#COMPTON PLACE SERIES#

įrom the 1920s through the early 1940s, the Compton area was home to a sizable Japanese American population, a large proportion of whom were farmers. While it would eventually be home to a large black population, in 1930 there was only one black resident. On March 10, 1933, a destructive earthquake caused many casualties: schools were destroyed and there was major damage to the central business district. Compton Junior College was founded and city officials moved to a new City Hall on Alameda Street. The 1920s saw the opening of the Compton Airport. Compton could not support large-scale agricultural business, but it did give the residents the opportunity to work the land for their families. The farms attracted the black families who had begun migrating from the rural South in the 1950s, and there they found their 'home away from home'. The ample residential lots of Richland Farms gave residents enough space to raise a family, and food to feed them, along with building a barn, and caring for livestock. Compton was reborn, with elections held to fill open positions. Sherer filed suits to nullify the 1890 elections, which in turn restored Compton to a size of 600 acres. Due to the limited number of people able to fill positions within the city government, Compton effectively ceased to exist as a functioning city. By the end of the year, Compton was down to only eighty acres of land, with five remaining voters residing within that territory.

#COMPTON PLACE SERIES#

In 1890, a series of votes were held by the residents of Compton, with the aim of shedding significant portions of the city. The first City Council meeting was held on May 14, 1888. On May 11, 1888, the city of Compton was incorporated with a population of 500 people. In January 1888, a petition supporting the incorporation of Compton was forwarded to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who in turn forwarded the petition to the State Legislature. Compton donated his land to incorporate and create the city of Compton in 1889, but he did stipulate that a certain acreage be zoned solely for agriculture and named Richland Farms. A series of town meetings were held to discuss incorporation of their little town. īy 1887, the settlers realized it was time to make improvements to the local government. Many in the Compton party wanted to relocate to a friendlier climate and settle down, but as there were two general stores within traveling distance-one in the pueblo of Los Angeles, the other in Wilmington-they eventually decided to stay put. To gather firewood it was necessary to travel to mountains close to Pasadena. The weather continued to be harsh, rainy and cold, and fuel was difficult to find. Compton's earliest settlers were faced with terrible hardships as they farmed the land in bleak weather to get by with just the barest subsistence.

However, to avoid confusion with the Camptonville located in Yuba County, the name was shortened to Compton. Originally named Gibsonville, after one of the tract owners, it was later called Comptonville.

These families had traveled by wagon train south from Stockton, California, in search of ways to earn a living other than the rapid exhaustion of gold fields. In 1867, Griffith Dickenson Compton led a group of 30 pioneers to the area. The tree that marked the original northern boundary of the rancho still stands at the corner of Poppy and Short streets.

The Domínguez family name is still applied throughout the area, including the Dominguez Rancho Adobe historical landmark, in the unincorporated community of Rancho Dominguez, located between the cities of Compton, Long Beach and Carson. Domínguez's descendants partitioned the land amongst family members, sold parcels to newly arriving settlers, and relinquished some when validating their legal claim with the Mexican government at 48,000 acres (190 km 2) in 1828, and with the United States government through a patent validating 43,119 acres (174.50 km 2) in 1858. In 1784, the Spanish Crown deeded Rancho San Pedro, a tract of over 75,000 acres (300 km 2), to soldier Juan José Domínguez. In 1767, the area became part of the Province of the Californias ( Spanish: Provincia de las Californias), and the area was explored by the Portolá expedition in 1769–1770. The Spanish Empire had expanded into this area when the Viceroy of New Spain commissioned Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to explore the Pacific Ocean in 1542–1543.

Compton place