Norwalk, California, United States

🇺🇸 Norwalk is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the 58th most densely-populated city in California.

Founded in the late 19th century, Norwalk was incorporated as a city in 1957. It is located 17 miles (27 km) south-east of downtown Los Angeles and is part of the Greater Los Angeles area.

Norwalk is a member of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments. Norwalk's sister cities are Morelia in the Mexican state of Michoacán, and Hermosillo, in the Mexican state of Sonora.

History The area known as "Norwalk" was first home to the Shoshonean Native American tribe. They survived primarily on honey, an array of berries, acorns, sage, squirrels, rabbits and birds. Their huts were part of the Sejat Indian village.

In the late 1760s, settlers and missions flourished under Spanish rule with the famous El Camino Real trail traversing the area. Manuel Nieto, a Spanish soldier, received a Spanish land grant (Rancho Los Nietos) in 1784 that included Norwalk.

After the Mexican–American War in 1848, the Rancho and mining days ended. Portions of the land were subdivided and made available for sale when California was admitted into the union of the United States. Word of this land development reached the Sproul Brothers in Oregon. They recalled the fertile land and huge sycamore trees they saw during an earlier visit to the Southern California area. In 1869, Atwood Sproul, on behalf of his brother, Gilbert, purchased 463 acres (1.87 km²) of land at $11 an acre ($2,700/km²) in an area known as Corazón de los Valles, or "Heart of the Valleys".

By 1873, railroads were being built in the area and the Sprouls deeded 23 acres (93,000 m²), stipulating a "passenger stop" clause in the deed. Three days after the Anaheim Branch Railroad crossed the "North-walk" for the first time, Gilbert Sproul surveyed a town site. In 1874, the name was recorded officially as Norwalk. While a majority of the Norwalk countryside remained undeveloped during the 1880s, the Norwalk Station allowed potential residents the opportunity to visit the "country" from across the nation.

The families referred to as the "first families" of Norwalk (including the Sprouls, the Dewitts, the Settles, and the Orrs) settled in the area in the years before 1900. D.D. Johnston pioneered the first school system in Norwalk in 1880. Johnston was also responsible for the first real industry in town, a cheese factory, by furnishing Tom Lumbard with the money in 1882. Norwalk's prosperity was evident in the 1890s with the construction of a number of fine homes that were located in the middle of orchards, farms and dairies. Headstones for these families can be found at Little Lake Cemetery, which was founded in 1843 on the border between Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs at Lakeland Road.

At the turn of the 19th century, Norwalk had become established as a dairy center. Of the 50 local families reported in the 1900 census, most were associated with farming or with the dairy industry. Norwalk was also the home of some of the largest sugar beet farms in all of Southern California during this era. Many of the dairy farmers who settled in Norwalk during the early part of the 20th century were Dutch.

After the 1950s, the Hispanic population in Norwalk grew significantly as the area became increasingly residential.

The Hargitt House Built in 1891 by the D.D. Johnston family, the Hargitt House was built in the architectural style of Victorian Eastlake. The Hargitt House Museum, located at 12426 Mapledale, was donated to the people of Norwalk by Charles ("Chun") and Ida Hargitt.

The Sproul House The Sproul House is a Stick Style-influenced, Victorian farm house built in 1870 by the founder of Norwalk, Gilbert Sproul. He and his family lived there while he founded Norwalk. His descendants lived in the house continually until 1962 when it was donated to the city. Today it houses the Gilbert Sproul Museum which covers Norwalk history through artifacts, photos, documents and other interpretive elements.

Geography Norwalk has a total area of 25.243 km² (10 sq mi). 9.707 square miles (25.14 km²) of it is land and 0.039 square miles (0.10 km²) of it (0.40%) is water.

Norwalk is bordered by Downey to the north-west, Bellflower to the south-west, Cerritos and Artesia to the south, and Santa Fe Springs and Whittier to the north and east.

