HISTORY

Local tradition has attributed the statement, “It would be a magnificent place for a colony” to William Erwin Willmore who founded Willmore City which eventually became Long Beach. In a public address given by him in 1899, he is quoted as saying, “In that thought, the town was really born.”
An only child, William had been brought to this country by his father shortly after the death of William’s mother. His father died a few years later, and William was left alone because he had no other relatives and had never married. Arriving in California with the intention of visiting the new colony of Anaheim, he began the long walk across the open fields since there was no available transportation. He followed the rough path, known as Anaheim Road. That stretched east across the flats toward the new colony. Somewhere around present-day Anaheim Street and Long Beach Boulevard William stopped to rest; when he looked back over the valley, he later related that his dream of a city took shape. At that time he was just a young man with no means to start such an undertaking, but he never forgot the idea.(read more...)