Editing Lemon Grove, California (section)

==History==
The area that eventually became Lemon Grove was part of [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]], one of the [[Spanish missions in California]]. After [[Mexican War of Independence|Mexico became independent from Spain]], the [[Californio]]s (residents of [[Alta California]]) ranched on various [[land grant]]s. The area that now includes Lemon Grove was granted to [[Santiago Argüello]], who received more than 59,000 acres.<ref name="HisSoc">Helen M. Ofield & Pete Smith, ''Images of America: Lemon Grove, Lemon Grove Historical Society'' (Arcadia: 2010).</ref>

The first proprietor of Lemon Grove, Robert Allison, arrived in the region in 1850, coming from [[Sacramento]]. He purchased thousands of acres from Santiago Argüello's heirs; this land eventually became Lemon Grove, [[La Mesa, California|La Mesa]], [[Encanto, San Diego|Encanto]], and part of [[Spring Valley, San Diego County, California|Spring Valley]]. Allison became a director and stockholder of the San Diego and Cuyamaca Railroad in 1886 and built the Allison Flume.<ref name="HisSoc"/> Allison's son Joseph filed subdivision maps for "Lemon Grove" in 1892. The name is attributed to Joseph's mother, Tempa Waterman Allison. The climate was suitable for the cultivation of [[subtropical fruit]]s and vegetables, and farmers from the East and Midwest flocked to the region.<ref name="HisSoc"/> The Lemon Grove Fruit Growers Association was formed in 1893; in 1894, the ''[[The San Diego Union-Tribune|San Diego Union]]'' newspaper referred to Lemon Grove as "a sea of lemon trees."<ref name="HisSoc"/>

Joseph and Anton Sonka, [[Czech American|immigrants from Bohemia]], moved to Lemon Grove after stints in Seguin, Texas, and San Diego. The brothers opened a well-known [[general store]], A. Sonka and Son. In 2023, the historical building that was once Sonka's general store became [https://grovebistro.com Lemon Grove Bistro].

Anthony "Tony" F. Sonka, the eldest son of Anton Sonka and his [[German American]] wife Anna Klein Sonka, was also a local notable. He was a key supporter of the huge lemon that became the town's symbol and landmark.<ref name="HisSoc"/> Sonka and a committee of local ranchers hired local architect Alberto Treganza to build the huge lemon to "make the ultimate statement about the town's purpose, prosperity, and optimism."<ref name="HisSoc"/>

In the [[Lemon Grove Incident]] in 1931, [[Mexican American]] parents in Lemon Grove pursued a successful judicial challenge against the decision of the local school board to build a separate school for Mexican American pupils. The decision of the [[California superior courts|Superior Court]] for San Diego County in ''Alvarez v. Lemon Grove'' was the first successful lawsuit against [[school segregation]].<ref>Matt S. Meier & Margo Gutiérrez, ''The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia'' (Greenwood, 2003), p. 215.</ref><ref>Mike Madrid, "The Lemon Grove Desegregation Case: A Matter of Neglected History" in ''Latino Civil Rights in Education: La Lucha Sigue'' (Routledge, 2016: eds. Anaida Colón-Muñiz & Magaly Lavadenz), pp. 52–57.</ref>

By [[World War II]], most of the citrus groves had disappeared and [[suburbanization]] had begun.<ref name="HisSoc"/> There had been four elections on [[municipal incorporation|incorporation]] from the 1950s to the 1970s; the issue caused heated debate in the town. The city was finally incorporated on July 1, 1977, becoming California's 414th city.<ref name="HisSoc"/> Lemon Grove was incorporated as a general-law city;<ref>"General law" means under the provisions established by the legislature, as opposed to a charter city which would have more local-government options. [http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/localweb.html UCB Institute for Governmental Studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612073449/http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/localweb.html |date=June 12, 2008 }}</ref><!-- Wikipedia needs short article on "General law (California)" --> however, it continues to receive law enforcement services, via contract, from the [[San Diego County Sheriff's Office]].<ref>[http://www.sdsheriff.net/patrolstations/lemongrove.html San Diego County Sheriff's Lemon Grove Station]</ref>