Neighborhoods • Carmenita (South Norwalk) • Civic Center (Central Norwalk) • Norwalk Hills (North Norwalk) • South Norwalk • Studebaker (North Norwalk) • Norwalk Manor (South East Norwalk) (not to be confused with Norwalk Manor, a major subdivision built in 1947 to 1949)

Sport The Falcon Field is the largest venue by capacity (12,000) in Norwalk. It is the home of the public community college football team Cerritos Falcons and a major venue for track and field events.

Metropolitan State Hospital The 162-acre (0.66 km²) Metropolitan State Hospital, a psychiatric and mental health facility operated by the California Department of State Hospitals, is located in Norwalk. It has four different types of categories for patient intake. The four categories being; incompetent to stand trial (PC 1370), offender with a mental health disorder (PCS 2962/2972), not guilty by reason of insanity (PC 1026), and conservatorship lanterman-petris-short (LPS) Act.

Freeways Three freeways travel through the city. The Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) and San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) pass through and intersect just above its northern edge, while the Century Freeway (I-105) ends in Norwalk at Studebaker Road.

Norwalk Transit Norwalk Transit serves Norwalk and its adjacent communities. Six bus lines operate in Norwalk and adjacent cities, including Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, La Mirada and Whittier. Norwalk Transit Buses make connections with Los Angeles Metro Rail C Line from Route 2 and Metrolink from Route 7

Long Beach Transit Long Beach Transit provides service to the Metro C Line Station via Studebaker Road from Long Beach.

Los Angeles Metro The Los Angeles MTA ("Metro") provides both bus and rail service from Norwalk. The Metro C Line (formerly the Green Line) light rail provides service from the Norwalk C Line station to LAX (via shuttle from Aviation Station) and Redondo Beach. Metro bus routes provide service to the west on Florence Avenue, Firestone Boulevard, Imperial Highway, and Rosecrans Avenue from the Norwalk C Line Station. Express routes also connect to Disneyland, El Monte Bus Station, Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.

Metrolink The Metrolink Orange County Line and 91 Line (which operate on the same track in this area) trains connect Norwalk (the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs station) with Orange County, Riverside County, and Downtown Los Angeles.

Economy: Top employers According to a recent Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District; 2 Cerritos College; 3 Los Angeles County Registrar/Recorder; 4 Metropolitan State Hospital; 5 Target; 6 City of Norwalk; 7 Costco; 8 Doty Brother's Construction; 9 Coast Plaza Hospital; 10 Los Angeles Community Hospital; 11 Little Lake School District; 12 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department; 13 Walmart; 14 Kerber Brothers Inc; 15 Southland Care Center; 16 Double Tree Hotel; 17 McDonald's; 18 Keystone Collision Center; 19 Prudential California Realty; 20 US Post Office.

Education Although Norwalk is credited with being the home to Cerritos College, only the east half of the campus is actually in Norwalk, the west half is in Cerritos. Founded in 1955, Cerritos College is a public community college serving an area of 52 square miles (130 km²) of south-eastern Los Angeles county. The college offers degrees and certificates in 87 areas of study in nine divisions. Over 1,200 students complete their course of studies each year.

Norwalk is served by the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, headquartered at 12820 Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk, as well as the Little Lake City School District, headquartered in Santa Fe Springs. Certain areas of Norwalk are served by the ABC Unified School District, based in Cerritos, and others by the Whittier Union High School District. Among the several parochial schools in Norwalk are Saint John of God School (Roman Catholic), Pioneer Baptist School (Baptist Christian), and Saint Linus School (Roman Catholic). It also contains The California distinguished school J.B. Morrison Elementary Magnet School.

Media The independent TV station KHJ-TV/KCAL-TV channel 9 was licensed to Norwalk for a year in 1989 during an ownership transfer as part of a settlement with the FCC by former owner RKO General; the one-year change in city of license was barely noted on-air (it returned to a city of license of Los Angeles in 1990), and the station never had any actual assets based in Norwalk.