LOS ANGELES, Ms rin'gal-•, or 5n'j.'l-cs. The largest city of southern California. and the county-seat of Los Angeles County, 481) miles southeast of San Francisco; on the Los Angeles River, 20 miles from its mouth, and on the Southern California, the South Pacific. and the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroads (Map: California. D 4). It is immediately south of the Sierra Madre range. and l,' miles cast of the Pacific Ocean, though San Pedro, its seaport, a city with a harbor vessels of 20 feet draught. and having (1000) 1797 inhabitants, is distant 25 miles.
Los Angeles is renowned for its beauty. and for the healthfulness of its mild, equable cli mate. Its broad avenues are embowered in luxuriant foliage, and the adjacent orange groVI'.{ and tine fruit gardens present a marked contrast to the barren coasts of the vast unirriJated re gion thereabouts. In the vicinity are other place; celebrated as pleasure. health, and seaside resorts, notably Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, and Santa Catalina lslind. The city is the seat of a State normal school, Saint SiVincent's Col lege (Roman Catholic), opened in 1'305. Univer sity of Southern California (Methoaist Episco pal). opened in 1SS'0, and Occidental College (Presbyterian), opened in 1887. Among the prominent buildings arc the city hall, county court-house. Federal building, opera house, Bo man Catholic cathedral, and the Blanchard Art Building. Also of interest are the 01(1 Plaza Church. the headquarters of General Friunont, the viaduct of the electric street-car road over the railroad tracks in the eastern part of the city, the district known as Chinatown, and Sonora Town. There are a public library of 60,000 vol umes, several hospitals and asylums, beautiful cemeteries, a crematory, and magnificent botani cal gardens and parks—notably Elysian. West lake, Eastlake, Echo, Hollenbeek, Griffith, Cen tral, and l'laza parks. More than 3700 acres in parks are accessible to the public; of these fully 3000 acres are outside the city limits.
Los Angeles has important fruit-growing and shipping interests, and is an extensive wine-mak ing place. Oranges and lemons are by far the leading exports, but there is a large trade alst in cereals and garden stuff. The city is the mining centre for southern California and Arizona, the surrounding region having valuable deposits of gold. silver, lead, and coal, and producing as phalt and petroleum. The refining of petroleum is an important industry in Los Angeles.
The government is vested in a mayor. biennial ly elected; a unicameral council; and adminis trative departments. The public library is in charge of five trustees appointed by the execu tive; the police, fire, park, and health depart ments are each in the hands of four commissioners elected by the council, the mayor being ex officio member of these bodies and chairman; the department of eductition is under the control of a hoard of nine members, one from each ward, chosen by popular election. The city spends an nually in maintenance and operation over $1, 350,000, the main items of expense being about $445,000 for schools. 8130.000 for the police de partment, $125,000 for the fire department, $90. 000 for street-cleaning, $55,000 for parks, and $45,000 for municipal lighting.
Los Angeles was settled by the Spaniards as Puebla de Nuestra Sefiora in Reina de los Angeles (City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels) in 1781. and until 1847 alternated with :Monterey as the scat of government for the Mexican Province of California. In 1846 it was taken by Commodore Stockton, U.S.N., after slight opposition. In 1851 it was chartered as city. Population, in 1850, 1(110; in 1860, 4385; in 1870. 5728; in 1880, 11,183; in 1890, 50,395; in 1900, 102.479, with a foreign-born population of 20.000, and a total colored population of 4400, including 2100 persons of negro descent.