History of the City of Lomita

The earliest known inhabitants of the area now part of the City of Lomita were the Gabrielino Indians in a village they called Suangna, or “Place of the Rushes”, near what is now the intersection of 230th Street and Utility Way in Carson. This land was originally a small part of the Spanish land grant called Rancho San Pedro, given to Juan Jose Dominguez in 1784. Jose Dolores Sepulveda had grazed cattle in the area below the Palos Verdes Peninsula since 1809, and had many on-going disputes with the Dominquez family over Sepulveda’s claim to a large portion of the Rancho San Pedro. During the period from 1865 to 1880, the Sepulvedas were engaged in 78 lawsuits, six land partitions suits, and 12 suits over eviction of squatters.

At the conclusion of these complicated law suits on September 25, 1882, Rancho de los Palos Verdes was partitioned into seventeen portions. The largest share, the 17,085 acres which constituted the Palos Verdes Peninsula, was awarded to Jotham Bixby, with only about 4,411 acres (most of the town of San Pedro) awarded to the family of Sepulveda. Nathaniel Andrew Narbonne and his partner Ben Weston received 3,574 acres which constitutes most of present day Lomita.

Narbonne had moved to Lomita from Sacramento’s gold rush country in 1852. He had initially worked with General Phineas Banning in Wilmington and later, with partner Ben Weston, grew wheat and raised sheep on Santa Catalina Island.

Lomita gets its name for the Spanish word for “little hills”. Development in Lomita began in earnest in the period of 1907 – 1909. In 1907, the W. I. Hollingsworth Company purchased a large tract of land just north of the Palos Verdes hills. The company intended to make the seven square mile subdivision a Dunkard colony after several of its clients, who were Dunkards, had expressed an interest in founding a settlement in the Los Angeles area.

In 1923, oil was discovered in the Lomita area. About 500 acres of land in Lomita were used for drilling for oil. Property values skyrocketed. Lots that had originally been purchased for $300 to $400 sold for as much as $35,000. In the 1930’s the predominant land use was for farming of celery and strawberries. Development boomed immediately after the end of World War II.

By the early 1960’s all but approx. 1.9 square miles of the original 7 square miles of the original development of Lomita had been annexed by the adjacent city of Torrance. After several unsuccessful attempts, the City of Lomita was incorporated on June 30, 1964. Lomita is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 1989, 1993, and 1999, the citizens of Lomita attempted to secede from the Los Angeles Unified School District, but were unsuccessful.