Long Beach Real Estate

Just 50 years after Columbus discovered America, Cabrillo and his crew of explorers anchored off the present site of Long Beach. Vast clouds of smoke were rolling high in the sky from burning grass and brush ashore where the native Indians were conducting one of their periodic rabbit drives. Cabrillo named the area "Bahia de los Fumos" -- the Bay of Smokes. The first modern identity for Long Beach began with the sprawling rancho awarded Manuel Nieto in 1784. Time and descendants divided the old Spanish Land Grant until the bulk of what is now Long Beach was contained in two ranchos, Los Cerritos and Los Alamitos. In 1880, William Erwin Willmore, an Englishman and Long Beach's first real estate developer, subdivided a portion of Los Cerritos.

With the advent of two parties of settlers in 1882, the township of Willmore City was launched. By 1884, with only a dozen houses in the settlement, Willmore City had failed, and the founder departed for Arizona. However, people still straggled in, and in 1888 with 59 buildings and a new school, the newly named City of Long Beach was first incorporated. Nine years later, dissatisfaction with prohibition and high taxes led to an abortive and short-lived disincorporation. Before the year 1897 was out, the citizens voted to reincorporate, and Long Beach has continued to grow ever since. From a population of 1,500 and an area of three square miles in 1897, the City has grown to an estimated population of 440,000 citizens living in a 50-square-mile area.