Wave Staff Report
HUNTINGTON PARK — County Supervisor Janice Hahn honored the city of Huntington Park on the occasion of its 120th anniversary Sept, 22. Hahn made a special recognition of Mayor Eddie Martinez, Vice Mayor Jonathan A. Sanabria and City Councilwoman Nancy Martiz during the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting.
“Huntington Park has changed dramatically over these last 120 years: the population has grown, neighborhoods have developed, and businesses have changed with the times,” Hahn said. “But the things that define it and make it great have remained constant: family, hard work, resilience, entrepreneurship and pride in community.”
Huntington Park, which is in Hahn’s district, has a population of approximately 61,000 and is located in the Southeast Los Angeles and Gateway Cities regions. Among its most notable features is its bustling commercial corridor along Pacific Boulevard, home to dozens of locally owned businesses as well as the historic Warner Theater.
The Warner, along with its sister theater the Warner Grand in San Pedro, was designed by renowned architect B. Marcus Priteca, whose other notable works include the Hollywood Pantages and the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.
Pacific Boulevard also hosts the city’s annual Christmas Parade.
The parade was first held in 1946 and was one of the earliest live-televised holiday parades. In 1952 it made history as the first live event to be broadcast on both radio and television in both English and Spanish. In the decades since, the parade has reached national fame, becoming the only holiday parade in the country to win the prestigious Film Advisory Board National Award of Excellence. Hahn served as the parade’s grand marshal in 2023.
“We are deeply honored to receive this recognition from Supervisor Janice Hahn in celebration of Huntington Park’s 120th milestone anniversary,” Mayor Martinez said. “Huntington Park is a vibrant tapestry woven from immigrants, hard-working laborers, people of faith, the LGBT community, and residents from all walks of life.
“No matter the challenges we face, our community confronts adversity with unwavering strength and refuses to back down. That unstoppable spirit is the true resilience of our city.”
Huntington Park has its roots in an 1899 purchase of land by real estate developers A.L. Burbank and E.V. Baker, who later named the area Sunrise Tract. Burbank and Baker subdivided the land and later renamed it La Park, but in 1902 they changed the name once again to Huntington Park to entice Henry Huntington to extend a line of his Pacific Electric Railway through the city.
They were eventually successful, and in 1903, Huntington extended his Whittier Line through the city along what is now Randolph Street. Huntington Park was incorporated as a city on Sept. 1, 1906, when the Board of Supervisors approved the community’s third petition for incorporation.
