^{A postcard dated circa 1913 shows the Brighton and Colonial Hotel buildings on Cabrillo Avenue. The buildings were designed by architect Irving Gill as part of his imaging of the downtown core.} 

The “Planned Modern Industrial City” that would come to be called Torrance came into being in the early years of a new century. In 1910, the City of Los Angeles had a population of 320,000 people, and nearby Long Beach had just 17,000.

The Southern California region was stepping out on two major projects.

The first, the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, began in 1905 and was completed in 1913. This brought much-needed water from the Owens Valley into Los Angeles and the region. With the water came a boom in development.

The second major project in the region was the building of a breakwater to spur development of the Los Angeles harbor and shipping facilities. This development would make Los Angeles a major gateway for imports serving the West, and become a hub of exports.

At the same time, the film industry was beginning to grow in Los Angeles; the region’s airplane manufacturing industry began to take flight; and oil and gas exploration would become a booming business.

1910 saw a dramatic historic event in downtown Los Angeles with the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building during a period of labor unrest between unions and anti-union factions. During this time, the burgeoning business community began to move away from Los Angeles, which was considered to be a hotbed of labor activity.

It was during this time that real estate developer Jared Sidney Torrance began assembling a group of investors with the idea of creating a “Planned Modern Industrial City” that would be a mix of residential and industrial uses.

Jared Sidney Torrance was a major player in Southern California financial circles. He was involved in several enterprises, including real estate and oil development. And he had his eye on a large, undeveloped area roughly 20 miles south of Los Angeles.

Torrance and his investors formed the Dominguez Land Company, which acquired some 3,500 acres of ranchland from the Dominguez family. At the time, the ranch covered much of the South Bay, including wide swaths of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The land, relatively inexpensive compared to property closer to Los Angeles, was a blank canvas for creating a new city. It also had the advantage of being closer to the developing San Pedro port facilities. Expansion of the Pacific Electric Railway into the area also made it an attractive location.

The Dominguez Land Company hired the Olmstead Brothers firm to design the planned community. Their father had been a designer of Central Park in New York City, as well as many other major landscape and design projects in the country, including the grounds surrounding the U.S. Capitol Building. In addition to Torrance, the Olmstead Brothers also developed plans for Stanford University and would go on the design plans for Palos Verdes Estates. They laid out plans for industry, a downtown commercial core and residential areas with a mix of larger homes, smaller homes for workers and apartment houses and hotels. Utilities were tucked away in alleys, leaving the roadsides free for substantial landscaping.

The groundbreaking for this new, planned city took place in October 1912. After much debate and despite his initial objections, the city was named after Jared Sidney Torrance.

Irving Gill was hired as the architect to design some of the significant buildings, including the Pacific Electric Railway Depot, homes for workers, several downtown commercial buildings, and the now iconic bridge on the eastern city border that is now known as the Pacific Electric Railway-El Prado Bridge.

While some of Gill’s designs were completed and brought to fruition, many buyers did not care for his trademark look that favored tilt-up concrete walls, hollow brick and utilitarian lines. These creative differences between the architect and the Dominguez Land Company led to a parting of ways.

Mr. Torrance also held enough sway in the business world to attract interest from many companies to bring their industry – along with jobs and people – to his planned community. These included Llewellyn Iron Works (of which he was a major stockholder), Union Tool Company (where he was on the Board of Directors) and Pacific Electric Railway (where he was an investor and on the Board of Directors).

From 1912 until 1921, Torrance was a privately held city. In those years, Torrance was growing at a promising pace, but the start of World War I brought economic recession, stalling the development of the city. Much of the original plan for developing Torrance, as envisioned by the Dominguez Land Company, was left unfinished.

By 1921, the population of Torrance was about 1,800, and they soon would put the idea of incorporating Torrance as a city to a vote. Jared Sidney Torrance, who had never lived in the community and had moved on to working on other developments, died a few days before the vote took place. The vote to incorporate passed, 355-11, and the city was formally incorporated in May, 1921.

The early stages of Torrance as an incorporated city were marked by a struggle with the Dominguez Land Company to get ownership of the public rights of way and to get completion of promised infrastructure developments.

With the incorporation of the City of Torrance, a five-member Board of Trustees was put in place to serve as a governing body. Their early acts included making it illegal to spit on the sidewalk, hiring a constable to patrol the downtown and establishing a volunteer fire department. They also agreed to allow AAA to install speed limit signs and stop signs in the City. The citizens were now responsible to all City services, and for determining the path forward for the new City of Torrance.