Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, in the U.S. state of California. It is located about north of Downtown Los Angeles.
As of 2025, Glendale had a Census-estimated population of 187,823 making it the 4th-most populous city in Los Angeles County and the 24th-most populous city in California.
Glendale—along with neighboring Burbank and nearby Hollywood—has served as a major production center for the American film industry, and especially animation, and is home to Disneytoon Studios, Marvel Animation, and DreamWorks Animation.
History
Indigenous history Native Americans lived along the Glendale Narrows of the Los Angeles River, known to the Tongva people as Paayme Paxaayt ("West River"), for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. Villages in the Glendale–La Crescenta-Montrose area included Ashwaangna, Hahamongna, Maungna, Tujunga and Wiqanga.
Spanish era In 1769, the Portolá expedition established a permanent Spanish presence in the area. Many of the native inhabitants were displaced in 1771 for use as slave labor for the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. This migration, together with European diseases such as syphilis, measles, and smallpox, depopulated their communities.
In 1784, José María Verdugo, a corporal in the Spanish army from Baja California, received the Rancho San Rafael from Pedro Fages, the Province of Las Californias' Lieutenant Governor, which was confirmed in 1798 by Governor Diego de Borica. Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish concession, of which 25 were made in California. Unlike the later Mexican land grants, the concessions were similar to grazing permits, with the title remaining with the Spanish crown.Beck, Warren A., Haase, Ynez D. (1974). Historical Atlas of California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
In 1798, Verdugo retired from the military and began expanding his ranch operations. Soon he had nearly 2,000 head of cattle, 670 horses and 70 mules. With the help of his son, Julio, he built several adobe structures for various uses. Workers grew crops such as grains, peppers, oranges, figs, grapes and pomegranates, and also made wine.
Mexican era
The 1821 Treaty of Córdoba established Mexican independence from Spain at the end of the Mexican War of Independence.Archer, Christon I. "Wars of Independence" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 1595–1601.
When Jose Maria Verdugo died in 1831, his estate was divided between his son, Julio, and his daughter, Catalina.
In 1843, the Mexican government, claiming that the Verdugo family was not using the 5,832-acre portion of Rancho San Rafael situated in the Crescenta Valley to graze his herds, granted that portion to Ygnacio Coronel, who named it La Cañada Atras de Rancho Los Verdugos ("The Canyon Behind the Verdugo Ranch").
American era
The 1847 Treaty of Cahuenga established American control of Alta California at the end of the Mexican–American War. With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, confirmed by the Commission in 1855, and the grant was patented to Julio and Catalina Verdugo in 1882.
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.Kath, Laura. Forest Lawn: The first 100 years, Tropico Press, 2006.
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.