Lennox () is a census-designated place (CDP) in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 20,323 at the 2020 census, down from 22,753 at the 2010 census.
History
Lennox was established as a small farming settlement sometime around 1905, and named Lennox in 1912. Formerly part of the vast rancho owned by Daniel Freeman, by the 1920s it was an established community spanning 7 square miles, with a Pacific Electric railway line running through its center along Hawthorne boulevard.
It was during the 1920s that the neighboring cities of Hawthorne and Inglewood, incorporated in 1922 and 1905 respectively, began to annex large portions of it. The Arbor Vitae section, a highly developed commercial and residential area along Arbor Vitae Street, was annexed by Inglewood in 1924. The surveyors noted, however, that "The town is quite evidently on the upgrade, recent construction being of distinctly better quality and design than the older dwellings." This proved correct, as the area would see a massive boom in the following decades.
The South Bay region was a major center of aircraft production during World War II, instigating rapid industrialization and residential development to house industrial workers. After the war, in 1949, the establishment of Los Angeles International Airport immediately to the West had an enormous impact on Lennox. Many residents worked at the airport or in the many airport-related businesses nearby, and the nearby cities of Hawthorne and El Segundo became major centers of the postwar aerospace industry. and Hawthorne, but both complete annexation and incorporation would fail to materialize. The introduction of jet aircraft, including the supersonic Concorde, significantly increased noise and air pollution in Lennox. The construction of Interstate 405 in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by the construction of Interstate 105 along the community's southern border, encircled the area with major freeway infrastructure and further contributed to pollution, which was among the worst in the entire state by 1988.
The deteriorating desirability of the area led to major changes. Despite its reduced geographic area, Lennox grew substantially in population during the 1970s and 1980s. Older suburban and rural development was subsumed by higher density rental housing, and by 1990, 70% of the housing stock was rental units.
Since the 1990s, however, Lennox has benefitted greatly from the decline in crime and gang violence across the whole of Los Angeles County. Neighboring areas of Hawthorne and Inglewood have undergone physical redevelopment and economic revitalization, including the renovation of Century Boulevard and the construction of the massive SoFi Stadium and its surrounding housing and commercial development.
Geography
Lennox's boundaries are Century Boulevard to the north (along with neighboring cities of Inglewood and Los Angeles), Interstate 405 (the San Diego Freeway) to the west, and Interstate 105 (the Glenn Anderson Freeway) to the south. Hawthorne Boulevard and Prairie Avenue make up portions of its eastern boundary with Inglewood.
Interstate 105 follows Lennox's borders exactly, forming an odd curve, because opposition from Hawthorne to its construction led to an alignment along the city's far northern boundary.
Lennox was originally much larger, covering several square miles of what is now Inglewood and Hawthorne. Since the area has never successfully voted to incorporate, neighboring cities have repeatedly annexed large chunks of it.
The CDP sits underneath the flight path of passenger jets landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Inglewood is on one side of Lennox, and Hawthorne is on the other.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land.