Editing Camarillo, California (section)

===Early 20th century ===
Around 1910, the area for the original town site of Camarillo was beginning to be laid out. The town was centered around St. Mary Magdalen Church, which was to serve as the family chapel for Adolfo Camarillo.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://camarillobuilding.tripod.com/HTMLobj-241/WFultonArticle.pdf|title=Camarillo's Old Town Project May Be Model For Other Cities|last=Fulton|first=William|website=www.insidevc.com}}</ref> In 1927 Don Juan Camarillo, brother of Adolfo, donated {{convert|100|acre|km2}} to be used as a seminary to be named in honor of [[Saint John the Evangelist]]. The Roman Catholic seminary was opened in 1939 as [[St. John's Seminary (California)|St. John's Seminary]].<ref name="stjohn">{{cite web| url=http://stjohnsem.edu/history/ |title=History |publisher=St. John's Seminary |access-date=March 2, 2016}}</ref>

Camarillo's growth was slow from founding through World War II.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.citytowninfo.com/places/california/camarillo|title=Camarillo, California - City Information, Fast Facts, Schools, Colleges, and More|website=citytowninfo.com|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref> In the late 1940s, building lots on Ventura Boulevard, the main downtown street, were being offered for $450 and home lots on the adjoining streets were $250, with few buyers. Travel to and from Los Angeles was difficult, owing to the narrow, tortuous road climbing the Conejo Grade to the east of the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.venturaweekly.com/history/camarillo|title=History of Camarillo|website=www.venturaweekly.com|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref>

The main industry during this period was agriculture, and the area surrounding the small town was blanketed with orange, lemon and walnut groves. The State Mental hospital, that was built south of the town, was the largest employer. A few houses had sprung up to the north and south of town center. The Oxnard Army Air Field, built during World War II to the west of town, the Naval Air Facility at [[Point Mugu]] and the Seabee base at [[Port Hueneme]] brought many military personnel to the area, but there was little private industry or other source of non-agricultural employment.
{{stack|[[File:Library_at_the_Camarillo_Catholic_Seminary.jpg|thumb|[[St. John's Seminary (California)|St. John's Seminary]] was built on land donated by Juan Camarillo Jr. from his Rancho Calleguas in 1927.]]}}
Oxnard AAF closed at the end of World War II, but the Navy facilities remained open, with the airfield upgraded to [[Naval Air Station Point Mugu]] and the Seabee base becoming [[Naval Base Ventura County|Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme and Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme]]. With the [[Korean War]] and associated [[Cold War]] tensions, the former Oxnard AAF was reactivated in 1951 as [[Oxnard Air Force Base]], an [[Air Defense Command]] / [[Aerospace Defense Command]] fighter-interceptor base, that closed again in 1970 and became the present-day [[Camarillo Airport]].

In the mid-1950s, the [[Ventura Freeway]] was completed from Los Angeles to points north, making it an easy one-hour trip to Camarillo. The Old Town was bisect by the Ventura Freeway. On the southern side of the freeway contains a strip of businesses, churches, schools, and parks.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/camarillo/2019/09/30/old-town-camarillo-ca-courthouse-dizdar-park/2409632001/|title=Here's a first look at the big changes coming to Old Town Camarillo|last=Childs|first=Jeremy|date=September 30, 2019|newspaper=[[Ventura County Star]]|language=en|access-date=October 1, 2019}}</ref> The freeway was originally planned to follow the path of Potrero Road, south of Camarillo, which would have completely by-passed the soon-to-be city.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} However, after much debate, city officials persuaded [[Caltrans]] to lay the freeway parallel to Ventura Boulevard, creating the infamously steep descent from the [[Santa Monica Mountains]], known as the [[Conejo Grade]]. The grade is about {{convert|2.7|mi|km}} and posted as a 7% grade—which translates as about one thousand feet of elevation change in less than three miles (70 meters per kilometer). There is a [[California Highway Patrol]] brake inspection station at the top of the grade and a stop is mandatory for all 18-wheel trucks. The completion of the freeway facilitated the growth that followed. In 1962, the population was 7,500 and [[3M]] began construction for the [[3M|Mincom]] and Magnetic Tape Divisions, which would ultimately employ 900 people, becoming the largest local employer. That plant briefly housed a factory for 3M [[corporate spin-off|spinoff]] [[Imation]] before being closed in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|last=Allen|first=Brad|title=IMATION ANNOUNCES FURTHER MANUFACTURING OPTIMIZATION STEPS|url=http://ir.imation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=73967&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1177468&highlight=|publisher=Imation Corp.|access-date=May 24, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630072140/http://ir.imation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=73967&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1177468&highlight=|archive-date=June 30, 2014}}</ref>