquire, dispose, approve, award, determine, retain and co-develop a large multi-use regional center on the site of the original center of the township, excavation for the foundations and subterranean structures begin. Much-touted plans, announced year by year, have shape-shifted into an enclosed two-level mall with three mid-lineup department stores and 127 more retail spaces.
-1976 Americans celebrate the 200th anniversary of their independence.
Where No Man Has Gone Before #1-
-1977 NASA launches Voyager 1 and 2 to study Jupiter and Saturn. Later re-purposed to study Uranus and Neptune, the spacecraft have traveled farther than any other human-built tool; as of 2022, beyond our solar system.
Where No Man Has Gone Before #2-
-1977 George Lucas releases Star Wars, a re-imagining of 1940s spaceman movie serials and launches a franchise as enduring as NASA’s Voyagers.
-1977 Opening ceremonies are held at the Hawthorne Plaza shopping center. It, too, endures, though as a derelict.
-1979 As Iranians revolt against their government, students in Tehran seize the US Embassy and hold 66 people hostage for the next 444 days. Iranian oil production is disrupted, oil traders get anxious and as a side effect, the world economy suffers, along with motorists, waiting in lines of cars at gas stations again.
-1980s On a map, the boundaries of Hawthorne are clearly defined, even as City Councils continue an ambitious policy of annexation. Out on the ground, the boundaries are almost as invisible to the observer as they are to economic-, social- and global changes sweeping across the nation and swirling in little corners like Hawthorne. Final achievement of the Hawthorne Plaza project emboldens city fathers to look for more sites to redevelop for the economic benefit of the City. On the eastern side of town, construction is approved for neighborhoods of multiple-unit residential buildings. Their occupancy brings a diversity and wider range of economic status to a community mainly composed of single family dwellings. In a time of transition, nearby aerospace manufacturers – employers of many of Hawthorne’s citizens – begin a period of consolidation and diaspora and many former employees see a time to pass on their Hawthorne homes to newcomers and strike out for new horizons. A concern for crime rises in the public conversation and City agencies answer with new programs to protect the people: more police officers, a canine unit, self-defense instruction, Neighborhood Watch, Crime Watch reports. Sales of drug paraphernalia are banned; controls are imposed on spray paint, obscene materials and adult businesses (previously banned within city limits). A continuing series of charges of corruption are made against council members, mayors and city officials. After investigation, most avoid prosecution. Energy conservation also enters the public discussion; advice and assistance are offered.
-1980 California’s economy is recognized as the eighth largest in the world.
-1982 An economic recession grips the nation, triggered by the unexpected results of the Reagan administration’s “supply-side economics” and exacerbated by swelling budget deficits, rising interest rates and increasing unemployment.
-1982 Hawthorne commemorates a 60th (“Diamond-“) anniversary of the city, soliciting items to be buried (eventually, in 1984) in a time capsule to be disinterred in 2022.
-1984 For a second interval of optimism, Los Angeles hosts the XXIII Olympiad – with the X Olympiad – said to be the only two Olympics which turned a profit. Worthy citizens of Hawthorne are chosen to carry the Torch through the City on its tour route to light the great flame at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
-1984 The first Hawthorne Air Faire is put together at the Hawthorne Municipal Airport by a number of aviation-interested clubs and agencies. Numerous vintage and modern aircraft are on display to the public, many perform flight demonstrations. Hawthorne salutes its long relationship with aviation.
-1985 Hawthorne Community Hospital, evolved from the city’s first actual hospital, is re-dedicated to honor Robert F. Kennedy
-1986 The route of the LA Metro Rail line extension from Norwalk to LAX, crossing Hawthorne on the I-105 median and recurving southward on a spur to rail yards along Aviation Blvd is approved, with completion scheduled for 1993 (actual: 1995).
She’ll Have Fun, Fun, Fun ’til Daddy Takes the T-Bird Away-
-1986 (just for fun) Auto dealership Hawthorne Mazda at 120th and Hawthorne Blvd introduces the Yugo – possibly the worst subcompact import ever sold in America. In 1992, the EPA recalls all 141,000+ cars sold in the US for irreparable failure to meet pollution standards.
-1987 Another redevelopment for the area bounded by Rosecrans, Isis, 147th and the 405 drifts among developers and concepts, including a $175 million hotel complex. A Costco outlet is approved.
