When one-half of the world's best-known map-making...

When one-half of the world’s best-known map-making...

By CECILIA RASMUSSEN

Oct. 4, 1996 12 AM PT

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When one-half of the world’s best-known map-making team first gazed over his very own 2,378 acres of Southern California in 1890, it took him little time to name his new holdings. To Andrew McNally, of Rand McNally Publishing Co., the mirrored panorama of verdant hills that shone off the nearby lake created an enchanting vista--hence, La Mirada, or “the view.”

What started out as a cluster of olive and lemon groves on cool rolling hills 16 miles inland has become one of the Southland’s more desirable suburbs, a place that straddles two area codes and appeals to commuters from both Orange and Los Angeles counties--and to people drawn by the fact that it has no city property or utility taxes. Its boosters maintain that the only thing La Mirada doesn’t have is a downtown--but it doesn’t need it because the cities nearby have downtowns aplenty.

Two features that helped to make the town’s reputation have all but vanished.

The lake that shimmered before McNally’s eyes has dried up, but on its lake bed a Bible institute, now known as Biola University, was opened in 1959.

And this year, the city’s last dairy farm, the family run Valley View Dairy, founded in 1952, shipped its cows to greener pastures.

When La Mirada incorporated in 1960, with a population of 22,000, its leaders spotted a flaw: Not enough greenery in their middle-class bedroom community, the self-proclaimed “Courtesy Capital of the World.” So plants, trees and shrubs were ordered by the truckload to landscape the city. The blooming green cityscape sprouted nine parks as well as a performing arts center.

After the green came the tan: A six-officer unit of sheriff’s deputies, once referred to as “the party-pooper patrol” for its vigilance toward rowdy party crowds, began its duties in the late 1980s. It earned the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Exemplary Service Award in 1991 for La Mirada’s drop in drunk-driving accidents and barroom slugfests. Aggravated assaults dropped 68% in five years.

The climate that current residents find so pleasant drew McNally here in 1890, and at the heart of his La Mirada was his 700-acre ranch, Windermere, named for his family’s home in Scotland.

When his daughter, Nannie, married Edwin Neff, McNally turned the ranch over to his son-in-law. The Neffs--whose son, Wallace, became a renowned architect--produced some of the nation’s best olive oil for nearly half a century.

McNally had paid $115,000 for the land. In 1953, it was sold for $4.5 million and subdivided. The olive grove community of fewer than 100 homes was transformed into a municipality of nearly 10,000 homes, each with an olive tree.

CELEBRATION: La Miradans will revel in their heritage at Neff Park at the city’s annual Celebration in the Park on Oct. 19. Historians will serve up a healthy dose of the city’s past, while visitors can master the art of honey-making, leather tooling, storytelling, quilting or picnicking under a grove of more than 100 exotic trees that McNally planted around his homestead.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

By the Numbers

CITY BUSINESS

Date incorporated: March 15,1960

Area in square miles: 8 miles

Number of parks: 9

Number of city employees: 78 fulltime; 170 part time

1995-96 operating budget: $13 million

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ETHNIC MAKEUP

Latino: 26%

White: 64%