Host City
Monterey Park, the first major Chinese city in America, has hosted this festival for many years and we would like you to share in the fun.
About the City
The City of Monterey Park is 7.73 square miles in size and located in the San Gabriel Valley, just east of Los Angeles. Incorporated on May 29, 1916, it is a City that combines almost a century of history and tradition with a modern approach to business, neighborhoods, people, and community.
As one of the most diverse and community-oriented cities in the area, it hosts numerous cultural, educational, and festive programs, many of which have received national attention, such as the Harmony Festival, a celebration of cultural diversity; the DARE Program, a drug abuse prevention program for youth; the Good Student Discount Program, a community/business partnership that rewards good students with discounts; and LAMP, a program to provide English-as-a-second language assistance. It is a City with a rich mix of people of many backgrounds.
City History
The original inhabitants of Monterey Park were Shoshone Indians, later renamed the Gabrielino Indians by the Spaniards. When Fathers Angel Somero and Pedro Canbon led the first parties of soldiers into the San Gabriel Valley in 1771, there were more than 4,000 Gabrielino residents.
By the early 1800's, the area now called Monterey Park was part of the Mission San Gabriel de Archangel and later, the Rancho San Antonio. The area first received a separate identity when Alessandro Repetto purchased 5,000 acres of the rancho and built his home, not far from where the Edison substation is now located on Garfield Avenue.
In 1916, the new residents of the area initiated action to become a city when the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Alhambra proposed to put a large sewage treatment facility in the area. The community voted itself into city hood on May 29, 1916, by a vote of 455 to 33. The City's new Board of Directors immediately outlawed sewage plants within city boundaries and named the new city Monterey Park. The name was taken from an old government map showing the oak-covered hills of the area as Monterey Hills. In 1920, a large area on the south edge of the city broke away and the separate city of Montebello was established.
By 1920, the white and Spanish-surname settlers were joined by Asian residents who began farming potatoes and flowers and developing nurseries in the Monterey Highlands area. They improved the Monterey Pass Trail with a road to aid in shipping their produce to Los Angeles. The nameless pass, which had been a popular location for western movies, was called Coyote Pass by Pioneer Masami Abe.
For more information on the history of Monterey Park, please visit the Monterey Park Historical Museum, (626) 307-1267, or the Bruggemeyer Memorial Library, (626) 307-1368.
A visual presentation of "Monterey Park... Then and Now" is available, here. 
