El Segundo History & Facts

El Segundo is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of the 2020 census, a 0.5% increase from 16,654 in the 2010 census.

The El Segundo and Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The area was once a part of Rancho Sausal Redondo ("Round Willow Patch Ranch"). Rancho Sausal Redondo extended from Playa Del Rey in the north to Redondo Beach in the south. Originally a Mexican land grant owned by Antonio Ygnacio Avila, the rancho was later purchased by a Scottish baronet named Sir Robert Burnett. After his return to Scotland, the property was purchased by then-manager of the rancho, Daniel Freeman. Daniel Freeman sold portions of the rancho to several persons. George H. Peck owned the 840 acres (340 ha) of land where the Chevron Refinery now sits. Peck also developed land in neighboring El Porto, where a street still bears his name. The city earned its name ("the second" in Spanish), as it was the site of the second Standard Oil refinery on the West Coast (the first was at Richmond in Northern California), when Standard Oil of California purchased the farm land in 1911.

The city was incorporated in 1917. The Standard Oil Company was renamed Chevron in 1984. The El Segundo refinery entered its second century of operation in 2011.

The Douglas Aircraft Company plant in El Segundo was one of the major aircraft manufacturing facilities in California during World War II. It was one of the major producers of SBD Dauntless dive bombers, which achieved fame in the Battle of Midway. The facility, now operated by Northrop Grumman, is still an aircraft plant.

The northern and southern boundaries of the town are Los Angeles International Airport and Manhattan Beach, with the Pacific Ocean as the western boundary. Its eastern boundary is roughly marked by Aviation Blvd.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.5 square miles (14 km2), over 99% of which is land.

Guinness World Records has listed El Segundo as having the most roads with a hill or grade.

The 2010 United States Census reported that El Segundo had a population of 16,654. The population density was 3,047.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,176.8/km2). The racial makeup of El Segundo was 12,997 (78.0%) White (69.1% non-Hispanic White), 337 (2.0%) African American, 68 (0.4%) Native American, 1,458 (8.8%) Asian, 38 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 799 (4.8%) from other races, and 957 (5.7%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2,609 persons (15.7%).

The Census reported that 16,578 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 66 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 10 (0.1%) were institutionalized.

El Segundo has many aviation-related and petroleum-related industries and operations.

The name was adopted in 1911 when Chevron built its second refinery, El Segundo, which is Spanish for "the Second". This refinery is controversial for receiving some of their crude oil from the Amazon region of South America - more than 5,000 barrels per day. In 1928 William Mines, an immigrant from Canada, leased land for a flying field. In 1930, Los Angeles Municipal Airport, later Los Angeles International Airport, opened north of El Segundo; its presence led to the concentration of aerospace and aviation-related firms in the El Segundo area.

Famous Peoples From El Segundo

John Van Hamersveld

John Van Hamersveld (born September 1, 1941, Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American graphic artist and illustrator who designed record jackets for pop and psychedelic bands from the 1960s onward. Among the 300 albums are the covers of Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles, Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones, and Hotter Than Hell by Kiss. His first major assignment, in 1963, was designing the poster for the surf film The Endless Summer, after which he served as Capitol Records' head of design from 1965 to 1968. During that time, he worked on the artwork for albums by Capitol artists such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys. He also oversaw the design of the psychedelic posters for the Pinnacle Shrine exposition.

In 1963, Van Hamersveld was hired by director and filmmaker Bruce Brown to design the iconic Endless Summer movie poster using a photograph taken by Bob Bagley, general manager and camera man for Bruce Brown Films. In the staged photograph originally taken at Salt Creek, Brown is positioned in the foreground with his surfboard on his head and the movie's two stars, Robert August and Mike Hynson, between Brown and the setting sun. He had learned this technique at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he took night classes, graduating later that year. He converted the photo into an abstract design by reducing each color to a single tone and giving each image a single, hard edge.

El Segundo Points of Interest

Automobile Driving Museum
The Point
Old Town Music Hall
R6 Distillery
ESMoA