Editing Norwalk, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Portrait_of_Don_Juan_Temple,_an_early_owner_of_the_Ranch_Los_Cerritos_in_Long_Beach.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Much of modern-day Norwalk was part of [[Rancho Los Cerritos]], owned by Don [[Juan Temple]].]]

<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[File:Norwalk1957.jpg|thumb|Norwalk in 1957]] -->

The area known as "Norwalk" was first home to the [[Shoshonean]] Native American tribe. They survived primarily on [[honey]], an array of berries, acorns, sage, squirrels, rabbits and birds. Their huts were part of the Sejat Indian village.<ref>[https://www.norwalk.org/about-us/general-info-statistics General Info & Statistics | City of Norwalk, CA]</ref>

In the late 1760s, settlers and missions flourished under Spanish rule with the famous [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] trail traversing the area. [[Rancho Los Nietos|Manuel Nieto]], a Spanish soldier, received a [[Spain|Spanish]] land grant ([[Rancho Los Nietos]]) in 1784 that included Norwalk.

After the [[Mexican–American War]] in 1848, the Rancho and mining days ended. Portions of the land were subdivided and made available for sale when [[California]] was admitted into the union of the United States. Word of this land development reached the Sproul Brothers in Oregon. They recalled the fertile land and huge sycamore trees they saw during an earlier visit to the Southern California area. In 1869, Atwood Sproul, on behalf of his brother, Gilbert, purchased {{convert|463|acre|km2}} of land at $11 an acre ($2,700/km<sup>2</sup>) in an area known as ''Corazón de los Valles'', or "Heart of the Valleys".<ref>Long Beach Press-Telegram, December 23, 1923, Page 44</ref>

By 1873, railroads were being built in the area and the Sprouls deeded {{Convert|23|acre|m2}}, stipulating a "passenger stop" clause in the deed. Three days after the Anaheim Branch Railroad crossed the "North-walk" for the first time, Gilbert Sproul surveyed a town site. In 1874, the name was recorded officially as Norwalk. While a majority of the Norwalk countryside remained undeveloped during the 1880s, the Norwalk Station allowed potential residents the opportunity to visit the "country" from across the nation.<ref>McGroarty, J. S. (1923). History of Los Angeles County. United States: American Historical Society, Incorporated. p.544 " in the winter of 1868 he and his brother Gilbert H. bought 457 acres of unimproved land at what is now Norwalk, the original portion of the Sproul ranch costing only eleven dollars an acre. The village of Norwalk stands on this ranch. Immediately after locating on the property, Atwood Sproul built a livery barn and began buying, selling and training horses. A number of splendid horses were kept there. One of them was Conveth, a chestnut horse that sold for $ 10,000 as a yearling . The Sproul Brothers gave the right of way and depot grounds, altogether twenty-three acres, to the railroad . In the deed conveying this property was a clause compelling maintenance of daily train service for the station at Norwalk. This clause proved very valuable to the citizens of the community. At one time the railroad declined to stop for passengers. "</ref>

The families referred to as the "first families" of Norwalk (including the Sprouls, the Dewitts, the Settles, and the Orrs) settled in the area in the years before 1900. D.D. Johnston pioneered the first school system in Norwalk in 1880. Johnston was also responsible for the first real industry in town, a cheese factory, by furnishing Tom Lumbard with the money in 1882. Norwalk's prosperity was evident in the 1890s with the construction of a number of fine homes that were located in the middle of orchards, farms and dairies. Headstones for these families can be found at Little Lake Cemetery, which was founded in 1843 on the border between Norwalk and [[Santa Fe Springs]] at Lakeland Road.
[[File:Norwalk_depot.png|alt=Norwalk, CA depot with deep eaves, loading docks and storefronts. A wagon, fully laden with milk cans is in front.|left|thumb|Norwalk depot and a wagon loaded with milk cans, 1910]]
At the turn of the 19th century, Norwalk had become established as a dairy center. Of the 50 local families reported in the 1900 census, most were associated with farming or with the dairy industry. Norwalk was also the home of some of the largest sugar beet farms in all of Southern California during this era. Many of the dairy farmers who settled in Norwalk during the early part of the 20th century were Dutch.

[[File:Norwalk Town Square sign.jpg|thumb|Norwalk Town Square sign at night; the sign was completed in 1954 by the [[Pacific Life Insurance Company]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Norwalk Square Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=65827 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref>]]

After the 1950s, the Hispanic population in Norwalk grew significantly as the area became increasingly residential.

===Airplane disaster===
In February 1958, two military aircraft, a Douglas [[C-118]]A military transport and a U.S. Navy [[P-2 Neptune|P2V]]-5F Neptune patrol bomber, collided over Norwalk at night. Forty-seven servicemen were killed, as was a civilian 23-year-old woman on the ground who was hit by falling debris. A plaque commemorating the disaster and erected by the American Legion in 1961 marks the spot of the accident, today a mini-mall at the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Pioneer Boulevard.

