Glendale (California)

Glendale (California), city in Los Angeles County, southwestern California. The city is located at the junction of the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys (see San Fernando Valley). Glendale is a services and residential suburb of Los Angeles. The city is home to a community college; the restored 1860s Casa Adobe de San Rafael; and the well-known Forest Lawn Memorial Park, where many of the region’s past celebrities are buried.

Glendale is the site of the first Spanish land grant (Rancho San Rafael, 1784) in California. The community was developed in the 1880s as a result of the land boom that followed the extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad into the San Fernando Valley. The city was plotted in 1887 and incorporated in 1906.

Glendale covers a land area of 79 sq km (31 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 158 m (518 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 63.6 percent of the population, Asians 16.1 percent, blacks 1.3 percent, Native Americans 0.3 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 19.7 percent of the people. Population 139,060 (1980); 180,038 (1990); 194,973 (2000); 199,463 (2006).