Early history For at least seven thousand years the land was populated by the
Tongva (
Gabrielino) Native Americans. The Tongva lived in dome like structures with thatched exteriors, with an open smoke hole for ventilation and light at the top. Both sexes wore long hair styles and tattooed their bodies. During warm weather the men wore few clothes, and the women wore minimal skirts made of animal hides. During the cold weather they would wear animal skin capes and occasionally wore sandals made from hide or yucca fiber. With the arrival of the Spaniards,
Old World diseases killed off many of the Tongva, and by 1870 very few Native-Americans had survived. In the early 19th century the area was part of the
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel mission system and later the
Rancho San Antonio.
1860s–1960s Following the
Civil War, an Italian, Alessandro Repetto, purchased of the rancho and built his ranch house on the hill overlooking his land, about a half-mile north of where
Garfield Avenue crosses the Pomona Freeway, not far from where the
Edison substation is now located on Garfield Avenue. In 1886, a northwestern portion of the rancho was bought by
Isaias Wolf Hellman, a Bavarian-born banker and philanthropist who is the namesake of Hellman Avenue, a street that partly forms the northern boundary of Monterey Park. It was at this time, Richard Garvey, a mail rider for the U.S. Army whose route took him through Monterey Pass, a trail that is now
Garvey Avenue, settled down in the King's Hills. Garvey began developing the land by bringing in spring water from near the Hondo River and by constructing a dam to form Garvey Lake located where Garvey Ranch Park is now. To pay for his development and past debts, Garvey began selling portions of his property. In 1906, the first subdivision in the area, Ramona Acres (named after the developer's daughter, who would also later inspire the title of the novel
Ramona), was developed north of Garvey and east of Garfield Avenues. 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 used as a location for western movies, was called Coyote Pass by Pioneer Masami Abe. Real estate became a thriving industry during the late 1920s with investors attracted to the many subdivisions under development and increasing commercial opportunities. The Midwick View Estates by Peter N. Snyder, a proposed garden community that was designed to rival
Bel Air and
Beverly Hills. Known as the "Father of the East Side", Mr. Snyder was a key player in the vast undertaking in the 1920s of developing the East Side as part of the industrial base of Los Angeles. His efforts to build Atlantic Boulevard, his work with the East Side organization to bring industry to the East Side, and his residential and commercial development projects along Atlantic Boulevard (Gardens Square, Golden Gate Square, and the Midwick View Estates) were a major influence to the surrounding communities. The focal point of the Midwick View Estates was "Jardin del Encanto", otherwise known as "El Encanto," a Spanish style building that was to serve as the administration building and community center for Midwick View Estates. The development also included an observation terrace above Jardin del Encanto and the fountain with cascading water going down the hillside in stepped pools to De La Fuente. Now known as Heritage Falls Park or "the Cascades." The
Great Depression brought an abrupt end to the real estate boom, as well as the Midwick proposal. From the late 1920s, the city had little development for nearly two decades.
1970s–1990s Beginning in the 1970s, middle-class ethnic
Asian Americans and Asian immigrants began settling in the west
San Gabriel Valley, primarily to Monterey Park. The City Council of Monterey Park subsequently tried and failed to pass English-only ordinances. In 1985 the Council approved drafting of a proposal that would require all businesses in Monterey Park to display
English language identification on business signs. In the 1980s, Monterey Park was referred to as "Little
Taipei" or "The Chinese Beverly Hills." Frederic Hsieh, a local realtor who bought land in Monterey Park and sold it to newly arrived immigrants, is credited with engendering Monterey Park's Chinese American community. Many businesses from
the Chinatown in downtown LA began to open up stores in Monterey Park. In the 1970s and 1980s, many affluent
waisheng ren Taiwanese immigrants moved abroad from
Taiwan and began settling into Monterey Park.
Mandarin Chinese became the most widely spoken language in many Chinese businesses of the city during that time, displacing
Cantonese that had been common previously. Cantonese has dominated the
Chinatowns of North America for decades, but Mandarin is the most common language of Chinese immigrants in the past few decades. In 1983,
Lily Lee Chen became the first Chinese American woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. city. By the late 1980s, immigrants from
mainland China and
Vietnam began moving into Monterey Park. By the 1990 census, Monterey Park became the first city with an Asian descent majority population in the continental United States. Timothy P. Fong, a professor and director of Asian American studies at
California State University, Sacramento, describes Monterey Park as the "First Suburban
Chinatown." From that time, with a combined influx of Vietnamese, Taiwanese and
Hong Kong immigrant students at the time,
Mark Keppel High School, constructed during the
New Deal era and located in
Alhambra, but also serving most of Monterey Park and portions of
Rosemead, felt the impact of this new immigration as the student population increased dramatically, leading to overcrowding. Today, many students are second or third-generation Asian Americans. In 1988, the City of Monterey Park passed an ordinance declaring a moratorium on new building, in an attempt to regulate the rapid growth the city experienced as a result of the influx of Asian immigrants. This moratorium was challenged and defeated in 1989. This controversial move caused many Asian residents and businesses to shift focus, establishing themselves in the neighboring city of
Alhambra. When the potential loss of business revenue was recognized, "Monterey Park went through a lot of upheaval that a lot of people regret," and relocation back to Monterey Park was highly encouraged in the
Asian American community. Since the early 1990s, Taiwanese people are no longer the majority in the city. The construction boom of shopping centers had declined, but plans for redevelopment sought to change that. High property values and overcrowding in Monterey Park have contributed to a secondary migration away from Monterey Park.
2000s–present Redevelopment produced several projects included the massive Atlantic Times Square development that opened in 2010 with ground-floor shops and restaurants. The Atlantic Times Square, which has , is anchored by a multi-plex theater and a fitness center, in addition to eating establishments and other stores. The development includes 210 condos on the third through sixth floors. Monterey Park Village is a 40,000 sq. ft. shopping center on South
Atlantic Boulevard commercial corridor. In 2017, Monterey Park was recognized as "America's Best Places to Live 2017" ranked at #3 by Money magazine and three local news TV stations. It also ranked at #2 in Money Magazine's "The 10 Best Places in America to Raise a Family". On January 21, 2023,
a mass shooting occurred at a dance studio in the city, after a
Chinese New Year celebration where twenty people were shot, killing eleven of them, and injuring nine others. The gunman, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, fled and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in
Torrance the next day. In April 2026, Monterey Park became the first city in California to ban data centers within its limits. ==Geography==