===The Hargitt House===
Built in 1891 by the D.D. Johnston family, the [[Hargitt House]] was built in the architectural style of [[Eastlake movement|Victorian Eastlake]]. The Hargitt House Museum, located at 12426 Mapledale, was donated to the people of Norwalk by Charles ("Chun") and Ida Hargitt.<ref>{{cite web|title=Parks & Recreation: Historic Norwalk|url=http://www.ci.norwalk.ca.us/city-hall/departments/recreation-park-services/historic-norwalk|publisher=City of Norwalk|access-date=January 12, 2016}}</ref>

===The Sproul House===
[[File:Historic_Sproul_House_Exterior.png|alt=façade of the historical Sproul house in Norwalk. There is a porch on the right and a a flagpole in front flying an American flag.|left|thumb|Historic Sproul House]]
The [[Sproul House]] is a [[Stick Style]]-influenced,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Perissinotti|first1=Frank|title=Diagram of a Stick-Eastlake house |url=http://www.stclaircollege.ca/people/pages/fperissi/arc300ge/week8/STICK_EASTLAKE_VILLA.gif| website=Visual Communications – History of Architecture|date=2002}}</ref><ref name="Shrock2004">{{cite book|last=Shrock|first=Joel|title=The Gilded Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ey_j6sPJbgQC&pg=PA75|date=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32204-4|page=75 |quote=small wooden boards [...] that were often horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. [...] These decorative cross timbers were also called stickwork.}}</ref><ref name=McAlester>{{cite book|last=McAlester|first=Virginia & Lee|title=A Field Guide to American Houses|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoamer00mcal|url-access=registration|year=1984|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=0-394-73969-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoamer00mcal/page/254 254–261]}}</ref> [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] farm house built in 1870 by the founder of Norwalk, Gilbert Sproul. He and his family lived there while he founded Norwalk. His descendants lived in the house continually until 1962 when it was donated to the city.<ref>Burt, Tim (Jul 3, 1977) "Early Norwalk Lives at Sproul Museum"
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Page 31 "Not many families open up their houses to thousands of visitors a year But that's what Vida Sproul Hunter did in 1962 when she donated the home of her grandfather Gilbert H Sproul to the city of Norwalk Since then schoolchildren and history buffs have visited the museum taking particular interest in such items as Civil War guns an old-fashioned disc-record set and farming equipment of the pre-1900s There is also an 1877 piano which according to museum curator Billie Robinson still sounds good A 1910 Edison phonograph is also on display...Sproul purchased the property in 1868 and built the house in 1870.  The house was moved in 1962 to its current location on Sproul Street and was opened to tourists in 1964. 'Most of the items we collected from residents when we opened in 1962' Mrs Robinson said 'All of the guns are from the Sproul family '. Vida Sproul Hunter was the last Sproul to live in the house After that the house was rented for a while and then donated to the city. During one year 28000 people toured the house. They've come from all over the area to see it. The house has remained basically the same structurally according to Mrs Robinson 'It's a well-built house to stand up this long We added a workshop and an office for me but those are the only changes '"</ref> Today it houses the Gilbert Sproul Museum which covers Norwalk history through artifacts, photos, documents and other interpretive elements.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Reece |first1=Daphne |title=Historic Houses of California |date=1983 |publisher=San Francisco, CA : Chronicle Books |isbn=0877012725 |page=114 |url=https://archive.org/details/historichousesof00reec/page/114/mode/2up?q=%22Gilbert+Sproul+house%22 |access-date=May 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/historichousesof00reec/page/114/mode/2up |archive-date=January 23, 2012 |quote="Gilbert Sproul House 1970 Norwalk's founder, Gilbert Sproul, built this simple redwood home with few pretensions to architectural style. An adventurous Yankee from Maine, Sproul had traveled widely in the West Indies and the Orient before settling down as a lumber baron in Oregon; he also was quick to sense the opportunities when Southern California's great ranchos were subdivided and settlers poured into the state. His house became the scene of many of Norwalk's early town meetings. Donated with all its original furnishings to the city by Sproul's granddaughter in 1964, it is now a museum furnished with contemporary antiques."}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite book |title=A Guide to historic places in Los Angeles County : prepared under the auspices of the History Team of the City of Los Angeles American Revolution Bicentennial Committee |date=1978 |publisher=Dubuque, Iowa : Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co. |pages=232–233 |isbn=978-0-8403-7501-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetohistoricp0000unse_o3k1/page/232/mode/2up |access-date=May 3, 2023 |quote="Gilbert Sproul, founder of Norwalk, built this redwood home for himself and his family in 1870. Many town meetings were held in this house, which was one of the first homes in the Norwalk area. Sproul's granddaughter, Vida Sproul Hunter, donated the home to the City, which moved the building about 100 yards to its present location, where since 1964 it has been open to the public as the Sproul Museum. Inside is now a city museum in Norwalk Park. Original furniture, much of which dates back to 1870, along with materials relating to the history of Norwalk, such as maps, early school pictures, and other city photographs. In addition there are displays of dolls, guns, and Indian artifacts."}}</ref>