Azusa, California, United States

🇺🇸 Azusa is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Azusa is located along historic Route 66, which passes through the city on Foothill Boulevard and Alosta Avenue. Azusa is bordered by the San Gabriel Mountains range to the north, Irwindale to the west, the unincorporated community of Vincent to the south-west, Glendora and the unincorporated community of Citrus to the east, and Covina to the south.

History The place name Azusa dates to the Mexican Alta California era in the 19th century when Azusa was used to refer to the San Gabriel Valley and the San Gabriel River. It appears to have been derived from the Tongva place name Asuksa-nga. The area was part of the homeland of the indigenous Tongva people (Gabrieleño Indians) since at least 55 BC. A backronym, "Azusa stands for everything from A to Z in the U.S.A"., has been a phrase used to promote the city by organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce for many years.

The first Mexican settlement in Azusa was at the Rancho el Susa in 1841, a Mexican land grant from the Alta California Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to Luis Arenas. In 1844, Arenas sold the rancho's land to Henry Dalton, an English immigrant and wealthy merchant from the Pueblo of Los Angeles, for $7,000. He renamed it Rancho Azusa de Dalton, and had built a winery, distillery, vinegar house, meat smokehouse, and flour mill. Also, a vineyard was planted. Dalton built a house here on a place known as Dalton Hill, near 6th Street and Cerritos Avenue in Azusa.

Dalton was also the owner of the large, adjacent Rancho San Francisquito and Rancho Santa Anita properties. In the end, Dalton owned an unbroken expanse of land from present-day San Dimas to the eastern edge of Pasadena. A portion of Azusa west of the San Gabriel River was within adjacent Rancho Azusa de Duarte.

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 for Rancho San Francisquito was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852 and confirmed by the Commission in 1853, but rejected by the US District Court in 1855, on the grounds that Henry Dalton was not, at the time of the grant, a citizen of Mexico. The decree was reversed by the US Supreme Court, and the grant was patented to Henry Dalton in 1867.

Azusa was listed in the 1860 census as a township (encompassing the Azusa de Dalton and Azusa de Duarte ranchos) with a population of 363. The 1870 US Census listed the area as the township of Azusa – El Monte Township and 1880 US Census listed the area as the township of San Jose and Azusa. There were a few corrections to cross out the San Jose name on most of the census pages, but this was done sporadically and there remain many index errors in the online census due to these errors.

Dalton had borrowed money from Los Angeles banker Jonathan S. Slauson to fund 24 years of litigation, and had to sign the land over to him in 1880. Slauson laid out the plan for the city in 1887 and the city was officially incorporated in 1898.

The completion of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad in January 1887, later sold to the Santa Fe railroad, brought new people looking for homes and investment opportunities to Azusa. The A Line Foothill light rail line was built on the old rail right-of-way. Part of this land boom was the short-lived town of Gladstone in 1887, which merged into Azusa in 1905.

Geography The city is located at the entrance to the San Gabriel Canyon, giving the city its nickname "The Canyon City". It is on the east side of the San Gabriel River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.7 square miles (25 km²); over 99% of it is land.

Economy According to the City of Azusa's FY 2014-15 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report - Please refer to reference 29 below for link, the top employers in the city include: 1 Azusa Pacific University; 2 Azusa Unified School District; 3 Northrop Grumman; 4 City of Azusa; 5 Costco Wholesale Corporation; 6 S&S Foods LLC 285

7 Hanson Distributing Company; 8 Buena Vista Food Products; 9 Target Corporation; 10 Artisian Screen.

Azusa was the former home of the Lucky Lager brewery and its successor, General Brewing. Built in 1949, the facility was purchased and converted to production by Miller Brewery in May 1966. A decade later, Miller relocated its operations to the nearby city of Irwindale and the Azusa facility ceased production in 1980, eventually being demolished.

Superfund site Aerojet, the rocket engine manufacturer, had a plant in Azusa from World War II to 2001. In 1980, it was determined that under Aerojet's facility there was TCE water contamination in the groundwater, whose plume was entering the aquifer under the city and of the San Gabriel Valley groundwater basin. The San Gabriel Valley aquifer is very valuable, providing most of the drinking water in the area at a fraction of the cost of water imported by aqueducts. In 1985, the U.S. EPA declared it a Superfund Site.

In 1997, additional chemical contamination, mostly NDMA and ammonium perchlorate, was found in the site's groundwater. Aerojet was named the Responsible Party for the groundwater remediation (cleanup) work and expenses. Aerojet sold the property in 2001 to Northrop Grumman Corporation, but remained the Responsible Party for the pollution.

In a 2002 court decision, Aerojet and seven other San Gabriel Valley groundwater polluters agreed to provide funding to build and operate six water-treatment facilities. One of the main contaminants is perchlorate, a carcinogenic component of rocket fuels produced by Aerojet.

Transport Azusa lies along the Foothill Freeway (I-210) between the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) and the Orange Freeway (State Route 57). Azusa Avenue (State Route 39) extends from the Angeles National Forest starting at San Gabriel Canyon Road/Sierra Madre Avenue south through Orange County.

Metro Gold Line light rail service stops at Azusa Downtown station adjacent to Azusa city hall and the line terminates at Azusa Pacific University/Citrus College station at the eastern border of Downtown Azusa. On March 5, 2016, Azusa became the eastern terminus of the first phase of the Foothill Extension which previously operated between Los Angeles Union Station and Sierra Madre Villa station in eastern Pasadena.

The Gold Line operates along former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway right-of-way purchased by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1993. MTA is currently pre-constructing and planning to extend the line to the end of its reserved right-of-way in Montclair, just across the San Bernardino County line. In October 2009, the MTA Board unanimously voted to include the Foothill Extension in its long-range plan, and approved funding for the construction and operation of the Foothill Extension's first phase to Azusa. This phase of the extension broke ground in June 2010.

The Metrolink San Bernardino Line stops nearby at Covina station and Baldwin Park station several times each day.

Healthcare The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Monrovia Health Center in Monrovia, serving Azusa.