Editing Bell Gardens, California (section)

===American period===
One of his nine children, Vicente Lugo, married and built a two-story adobe home in 1850, located at 6360 Gage Avenue. A daughter of Antonio Lugo married [[Stephen Clark Foster|Stephen C. Foster]], [[Mayor of Los Angeles]] in 1854, and lived in an adobe house just east of 6820 Foster Bridge Road, now a parking lot. A granddaughter of Antonio Lugo married [[Wallace Woodworth]], an early-day merchant and civic leader in Los Angeles. Their eldest son, [[Joseph Woodworth]], built a two-story colonial style house at 6820 Foster Bridge Road in 1924. The land's original adobe dwelling was built in 1795 and named [[Casa de Rancho San Antonio]] by Lugo. When [[Henry T. Gage]], a lawyer who married Antonia Lugo's granddaughter Frances V. Rains, occupied the residence, he added two wings and redwood siding, installed bronze fireplaces, and imported expensive fabric wallpaper from France to serve as background for the Gage coat of arms, which enjoys a place of prominence in every room.

The Bell Gardens’ school system began in 1867 when the [[San Antonio School]] was built where Bell Gardens Elementary stands today. Area farmers sent their children to the San Antonio School, which was one of the earliest educational institutions in the County of Los Angeles.

Because of the rich soil, many Japanese immigrants are part of Bell Gardens’ early history. Japanese gardeners leased land and farmed to produce quality vegetables for the marketplace. Rice fields also mushroomed within the city limits of Bell Gardens. With some of the richest agricultural land in the country, Bell Gardens remained a farming community until the 1930s.

Beginning in the 1930s, cheap homes were constructed, filled largely by defense plant workers.<ref name="ericbrightwell.com"/> In 1927, [[Firestone Tire Company]] bought some of the land at $7,000 an acre. By 1900, Bell Gardens was divided into tracts of 40 to {{convert|100|acre|km2}}. The land adjoining the City of [[Bell, California|Bell]] became known as Bell Gardens. Both Bell Gardens and Bell are named for [[James George Bell]]. In 1930, O.C. Beck purchased property and begins to build affordable homes for those suffering through the depression era. It was during this period that the area was known as 'Billy Goat Acres'. To this day, Bell Gardens is affectionately known by this moniker.

[[World War I]] and [[World War II]] brought defense plants to the area that helped build the economic stability and the population, which led to construction of new homes, more schools, and a prosperous business climate.

This land used to be floodplains, farmlands split into long, narrow plots by depression-era developers. Tiny houses were sold and rented to [[Okies]] and Native Americans, forced from their homes by the [[Dust Bowl]]. By the 1980s, high-wage factories had left, taking with them virtually all of the whites and many of the blacks. In their places—coming from the Mexican states of Michoacan, Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas— were large families of immigrants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lamag.com/longform/arlene-rodriguez-queen-of-florencia/|title=The Queen of Florencia Los Angeles Magazine|first=Sam|last=Quinones|date=September 25, 2017}}</ref> Latinos moved here for work and some brought their small businesses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/pioneers-of-artistic-revolution-making-art-and-space-in-southeast-los-angeles|title=Pioneers of Artistic Revolution: Making Art and Space in Southeast Los Angeles|first=Vickie|last=Vértiz|date=April 8, 2014|website=KCET}}</ref> Thousands of Central Americans fleeing civil wars in the 1980s also came to the region and created small businesses and worked in the same service industry jobs.

By the 1990s, Colmar Elementary changed its name to Cesar E. Chavez Elementary and 85 percent of the residents of Bell Gardens were Hispanic.<ref name="kcet.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/city-rising/the-right-to-live-southeast-los-angeles-life-in-three-moments|title=The Right to Live: Southeast Los Angeles Life in Three Moments|first=Vickie|last=Vértiz|date=September 20, 2017|website=KCET}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CebCDAAAQBAJ&q=Bell+Gardens&pg=PA164 | title=The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, and Reality| isbn=9781421420387| last1=Teaford| first1=Jon C.| date=September 15, 2016}}</ref>

By 2013, approximately 122,000 homeowners in the southeast were Latina/o; a region where, prior to 1965, families of color could not live due to restrictive covenants.<ref name="kcet.org"/>

On September 30, 2014, Bell Gardens mayor Daniel Crespo was shot dead at his home. Police took Crespo's wife into custody. Daniel Crespo's brother, William Crespo, filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Crespo's wife, Lyvette 'Levette' Crespo.<ref>http://www.inquisitr.com/1553290/daniel-crespo-timeline-family-sues-for-wrongful-death-against-bell-gardens-wife/ Inquisitr.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bell-gardens-mayor-shot-20140930-story.html|title=Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo fatally shot at home|date=September 30, 2014|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=September 30, 2014}}</ref>