In the 1980s, the city became known informally as Little Taipei or, jokingly, Mandarin Park. A donut shop was replaced by a Chinese bank the Paris Restaurant, where an old-timers’ club (the Kaffee Klatch) had til then met for breakfast became a Vietnamese seafood restaurant and a gas station displayed a sign which read, “Will the last American to leave Monterey Park please bring the flag?” Ever since, the city has been thoroughly dominated by Asian-Americans. Realtor Frederic Hsieh promoted Monterey Park in Taiwan and Hong Kong as the “ Chinese Beverly Hills” and many Chinese businesspeople subsequently moved to the area. The void they created was filled by large numbers of newly arrived Taiwanese immigrants. Large numbers of Monterey Park’s older residents moved elsewhere. Then, something started happening in the the 1970s. It wasn’t until after World War II that the town began to grow again although it seems to have been a quiet suburb where not too much of note happened until Johhny Thompson opened his guitar shop in the 1960s. Development of Monterey Park also ground to a halt. When the depression came, insurers denied insurance for Scudder’s delivery truck. She opened a grocery store, Laura Scudder’s Food Products at the corner of Garvey and Atlantic. She invented the potato chip bag, a major improvement over the wooden barrels and metal cans previously used to package them. One of those drawn to this Beverly Hills of the Eastside was Laura Scudder. The hope of developers was to create a city to rival Beverly Hills and Bel-Air and Monterey Park was touted as the “ Beverly Hills of the Eastside.” Snyder (dubbed the “ Father of the East Side“) took part in major undertakings designed to attract business and residents to the Eastside community, including major developments along Atlantic Blvd and the construction of Jardin del Encanto (aka “el Encanto”) and the 70-foot Cascades Waterfall. Resident Masami Abe named the trail “Coyote Pass.”ĭeveloper (and Greek immigrant) Peter N. The new immigrants churched up an un-named trail that was frequently featured in westerns which connected Monterey Park to Los Angeles. In 1920s, Montebello broke away and became its own city. In the 1920s, the largely Caucasian neighborhood was joined by an influx of Japanese potato farmers and nursery operators. In 1916, the city of Monterey Park was voted into existence. In 1906, the first subdivision, Ramona Acres, was developed. Army mail rider named Richard Garvey built a dam to form Garvey Lake and further developed the area. Sometime later, Alessandro Repetto purchased 5,000 acres of Rancho San Antonio. By 1870 most had died off from exposure to diseases brought by the Spaniards. The area that now makes up Monterey Park was originally inhabited by the Tongva people. Today Monterey Park is roughly 61% Asian (38% Chinese, 18% Vietnamese, and 5% Japanese ), 29% Latino (23% Mexican) and 7% white. In recent years, most of the construction development has been around Garfield and Garvey. The old business district is centered around the intersection of Garvey and Atlantic. It is surrounded by Alhambra to the north, San Gabriel to the northeast, Rosemead to the east, South San Gabriel to the southeast, Montebello to the south, East L.A. to the southwest, and Lincoln Heights to the west. Monterey Park is located on the western edge of the San Gabriel Valleyat the junction of the Eastsideand SELACO. This blog entry is about the Los Angeles County community of Monterey Park. PRIDE IN THE PAST, FAITH IN THE FUTURE - MONTEREY PARK
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