Glendale

In 1861, Julio Verdugo took out a mortgage to build a larger house. Unable to make the loan payments, the family was forced into bankruptcy proceedings. In 1871, the court divided the ranch into several parcels to satisfy the many claims against the Verdugos.

The court gave Benjamin Dreyfus, of California, the largest allotment: more than 8,000 acres, which later became Eagle Rock and Tropico. Andrew Glassell and Alfred Chapman were awarded the great Rancho La Cañada and more than 2,000 acres of what is now Highland Park and York Valley. David Burbank was awarded 4,607 acres, and his property eventually became the neighboring city of Burbank.

The arrival of the railroad in Southern California set off a real estate boom. In 1883, soon after Atwater Village was settled, the Atwater Tract Office brought train service to the area. On March 11, 1887, Erskine Mayo Ross, Cameron E. Thom, and several others, filed the first plat for Glendale, described as "Pasadena's first and only rival." It was bounded by First Street (now Lexington Drive) on the north, Fifth Street (now Harvard Street) on the south, Central Avenue on the west, and the Childs Tract on the east.

Incorporation and growth

The city officially incorporated in 1906. Also that year, Forest Lawn Cemetery opened.

An important civic booster of the era was Leslie Coombs Brand (1859–1925), who partnered with Henry E. Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric Railway, or the "Red Cars", to the area. The Glendale–Burbank Line, which was operational from 1904 to 1955, ran from Downtown Los Angeles to Burbank via Glendale. At the railroad dedication celebration, Brand spoke of "his early dreams coming true, in which he pictured a country home in close proximity to the city." Brand also owned Glendale Light & Power Company, the Miradero Water Company, and the Consolidated Water Company.

The architecture firm of Anderson and Murdock won a contract to construct a new city hall in 1910, and it was completed in 1912.

Pioneering endocrinologist and entrepreneur Henry R. Harrower opened his clinic in Glendale in 1920, which for many years was the largest business in the city.

Following the 1922 demolition of the Atwater Tract Office, Southern Pacific Railroad constructed the Glendale Southern Pacific Railroad Depot. Glendale was served by the Southern Pacific Railroad's Coast Daylight daytime and Lark overnight passenger trains.

The Hotel Glendale, a six-story beaux-arts building which boasted 160 rooms and two elevators, became Glendale's tallest building when it opened in 1925. Its location, at the intersection of Broadway and Glendale Avenue, was chosen because of its proximity to several transportation lines.

The Alexander Theatre opened in 1925, and featured vaudeville performances and silent films on a single screen.

The Grand Central Airport opened in 1929. Within a year, the enterprise was sold to the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, managed by C. C. Moseley, a co-founder of the future Western Airlines. It became the city's largest employer. It was also at Grand Central that Moseley established the first of his private flying schools, Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute (later renamed Cal-Aero Academy).

The Renaissance Revival-style Glendale Main Post Office opened in 1934.

Between 1935 and 1937, the Works Progress Administration, under the supervision of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, channelized the Verdugo Wash and built ten bridges over it. Other Works Progress Administration projects include Glendale Community College's John A. Davitt Administration Building (1937) and the Glendale Civic Auditorium (1938).

Second World War and post-war development

The Second World War proved to be a boon to Glendale as Southern California became a major staging area for the Pacific War. Grand Central Airport served as a training facility for pilots and mechanics, while a foundry on San Fernando Road produced airplane parts. The Grayson Power Plant entered service in 1941, providing the city energy independence. Also that year, the city launched a municipal bus system named Glendale City Lines. In 1942, a new Glendale City Hall, a Works Progress Administration project in the PWA Moderne style, was completed in Glendale Civic Center, on the site of Glendale's first permanent city hall from 1912. In 1943, the Los Angeles County Superior Court opened a courthouse in Glendale.

In 1948, the Glendale News-Press moved to a new, 35,000-square-foot building across the street from City Hall.

In October 1953, the Glendale–Burbank Line came under the purview of Metropolitan Coach Lines, which initiated a series of service reductions. Interurban service ended in 1955, bringing an end to Glendale's streetcar suburb era.

With the proliferation of jet aircraft, Grand Central Airport's relatively short 3,400-foot runway was unable to accommodate modern aircraft. In 1959, the airport shut down. In 1961, Walt Disney purchased a large portion of the closed airport to establish a creative workshop for employees working on the construction of Disney theme parks and attractions worldwide. Initially named WED Enterprises, the team came to be known as Walt Disney Imagineering.

Until as late as the 1960s, Glendale was a sundown town, which meant that non-white people were required to leave city limits by a certain time each day or risk arrest and possible violence. This was achieved through, among other methods, racist housing covenants and police intimidation.

In 1964, Glendale was selected by George Lincoln Rockwell to be the West Coast headquarters of the American Nazi Party. In 1965, an anti-Nazi political demonstration co-sponsored by several groups — Christians Against Bigotry, Anti-Nazi Congress of America, and Jewish Survivors of Concentration Camps — featured actor Ronald Reagan as a speaker. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors became involved, amending a law regarding the activities of subversive groups, which was originally drafted in 1941 to control the German American Bund. After a legal battle with the city of Glendale, the party moved their headquarters to El Monte in 1966.

