Editing Willowbrook, California (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2021}}
Long before the name "Willowbrook" was given, willows and a slow, shallow brook separated this portion of the Los Angeles plain from the rest of it. The original rancho boundary of the 1840s was a lone, streamside willow tree along the present intersection of 125th Street and Mona Boulevard.<ref name="History">[https://lacountylibrary.org/willowbrook-local-history/ History on the pages of the Los Angeles County Library]</ref>

In the early days, springs were abundant in Willowbrook. Winter rains brought up fine [[ryegrass]] stands between gravelly ridges left by the long-ago floods of the [[Los Angeles River]]. [[Cornelio Avila#Anastacio Avila|Anastacio Avila]] was grazing cattle on the land as early as 1820. The Mexican governor had granted him {{convert|3599|acre|km2}} acres by 1843. The grant was called [[Rancho La Tajauta]], and it extended from the marshes along present [[Alameda Street]] westward to approximately the present line of the [[Harbor Freeway]]. Within the area covered by Rancho La Tajauta is all of present-day Willowbrook.<ref name="History"/>

In 1894 and 1895, the first subdivisions in the Willowbrook area were registered along what is now [[Rosecrans Avenue]]. The name of Willowbrook was first formally used when Willowbrook Tract was recorded by the County Recorder in 1903. Next to the tract was the recently opened [[Pacific Electric Railway]] to [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]]. There is no indication that a townsite had been envisioned and that street patterns were not synchronized. The Willowbrook name came into use for the entire area, because Pacific Electric Railroad Company's Big Red Cars stopped at Willowbrook's 126th Street.<ref name="History"/> The first branch of the Los Angeles County Free Library was established in Willowbrook: "It was opened in April, 1913, in a private house, but has been located for several years since in the post office building."<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Los Angeles county free library 1912-1927. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015034608805?urlappend=%3Bseq=35 |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=HathiTrust |pages=29 | hdl=2027/mdp.39015034608805?urlappend=%3Bseq=35 |language=en}}</ref>

In Willowbrook, lot purchasers expected to live a definitely suburban life. The deep lots, sometimes 300 feet or 91 meters in depth, attracted working-class families, especially newcomers to Southern California. The Big Red Cars offered fast and convenient transport to shops in downtown Los Angeles and jobs in port areas of Long Beach and [[San Pedro, Los Angeles|San Pedro]]. During the [[Great Depression|Depression]] years, residents used the land behind their homes to cultivate fruits and vegetables, run hogs, and raise chickens. This use of land, along with the vacant lots filled with [[mustard plant]]s, enhanced the rural appearance of the area. Increased suburban growth occurred in Willowbrook after the end of the Depression and [[World War II]], but not so much that the agricultural character of the area was drastically modified. Even the [[Watts Riots]] of 1965 did not change that, although Willowbrook had a variety of buildings, including the community library of Willowbrook, damaged.<ref name="History"/>

The blend of agricultural and residential land use persisted at Willowbrook into the early 1980s, when a redevelopment plan drawn up by the [[Watts Labor Community Action Committee]] from 1965 to 1993 and funded by Los Angeles County caused the area to lose its rural character. {{convert|365|acre|km2}} acres of Willowbrook land were redeveloped under this plan to include new commercial and residential facilities. The appearance of present-day Willowbrook is similar to other communities in the South Central section of Los Angeles because of this.<ref name="History"/>