Indigenous history Native Americans lived along the
Glendale Narrows of the
Los Angeles River, known to the
Tongva people as
Paayme Paxaayt ("West River"), for thousands of years before the arrival of
European settlers. Villages in the Glendale–
La Crescenta-Montrose area included Ashwaangna,
Hahamongna, Maungna,
Tujunga and Wiqanga.
Spanish era In 1769, the
Portolá expedition established a permanent
Spanish presence in the area. Many of the native inhabitants were displaced in 1771 for use as
slave labor for the
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. This migration, together with European diseases such as
syphilis,
measles, and
smallpox, depopulated their communities. In 1784,
José María Verdugo, a
corporal in the Spanish army from
Baja California, received the
Rancho San Rafael from
Pedro Fages, the
Province of Las Californias' Lieutenant Governor, In 1798, Verdugo retired from the military and began expanding his ranch operations. Soon he had nearly 2,000 head of
cattle, 670
horses and 70
mules. With the help of his son, Julio, he built several
adobe structures for various uses. Workers grew
crops such as
grains,
peppers,
oranges,
figs,
grapes and
pomegranates, and also made
wine. When Jose Maria Verdugo died in 1831, his estate was divided between his son, Julio, and his daughter, Catalina. With the
cession of California to the United States following the
Mexican–American War, the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed with the
Public Land Commission in 1852, confirmed by the Commission in 1855, and the grant was
patented to Julio and Catalina Verdugo in 1882. In 1861, Julio Verdugo took out a
mortgage to build a larger house. Unable to make the loan payments, the family was forced into
bankruptcy proceedings. In 1871, the court divided the ranch into several parcels to satisfy the many claims against the Verdugos. The court gave Benjamin Dreyfus, of
California, the largest allotment: more than 8,000 acres, which later became
Eagle Rock and
Tropico.
Andrew Glassell and
Alfred Chapman were awarded the great
Rancho La Cañada and more than 2,000 acres of what is now
Highland Park and York Valley.
David Burbank was awarded 4,607 acres, and his property eventually became the neighboring city of
Burbank. On March 11, 1887,
Erskine Mayo Ross,
Cameron E. Thom, and several others, filed the first
plat for Glendale, described as "
Pasadena's first and only rival." It was bounded by First Street (now Lexington Drive) on the north, Fifth Street (now Harvard Street) on the south, Central Avenue on the west, and the Childs Tract on the east.
Incorporation and growth streetcar stops to pick up and drop off passengers in 1915. The city officially
incorporated in 1906. Also that year,
Forest Lawn Cemetery opened. An important civic
booster of the era was
Leslie Coombs Brand (1859–1925), who partnered with
Henry E. Huntington to bring the
Pacific Electric Railway, or the "Red Cars", to the area. The
Glendale–Burbank Line, which was operational from 1904 to 1955, ran from
Downtown Los Angeles to
Burbank via Glendale. At the railroad dedication celebration, Brand spoke of "his early dreams coming true, in which he pictured a country home in close proximity to the
city." Brand also owned Glendale Light & Power Company, the Miradero Water Company, and the Consolidated Water Company. The
architecture firm of Anderson and Murdock won a contract to construct a new
city hall in 1910, and it was completed in 1912. Pioneering
endocrinologist and entrepreneur
Henry R. Harrower opened his clinic in Glendale in 1920, which for many years was the largest business in the city. Following the 1922 demolition of the Atwater Tract Office,
Southern Pacific Railroad constructed the
Glendale Southern Pacific Railroad Depot. Glendale was served by the Southern Pacific Railroad's
Coast Daylight daytime and
Lark overnight passenger trains. The
Hotel Glendale, a six-story
beaux-arts building which boasted 160 rooms and two elevators, became Glendale's tallest building when it opened in 1925. Its location, at the intersection of Broadway and Glendale Avenue, was chosen because of its proximity to several transportation lines. The
Alexander Theatre opened in 1925, and featured
vaudeville performances and
silent films on a single screen. at
Grand Central Airport, circa 1933 The
Grand Central Airport opened in 1929. Within a year, the enterprise was sold to the
Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, managed by
C. C. Moseley, a co-founder of the future
Western Airlines. It became the city's largest employer. It was also at Grand Central that Moseley established the first of his private flying schools,
Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute (later renamed Cal-Aero Academy). The
Renaissance Revival-style
Glendale Main Post Office opened in 1934. Between 1935 and 1937, the
Works Progress Administration, under the supervision of the
United States Army Corps of Engineers,
channelized the
Verdugo Wash and built ten bridges over it. Other Works Progress Administration projects include
Glendale Community College's John A. Davitt Administration Building (1937) and the Glendale Civic Auditorium (1938).
Second World War and post-war development The
Second World War proved to be a boon to Glendale as Southern California became a major
staging area for the
Pacific War.