Demographic changes and urbanization

The emergence of increasingly visible ethnic groups—including Armenians, Cubans, Filipinos and Koreans—changed the official discourse in Glendale. In 1972, C.E. Perkins, then city manager, encouraged the Rotary Club of Glendale to prepare itself as the city could no longer remain isolated in an increasingly diverse America. Through the 1970s, concurrent with increasing immigration into Glendale, was the city's rapid urbanization. During this era, the Glendale Freeway and the Ventura Freeway were constructed. The Glendale Galleria shopping mall opened in 1976, and was further expanded in 1982.

In the 1980s, many single-family homes in south Glendale were demolished for apartment and condominium construction. This construction boom resulted in Glendale's population growing at a rate 60% higher than that of the county at large, turning the city into a denser, younger and more cosmopolitan urban center. In 1983, Larry Zarian was elected as the city's first Armenian city council member, and in 1986, he became the city's first Armenian mayor. In 1984, the city revived municipal bus service with the Glendale Beeline.

By 1990, Glendale was, proportionately, more immigrant than either the city or county of Los Angeles, with 45% of its residents being foreign-born. By the mid-1990s, Glendale's Anglo-American population had been surpassed by Armenians and Latinos. Some Anglo-American residents, largely fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment, decried the increased density in South Glendale.

Recent history

On January 26, 2005, a train crash occurred when a southbound Metrolink commuter train collided with a sport utility vehicle that had been abandoned on the tracks immediately south of the Chevy Chase Drive grade crossing, on the Glendale-Los Angeles border. The train jackknifed and struck trains on either side of it — one a stationary Union Pacific freight train, and the other a northbound Metrolink train traveling in the opposite direction. The collision caused the deaths of 11 individuals and injured 177 more.

By the late 2000s, Glendale had outgrown its "sleepy bedroom community" reputation as an urban area of its own, in large part due to the Americana at Brand lifestyle center and residential community. The new development was opened to the public in 2008, featuring 75 shops, restaurants, apartments, condominiums, and an 18-plex cinema.

In response to the Americana at Brand's opening, the Glendale Galleria underwent an extensive renovation in 2012. By 2014, the construction of thousands of luxury apartments in downtown Glendale raised fears of gentrification. In 2016, the Museum of Neon Art's new location opened. The post-Americana development boom has also included several hotels, such as a Hampton Inn & Suites (2016), a Hyatt Place (2017), The Glenmark (2020) and a Hotel Indigo (2025). There has also been an increase in "luxury wellness" in Glendale, including an Erewhon grocery store, "a stone's throw from a lower-cost competitor, Whole Foods Market."

In 2021, the Armenian American Museum broke ground in Central Park. In 2024, the Martial Arts History Museum moved to an 8,000 square foot facility in downtown Glendale, the latest piece in the "new 'museum row' now that Glendale has the Neon Museum, the Armenian Museum and now the Martial Arts History Museum."

2024 estimates

As of 2024, Glendale hosts a Census-estimated population of 187,823, down 8,720 (–4.4%) from the 2020 United States census count of 196,543. At the 2020 census, the age distribution was 22.9% under 18, 58.7% from 18 to 64, and 18.4% who were 65 or older.

As of 2021, Glendale's population includes:

54,000 children under the age of 18 years,

10,100 women who live alone,

7,000 men who live alone, and

730 women and men who are in same-sex relationships, either as married or unmarried couples.

History

Armenian families have lived in the city since the 1920s, but the surge in immigration accelerated in the 1970s. Armenian Americans are well integrated into the city, with many businesses, several Armenian schools, and ethnic/cultural organizations serving this ethnic group. Beginning in the late 1970s, as a result of the Lebanese Civil War and the Iranian Revolution, a dramatic influx of Lebanese Armenians and Iranian Armenians began to arrive in Glendale.

Beginning in the late 1980s, with assistance from family and friends already there, Armenians from the former Soviet Union began arriving. In the Glendale Unified School District, by 1988, along with students from the Middle East, they had become the largest ethnic group in the public schools, now having a larger number than Latinos.

By 1999, about 25% of the population spoke Armenian and there were many Armenian businesses.

According to the United States 2000 Census, Glendale is home to 65,343 Armenian Americans (making up 34.1% of the total population), increasing from 1990 when there were 31,402 Armenian Americans in the city. As of 2005, one-third of Los Angeles' estimated 153,000 Armenians (or 51,000, around a quarter of Glendale's 205,000 residents) lived in Glendale. At that time, Armenians held a majority on the Glendale city council, and it had done so since that year. By 2005, the Armenian population was 40% of the total population.

In 2014, a Glendale Police Department spokesperson, stated, "In five to eight years, the [Armenian] community went from a few thousand to about 40,000." Levon Marashlian, an instructor of Armenian history at Glendale College, stated that in the early 1990s Glendale's Armenian community became the largest in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, surpassing the Armenian community of Hollywood. Alice Petrossian, the GUSD director of intercultural education, stated that Burbank lies within the middle of other Armenian communities, so it attracted Armenians. There are also a great number of Armenian immigrants from Iran who, due to the religious restrictions and lifestyle limitations of the Islamic government, immigrated to the US, many to Glendale since it was where their relatives resided.

Parks and recreation

The city has nearly 50 public parks, from Deukmejian Wilderness Park in the north to Cerritos Park in the south. Notable parks include Brand Park.