Tongva Era The
Tongva village of
Lupukngna was located in what became Huntington Beach, with an approximate location near the
Newland House Museum. Bolsa Chica was one of the areas where the Tongva would settle during the winter. The nearby village of
Genga, shared with the
Acjachemen, was located across the
Santa Ana River in what became
Newport Beach and
Costa Mesa.
American era The main thoroughfare of Huntington Beach,
Beach Boulevard, was originally a cattle route for the main industry of the Rancho. Once it was known as Shell Beach, the town of Smeltzer, and then Gospel Swamp for the revival meetings that were held in the marshland where the community college
Golden West College stands. Later it became known as Fairview and then Pacific City, as it developed into a tourist destination. In order to secure access to the
Pacific Electric Red Car lines that used to criss-cross Los Angeles and ended in Long Beach, Pacific City ceded enormous power to railroad magnate
Henry E. Huntington, and thus became a city whose name has been written into corporate sponsorship, and like much of the history of Southern California,
boosterism.
20th century The original
Huntington Beach Pier was built in 1904 and was a . Huntington Beach was incorporated on February 17, 1909, during the tenure of its first mayor, Ed Manning. Its first developer was Huntington Beach Company (formerly the West Coast Land and Water Company), a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington. The Huntington Beach Company is still a major land-owner in the city, and owns most of the local mineral rights. The company is wholly owned by the
Chevron Corporation. At one time, an encyclopedia company gave away free parcels of land (with the purchase of a complete set for $126) in the Huntington Beach area. The lucky buyers got more than they had bargained for when oil was discovered in the area, and enormous development of the oil reserves followed. Though many of the old reserves are depleted, and the price of land for housing has pushed many of the rigs off the landscape, oil pumps still dot the city. Huntington Beach was primarily agricultural in its early years with crops such as lima beans, asparagus, peppers, celery and sugar beets.
Holly Sugar was a major employer with a large processing plant in the city that was later converted into an oil refinery. The city's first high school,
Huntington Beach High School, located on Main Street, was built in 1906. The school's team, the Oilers, is named after the city's original natural resource.
Meadowlark Airport, a small general-aviation airport, existed in Huntington Beach from the 1940s until 1989.
Huntington Beach Speedway, a racetrack designed for
midget car racing, existed from 1946 until 1958.
21st century In 2023, Huntington Beach became involved in a lawsuit against California governor Gavin Newsom. In March 2023, the state sued Huntington Beach for failing to comply with state housing regulations. The suit brought by the state argued that the city’s ban on the processing of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) applications violated state housing laws. The state law required Huntington Beach to zone for 13,368 units to be built inside the city limits from October 2021 to 2029. The state had submitted and amended a complaint as of April 10, 2023, arguing that the city is in violation of the Housing Element Law. The state was seeking both penalties and injunctive relief. In addition to relief, the state was seeking the suspension of the city’s permitting authority and mandating the approval of certain projects. On September 12, 2025, the Fourth Circuit of the
California Courts of Appeal ruled against Huntington Beach's claim of exemption from consequences, and ordered the trial court to impose a 120-day deadline for the city to update its plan as well as state preemption of city permitting and zoning laws until the city complies with the law. The city responded to the state's lawsuit with a federal countersuit that argued it is not subject to state housing laws. Huntington Beach's lawsuit describes overturning the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) which determines how housing needs are allocated, and challenged RHNA on federal constitutional grounds. Huntington Beach council members have argued that local zoning should be left in control of the city. The state filed a motion on June 22, 2023, to dismiss the city’s federal lawsuit. As of November 15, 2023, a federal judge has dismissed Huntington Beach’s lawsuit against the state over housing mandates, and a petition by the city for an en banc rehearing of the case was denied by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on April 21, 2025. ==Geography==