-1989 The Berlin Wall falls and the People’s Democratic Republic of (east) Germany melts away into history. OPEC loses control as rogue members step up profitable oil exports to meet growing global demand. Chinese authorities brutally suppress demonstrators for reform in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
-1990s The previous decade brought major economic-, social- and physical changes to Hawthorne that continued to pose challenges while creating opportunities for the future. The population surged, ethnicities altered, cultures broadened and income levels moderated. In some ways, these changes were pantomimed by the rise and fall of the Hawthorne Plaza shopping center. The mall was conceived to revive the declining commercial center of downtown Hawthorne with high hope that was no match for the challenge of getting it built and cultivating its potential. Its brief success was followed by its longer decline and its perpetual dereliction. If the water tower is Hawthorne’s iconic landmark, the mall is a giant question mark, sprawling on the land where Hawthorne first grew up. But all around it, the people of Hawthorne moved on.
-1990 The United States is effectively the sole surviving super power.
The Clinton administration presides over a period of economic expansion, gain in security values resulting from a digital revolution, the rise of the digital technology industry and the first balanced Federal budget in 30 years.
The influence of OPEC on the world’s economy wanes again.
The Port of Los Angeles is acknowledged the busiest in the country.
-1991 The Soviet Union dissolves after efforts of its member republics to regain their sovereignty.
-1991 The United States takes action to expel Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in the First Gulf War.
Hawthorne assumes the new 310 area code, leaving 213 behind.
-1992 Acquittal of LAPD officers tried for beating Rodney King after a lengthy pursuit sparks protest, rioting and looting across the region. The Hawthorne Plaza is heavily damaged during this unrest.
Long Promised Road (?)-
-1993 Interstate 105 is opened across Hawthorne, covering the place where Carl, Dennis, Brian, Mike and Al riffed in a garage.
-1994 An earthquake in Northridge reminds everyone of the transitory nature of life in Southern California.
Hawthorne becomes a drive-thru for a bizarre “reality”-TV moment as Al Cowlings chauffeurs buddy OJ Simpson on a slow-speed pursuit on the 405 freeway below a flotilla of news helicopters.
The City qualifies with the State of California as a “Revitalization Zone.”
Hawthorne Savings and Loan, established in 1951, evades liquidation by the federally-created Resolution Trust Corporation by becoming a much smaller business in El Segundo.
The Cockatoo Inn closes (with a small post-mortem re-animation in 1996).
-1995 As some have before, the Rams see the impending doom of Los Angeles and go east, to St. Louis.
A new concept (?), rail transit via the Green- (now ‘C’-) Line, comes to link Hawthorne with downtown Los Angeles, Norwalk, Redondo Beach, North Hollywood, Sierra Madre Villa and Santa Monica – what will they think of next?
-1996 At this point, Hawthorne commerce boasts a popular “under $1” store and “the world’s largest indoor swap meet.”
-1997 The city celebrates another “Diamond” anniversary – this one, the 75th since incorporation.
-1998 President Bill Clinton is impeached by the House for lying under oath and interfering with the investigation of an intimate relationship. He is acquitted by the Senate on both counts.
-1999 A basic flaw in computer design is recognized and an army of “talking head” authorities soon populate the media to discuss the civilization-ending consequences of the last date of the year. The more cautious or anxious of our species are provoked to stock up on food, water, arms, back-up generators and cash in hand (or barterable treasures). This is, perhaps, the origin of a mild strain of lunacy that persists in our culture. Everyone awaits “Y2K,” like an alien invasion. Happy New Year!
-1999 The Hawthorne Plaza mall closes, waiting to join the Pyramids, the Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, etc., as one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.
-2000 A new century, but back to normal: a dispute over valid vote-counting in the federal election in New Mexico and Florida introduces Americans to a lovable new character, “the Hanging Chad.”
After years of hot speculation, the dot.com bubble bursts, taking with it a number of on-line shopping- and communications companies.
-2010 The previous decade’s increase in Hawthorne’s population is the smallest in its history: 0.2%.
Fences erected around the campuses of Hawthorne-, Lawndale- and Leuzinger High to discourage racial brawls and gang-related violence are removed.
-2011 The Hawthorne Historical Society is founded.
-2016 The Rams see the impending doom of St. Louis and get a nice new stadium built for them in Inglewood.
-2020 The population of Hawthorne increases over the preceding decade by the second-smallest amount in its history: 4.5 %.
-2021 The space industry and the fulfillment industry are the biggest employers in Hawthorne – Spacex and Amazon – followed by school districts and the City.
-2028 Los Angeles will host the XXXIV Olympiad, hopefully, for a hat trick (sorry, that’s in the Winter Olympics).
Don’t Worry, Baby – Everything Will Turn Out Alright-
(an imagined dialogue between young Laurine Harding and centenarian Nathaniel Hawthorne)
L: So, what’s next?
N: No one can predict the future.
L: Will there be happiness?
N: As much as you can make.
L: Will there be challenges?
N: Count on it.
L: Will we get through them?
N: Yes. Just like all the people who were here before us.
You are here, now.