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Hub
City Celebrates 120 Years This Weekend
Big street
party expected to draw thousands
By
Cheryl Scott
Bulletin Staff Writer
It
has been 120 years since the city of Compton was incorporated on May
11, 1888, and the city is throwing a giant street party to celebrate.
The event will take place this weekend, May 9, 10 and 11 at the Civic
Center in front of the Compton Court House.
Mayor Eric J. Perrodin and the Compton City Council will host the event,
with the mayor kicking off the celebration Friday with opening remarks
at 5:45 p.m. Live musical performances from top-charting and classic
artists will follow.
“We have a great celebration planned,” said Vernell McDaniel,
deputy city clerk. “There will be carnival rides, live bands
and lots of food vendors. We hope everyone will come out and celebrate
with us.”
On Saturday, the Compton, Centennial and Dominguez high school marching
bands will perform an informal “battle of the bands,” with
the winner being decided by popular vote.
There will be arts and crafts for kids on all three days, and on Sunday
at 11 a.m. a petting zoo will open. Video games will be available on
Friday and Sunday.
Polynesian and Mexican cuisine will be available for purchase, and
all food and clothing vendors will represent the city’s diverse
culture.
The event will close with a fireworks spectacular at 8 p.m. on Sunday.
KGLH radio personalities Guy Black, Lon McCue and Janine Haydel will
be there, and on Sunday, Andre Russell will broadcast live from the
event at noon.
Barbecue will be served in a replica of a cabin, setting the tone for
a look back into the city’s history.
“This city has a long history,” said City Councilwoman
Yvonne Arceneaux. “We’ve been preparing this celebration
for the last year, and it will be a wonderful event for our citizens
to enjoy.”
The celebration is being held to bring attention to the Hub City’s
legacy, Arceneaux said. “We have endured earthquakes, white flight,
economic hard times and other setbacks, but we have maintained our
city despite all of that.”
Compton was officially incorporated on May 11, 1888. The new city,
with a population of 500 people, held its first city council meeting
on May 14, 1888 in the home of William H. Carpenter.
Known as the Hub City because of its location in nearly the exact geographical
center of Los Angeles County, Compton is one of the oldest cities in
the county and the eighth to incorporate. The first residents were
30 pioneering families, who settled here in 1867. They were led
to the area by Griffith Dickenson Compton in a wagon train from Stockton
in search of ways to earn a living other than the gold fields, which
were depleting.
A devastating flood threatened to wipe out the community, and rising
waters forced the Compton party to take to high ground. Some
considered leaving, but in the end the families decided to stay, purchasing
4,600 acres that were part of the Spanish land grants. The price for
the land was $5 an acre.
Land may have been cheap, but life was not easy in the new settlement.
Firewood had to be brought in from Pasadena. The only two stores in
the area were in Los Angeles and Wilmington.
But the little town known as Comptonville was destined to survive.
By 1888 the citizens decided to incorporate in order to improve their
local government. They incorporated all the land one mile east and
west of Wilmington Avenue (now Willowbrook Avenue), and from Greenleaf
on the south to a quarter-mile north of Rosecrans. The new city’s
population was 500.
During the 1920s Compton Airport was opened, as was Compton Junior
College. The 1930s brought a devastating earthquake that caused injury
and death and did great damage to the city’s commerce district.
But the decade also saw the beginning of recovery from the Great Depression.
During the 1940 and ’50s the first African-American families
moved to the area, and Centennial High school was built to accommodate
the growing student population. During the ’60s, voters elected
Douglas Dollarhide, the city’s first African-American mayor. Two
African Americans and one Mexican American were elected to the school
board.
Between the 1970s and the 1990s, under the direction of the Community
Redevelopment Agency (CRA), the city transformed over 1,500 acres of
unused and underutilized land into Walnut Industrial Park. This
industrial and commercial complex houses some of the largest national
and international corporations, including 3-M, Datsun, Ralphs and Xerox.
With routing of the Blue Line through the city, Compton constructed
the Martin Luther King Jr. Transit Center, which is a central resting
point for bus transit carriers, interfacing with the Long Beach/Los
Angeles Metro Blue Line System, the Metropolitan Transit Authority
(MTA), Greyhound Bus Lines and the Compton Renaissance Transit.
During this same period of time, a new city hall was constructed at
205 S. Willowbrook Ave., the Crystal Park Hotel and Casino was built,
the downtown area was rebuilt and hundreds of single-family homes,
town homes and condominiums were erected.
You can get a glimpse of the city’s past at the Heritage House
at the northwest corner of Willowbrook Avenue and Myrrh Street. The
house was built in 1969 and is a State Historic Landmark. It is the
oldest house in Compton, and
it was restored as a tribute to the early settlers.
“We’ve gone all out to hold this celebration,” said
McDaniel. “It’s
a three-day street party with plenty of fun for everyone. We are expecting
large crowds on all three days. Some of the best bands in the area
will be providing continuous music and there will – literally – be
dancing in the streets.”
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