City of Lakewood, 5050 Clark Avenue, Lakewood, CA 90712, Phone: 562-866-9771.
Beginnings [1]
The Lakewood Park Corporation purchased 3,500 acres of land in Los Angeles County from the Montana Land Company for $8.9 million in 1950. Within three years the land, formerly bean and sugar beet fields, would have 17,500 homes ranging in size from 800 to 1,100 square feet, and nearly 80,000 people. Branded “Tomorrow’s City Today,” the new city, with its small and reasonably priced homes (mortgage payments could be as low as $43 a month, down payments as low as $195 for veterans), appealed to young, first-time homeowners, many of whom were veterans of World War II and the Korean War. It was the largest and fastest built of the post-war suburbs, with a house completed roughly every 7.5 minutes for the first six months of construction. The houses were built in “thirteen basic floor plans in the first phase of development and four variations of each, offering homebuyers a total of fifty-two different exteriors, for which there were thirty-nine different color combinations”. The city was centered around what was, at the time, the world’s largest regional shopping center.
Neighborhoods
Lakewood Park Company started building what would become the nation’s first post-war planned housing development, consisting of 17,500 houses on about 3,500 acres. As the developing area grew to more than 70,000, the residents chose to incorporate as a city in 1954. The nature of the corporation was hybrid for its time. A newly elected City Council was in charge of settin local policy and budges while Los Angeles County provided many of the municipal services. The origina Post WWII development of 17,500 homes has grown to more than 25,000. [Community History, Los Angeles County Library,
The Lakewood Country Club, established in 1896, is cited as the inspiration for the naming of the development, then City. In turn, the club was reportedly named for combining the artesian Boulton Lake with the surrounding trees.
Nearby Towns: Downey City •