Los Angeles County commissioned this 1888 map for a everyday cause — to record property holdings — but the event was an eye - catch , colorful artifact that seems to describe a landed estate of duel princedom .
And for a while , it was . begin in 1784 , first Spain and then Mexico cut up the Southland into vast pathway of soil , or ranchos , that say-so used to reinforce California ’s leading citizen and soldiers . These favourable rancheros then became virtual prince , ruling over their fiefs ( and armies of Indian jack ) from an adobe ranch theater .
But by the time V. J. Rowan made this function in 1888 , that much - romanticized era had long since passed . After the American conquering of California in 1847 , many alienee struggle to hold on to these ranchos as U.S. tax police and a awkward title - confirmation process impel them to betray or mortgage their vast land .
Still , the old land grant keep to exert their influence even as ownership exchange hands and the honest-to-goodness Bos taurus - raising operation pass off into history — which is why Rowan highlight them so prominently in his map . Rancho border influencedthe preference of street gridsas the their fresh owners subdivided the land to mould unexampled Ithiel Town , and many of their name — Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica , Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana , Rancho Santa Anita — survive today as the names of cities or streets .
Amid all these irregularly shaped ranchos , a orthogonal land grant ( shaded in orange ) stands out . These are the original pueblo lands of Los Angeles — four square Spanish leagues centre on the pueblo ’s historic plaza . Granted to the pueblo upon its 1781 founding , these lands defined L.A. ’s original city limits when it incorporated under U.S. natural law in 1850 . ( Another maptracks the annexation and consolidations that gave L.A. its straggle city limit of today . )
Keen oculus will find one more important detail : the Los Angeles County depicted here extends far to the south beyond its current margin . That ’s because the agricultural Town of the county ’s southern reaches — Anaheim , Santa Ana , Tustin — were still in middle ofa mussy divorcethat one year later , in 1889 , would create Orange County . [ Library of Congress ]
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