May the Force be with you

Hidden behind those deceptively overcast skies, May has its way of forcing the year into the full bloom of summer. By the time we’ve had Cinco de Mayo and Mothers’ Day, everyone is ready to accept the long Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial gateway into the season we’ve all been waiting for – warmth, leisure, activity, fun, good eats, good company, no worries. What’s the point of waiting three more weeks until the Solstice totters by on the astronomical orbit? We’ll call it “summer” now, dig out the sunglasses and the SPF 70, wear the white clothes and generally misbehave.
Summer comes but once a year — movie studios, the fast-food chains, the amusement parks and so many more know it. It’s time to surrender to the Force.

They’re dancin’,
Dancing in the street
It’s annexation across the nation,
A chance for folks to meet
There’ll be laughing, singing and music swinging,
Dancing in the street

(with apologies to Martha and the Vandellas, 1965)

When Ben Harding and Henry Lombard got approval from Los Angeles County to establish the townsite of Hawthorne, late in 1905, their development covered 80 acres.  115 years later, the site had grown to the 3,904-acre City of Hawthorne, almost forty-nine times larger.  It didn’t take sunshine, water and fertilizer to bring this about – it was done primarily by annexation, the legal process by which cities or other governments take sovereignty over territory (usually, adjoining and “unincorporated”).    As one result, our city now has a population larger than all-but-one of the six incorporated South Bay cities that touch our borders.

Annexation is controlled by State regulations, County municipal codes, the Chief Executive Office and other offices and commissions.  Since 2003, Los Angeles County follows a Sphere of Influence Policy, to assist residents of unincorporated communities in choosing their preferred form of government and to guide the County in making transfers of property tax revenues when changes in city boundaries are undertaken.

Land owners, stakeholders and communities usually seek annexation to participate in more-localized governance of their holdings and to receive the many services cities have to offer, in comparison to the smaller influence and wider distribution of resources they must share with other communities of the county.  Cities receive more property tax revenue and more participation in their economic and social growth from the residents, businesses and other organizations who join their territory.

Voters of Hawthorne decided to incorporate as a city in 1922 and since then, resolutions of annexation have been regularly passed by the City Council for properties ranging in area from hundreds of acres to single city lots.  Regulations determine the threshold at which land owners/residents of an area proposed for annexation must vote to accept the transfer to a city.  Typically, property along many of the main thoroughfares that served as Hawthorne’s informal boundaries were divided into commercial-size lots long before the issue of becoming part of Hawthorne was raised.  When annexation was consummated, individual owners were allowed the option to join Hawthorne or remain in unincorporated County territory.  And so, the City boundaries still display a “sawtooth” configuration along some edges of our place on the map.

Numerous additions were made to the townsite in the years before the successful vote to incorporate.  Tracts were added as lots and parcels were sold.  Old maps identify the first addition to the town as the first blocks along the north side of (now*) El Segundo Blvd between Cedar and Prairie Aves. The second addition was a strip between the south side of (now) 120th St and an alley 145 ft further south running from Cedar to Prairie.  The third addition was in two sections- one bounded by (now) Hawthorne Blvd to Acacia Ave and 119th St to 120th; the second- Cedar to Freeman Aves and an alley, 135 ft south of 118th St to another alley, 135 ft north of 120th.  The dates of these additions, and others, have not yet been determined but the newborn City reported to the California Secretary of State that it was comprised of 1,248 acres in July, 1922.

We can guess that two large tracts- Burleigh, encompassing most of the southeast quadrant of central Hawthorne (from El Segundo Blvd to Rosecrans Ave, from Hawthorne Blvd to Prairie Ave) and Ingledal Acres , including much of the southwest quadrant of central Hawthorne (from El Segundo Blvd to {now} 138th St and 120 ft east of Inglewood Ave to Hawthorne Blvd) may have figured in the total land area around this time.

The rate of annexation began to rise as the 1930s ended and the region’s economy improved with the increasing demand for aircraft manufactured around Los Angeles Municipal Airport (now LAX) and then, at Northrop Aircraft along the (now) Hawthorne Municipal Airport.  Open land was transformed into residential neighborhoods in an ongoing housing boom and many residents sought the benefits of joining the City of Hawthorne.

The growth of Hawthorne in both area and population reached a high pace in the 1950s as successive Councils and Mayors favored expansion.  The Bodger Park neighborhood was added in 1950.  The Hayden-Lee annexations were made in 1953-‘55 to support the construction of hundreds of residences in what became the Hollyglen portion of our city – connected by a corridor along Rosecrans Ave.   Across town, the Banowitz and Morris annexations were made in 1954 and ‘56 for the same purpose and the Holly Park community welcomed new residents to Hawthorne.  Moneta Gardens in 1962 and Doty filled in the eastern side of the City and the long-disputed route of the I-105 “Century” Freeway prompted alteration of City borders in this area when the route was completed in the early ‘90s.  And the beat goes on . . .

Hawthorne is now a thriving city of 6.1 square miles and more than 88,000 citizens.  The Local Agency Formation Commission of Los Angeles County has recognized six areas of unincorporated County adjoining Hawthorne where we exert an influence and deserve to be considered in future changes of sovereignty.

Are you still awake?  Should the story of Hawthorne be confined to what happened within City limits, or is it as wide as the experience of the people who have called this place their home?   We try to keep it interesting, and – we should all be dancin’ in the street!

• – See our Free Blog, “Trading Places – Streets, Numbers and Time” on our website for a discussion of the changing street names of Hawthorne.

(The Calendar of Coming Events will now be included in the Events feature on the Website)