Downey is a city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program and Taco Bell. It is also the home of the oldest operating McDonald's restaurant in the world. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 114,355.
History
18th century to World War II
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was initially founded on September 8, 1771, near settlements of the Tongva people. It was located in the Whittier Narrows on a bluff overlooking the Rio Hondo, near the modern intersection of San Gabriel Blvd and Lincoln Avenue. After five years, flooding forced the relocation of the mission to its present site in San Gabriel.
In 1784, Governor Pedro Fages granted to former soldier Manuel Nieto (1734–1804) the largest of the land concessions made in what was then Alta California, a province of New Spain. Its stretched from the Santa Ana River on the east to the Old San Gabriel River (now the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles River) on the west, and from the mission highway (approximately Whittier Boulevard) on the north to the ocean on the south. Its acreage was slightly reduced later at the insistence of Mission San Gabriel on whose lands it infringed. The Spanish concessions, of which 25 were made in California, were unlike the later Mexican land grants in that title was not transferred but were similar to grazing permits with the title remaining with the Spanish crown.
The Rancho Los Nietos passed to Manuel Nieto's four children upon his death and remained intact until 1833 when his heirs petitioned Mexican Governor José Figueroa to partition the property. The northwestern portion of the original rancho, comprising the Downey-Norwalk area, was granted as Rancho Santa Gertrudes to Josefa Cota, the widow of Manuel Nieto's son, Antonio Nieto. At approximately , Santa Gertrudes was itself a sizable rancho and contained the old Nietos homestead, which was a center of social life east of the pueblo of Los Angeles.
thumb|upright|Governor John G. Downey by [[William F. Cogswell]]
Dairy was a major industry in Downey. The Central Milk Agency marketed the milk for "seven hundred dairymen whose dairy herds range from thirty to two thousand head" with the value of the products marketed in excess of $1,000,000 per month.
Some of Downey's settlers came from Ireland. Downey was founded by and named for the former and youngest ever governor of California, John Gately Downey, who was born in Ireland. Although he was an Irish Democrat, he supported the Republican Lincoln in his efforts to keep the Union intact during the American Civil War. He pioneered the modern subdivision with land he acquired between the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel River, in about 1865. Downey was convinced that oranges would flourish in Southern California, importing several varieties, which would result in oranges becoming one of the state's biggest cash crops.
After World War II
thumb|right|Workers in Downey building [[Vultee A-31 Vengeance|Vultee Vengeance bombers for the Royal Air Force in 1943]]
Farmers in the area grew grain, corn, castor beans, and fruit, and by 1935 Downey was characterized as an "orange-grove town".
Downey was incorporated in 1956 and instituted a charter form of government in 1964. Suburban homes and factories replaced the farms after World War II.
Aerospace
Vultee Aircraft was Downey's largest employer during World War II producing 15% of all of America's military aircraft by 1941. The company was a pioneer in the use of women in manufacturing positions and was the first aircraft company to build airplanes on a powered assembly line. Downey Landing shopping center, Promenade at Downey shopping center (the former movie studio site of Downey Studios), a Kaiser Permanente hospital, and a city recreation fields park.
Other landmarks
Near the center of the city lies what was in the 1960s one of the busiest intersections in California, the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard (State Route 19) and Firestone Boulevard (former State Route 42). Route 19 was a major thoroughfare between Pasadena and the port at Long Beach and Route 42 was along part of the old Spanish El Camino Real trail that connected the Pueblo de Los Angeles to San Diego.
In the 1960s, the town's Downey Records achieved some notoriety with recordings such as The Chantays' surfing instrumental "Pipeline"; nearly two decades later, Downey's local music scene led to the founding of The Blasters and Dark Angel.
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, the main public rehabilitation hospital for Los Angeles County, is located in Downey. Rancho Los Amigos is renowned worldwide for its innovative contributions to the care of spinal cord injuries and post-polio syndrome.
Downey was featured in the 2008 American action-comedy film Pineapple Express. Many of the buildings along Florence Avenue are seen in a driving sequence early in the film.
Downey is home to the world's oldest existing McDonald's Restaurant, the so-called Speedee McDonald's Store, which opened in 1953 at the southwest corner of Florence Avenue and Lakewood Boulevard. Damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the store reopened in 1996 along with a museum and gift shop.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it is water.
The cities of South Gate and Bell Gardens are adjacent to the west and northwest, Pico Rivera lies to the northeast, Santa Fe Springs and Norwalk to the east, and Paramount and Bellflower are to the south.
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Downey has a semi-arid climate, abbreviated BSk on climate maps.
Surrounding areas
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: Commerce
: Bell Gardens 20px 30px 20px Pico Rivera
: South Gate 30px 30px Santa Fe Springs
: South Gate 20px 30px 20px Norwalk
: Paramount / Bellflower
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