Grand Central Airport served as a training facility for
pilots and
mechanics, while a
foundry on San Fernando Road produced airplane parts. The Grayson Power Plant entered service in 1941, providing the city
energy independence. Also that year, the city launched a municipal
bus system named Glendale City Lines. In 1942, a new
Glendale City Hall, a
Works Progress Administration project in the
PWA Moderne style, was completed on the site of Glendale's first permanent city hall from 1912. In 1943, the
Los Angeles County Superior Court opened a
courthouse in Glendale. In 1948, the
Glendale News-Press moved to a new, 35,000-square-foot building across the street from City Hall. In October 1953, the
Glendale–Burbank Line came under the purview of
Metropolitan Coach Lines, which initiated a series of service reductions.
Interurban service ended in 1955, bringing an end to Glendale's
streetcar suburb era. With the proliferation of
jet aircraft, Grand Central Airport's relatively short 3,400-foot runway was unable to accommodate modern aircraft. In 1959, the airport shut down. In 1961,
Walt Disney purchased a large portion of the closed airport to establish a creative workshop for employees working on the construction of
Disney theme parks and attractions worldwide. Initially named WED Enterprises, the team came to be known as
Walt Disney Imagineering. Until as late as the 1960s, Glendale was a
sundown town, which meant that non-
white people were required to leave city limits by a certain time each day or risk arrest and possible violence. This was achieved through, among other methods,
racist housing
covenants and police intimidation. In 1964, Glendale was selected by
George Lincoln Rockwell to be the West Coast headquarters of the
American Nazi Party. In 1965, an anti-Nazi
political demonstration co-sponsored by several groups — Christians Against Bigotry, Anti-Nazi Congress of America, and Jewish Survivors of Concentration Camps — featured
actor Ronald Reagan as a speaker. The
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors became involved, amending a law regarding the activities of subversive groups, which was originally drafted in 1941 to control the
German American Bund. After a legal battle with the city of Glendale, the party moved their headquarters to
El Monte in 1966.
Demographic changes and urbanization The emergence of increasingly visible ethnic groups—including
Armenians,
Cubans,
Filipinos and
Koreans—changed the official discourse in Glendale. In 1972, C.E. Perkins, then
city manager, encouraged the
Rotary Club of Glendale to prepare itself as the city could no longer remain isolated in an increasingly diverse America. Through the 1970s, concurrent with increasing immigration into Glendale, was the city's rapid
urbanization. During this era, the
Glendale Freeway and the
Ventura Freeway were constructed. The
Glendale Galleria shopping mall opened in 1976, and was further expanded in 1982. In the 1980s, many
single-family homes in south Glendale were demolished for
apartment and
condominium construction. This construction boom resulted in Glendale's population growing at a rate 60% higher than that of the county at large, turning the city into a denser, younger and more cosmopolitan urban center. In 1983,
Larry Zarian was elected as the city's first Armenian
city council member, and in 1986, he became the city's first Armenian
mayor. In 1984, the city revived municipal bus service with the
Glendale Beeline. By 1990, Glendale was, proportionately, more immigrant than either the
city or
county of Los Angeles, with 45% of its residents being foreign-born.
Recent history On January 26, 2005, a
train crash occurred when a southbound
Metrolink commuter train collided with a
sport utility vehicle that had been abandoned on the tracks immediately south of the Chevy Chase Drive
grade crossing, on the Glendale-Los Angeles border. The train
jackknifed and struck trains on either side of it — one a stationary
Union Pacific freight train, and the other a northbound Metrolink train traveling in the opposite direction. The collision caused the deaths of 11 individuals and injured 177 more. By the late 2000s, Glendale had outgrown its "sleepy
bedroom community" reputation as an urban area of its own, in large part due to the
Americana at Brand lifestyle center and residential community. The new development was opened to the public in 2008, featuring 75 shops, restaurants, apartments, condominiums, and an 18-plex
cinema. In response to the Americana at Brand's opening, the Glendale Galleria underwent an extensive renovation in 2012. By 2014, the construction of thousands of
luxury apartments in downtown Glendale raised fears of
gentrification. In 2016, the
Museum of Neon Art's new location opened. The post-Americana development boom has also included several
hotels, such as a
Hampton Inn & Suites (2016), a
Hyatt Place (2017),
The Glenmark (2020) and a
Hotel Indigo (2025). There has also been an increase in "luxury
wellness" in Glendale, including an upcoming
Erewhon grocery store, "a
stone's throw from a lower-cost competitor,
Whole Foods Market." In 2021, the
Armenian American Museum broke ground in Central Park. In 2024, the
Martial Arts History Museum moved to an 8,000 square foot facility in downtown Glendale, the latest piece in the "new 'museum row' now that Glendale has the Neon Museum, the Armenian Museum and now the Martial Arts History Museum." ==Geography==