Featuring a heavy concentration of industry and the third-largestoil field in the continentalUnited States, this neighborhood has a high percentage ofLatino and foreign-born residents. Nearly 20 percent of Wilmington’s total land area is taken up by oil refineries — roughly 3.5 times more area than is dedicated to open and accessible green spaces.[3] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilmington had one of the highest death rates in all of Los Angeles County, exacerbated by elevated levels of industrial pollution.[4]
It is the site ofBanning High School, and ten other primary and secondary schools. Wilmington has six parks.
Wilmington was part of a 1784 Spanish land grant. It became a separate city in 1863, and it joined the city of Los Angeles in 1909. Places of interest include the headquartersU.S. Army forSouthern California and theDrum Barracks built to protect the nascent Los Angeles harborduring the American Civil War.
A total of 53,815 people were living within Wilmington's 9.14 square miles, according to the2010 U.S. census—averaging 5,887 people per square mile, among the lowestpopulation densities in the city as a whole. The median age was 28. The percentages of people from birth through age 34 were among the county's highest. Population was estimated at 54,512 in 2008.[6]
Wilmington is not considered very diverse ethnically, with adiversity index of 0.245.[7] In 2000, Latinos made up 86.6% of the population, while non-Hispanicwhites were at 6.4%,Asians at 4.8%,blacks at 2.6% and others at 1.7%. Mexico and Guatemala were the most common places of birth for the 44.5% of the residents who were born abroad, considered a high percentage of foreign-born when compared with the city and the county as a whole.[6]
The $40,627 median household income in 2008 dollars was average for the city. Renters occupied 61.5% of the housing units, with homeowners occupying the rest. In 2000 there were 1,524 military veterans, or 4.6% of the population, relatively low in comparison to the city and county as a whole.[6]
The area that is now Wilmington was inhabited by theTongva people ofNative Americans. Archeological work in the nearbyChowigna excavation show evidence of inhabitants as far back as 7,100 years ago.[9]
Phineas Banning acquired the land that would become Wilmington fromManuel Dominguez, grand nephew and heir to Juan José Domínguez, in 1858 to build aharbor for the city of Los Angeles.[10] Known as New San Pedro from 1858 to 1863, it was subsequently renamed Wilmington by Banning, a.k.a. “Father of the Harbor”, after his birthplace,Wilmington, Delaware.[11]: 7 [1]
In 1861, at the beginning of theCivil War, Banning andBenjamin Wilson gave the federal government 60 acres of land to buildDrum Barracks to protect the nascent Los Angeles harbor fromConfederate attack.[11]: 8
Wilmington was a township in the 1870 census. The township consisted of the present-daySouth Bay communities,Compton, westernLong Beach, parts of Rattlesnake Island[12] and Mormon Island which later evolved intoTerminal Island.[13] Census records report a population of 942 in 1870. The township had been named San Pedro Township in 1860.[14]
Los Angeles annexed Wilmington in 1909,[15] and today it and neighboring San Pedro form the waterfront of one of the world's largest import/export centers. Citizens of Wilmington were dubious that annexation would be in their best interests, fearing that it would shift economic activity out of their city and towards Los Angeles. Because the city government of Los Angeles so strongly wanted to have the growing port inside the city limits, it made a number of promises to Wilmington and also to the equally-dubious citizens of the-then independent city of San Pedro. Among these promises were that $10 million would be invested in improvements to the port and that as much would be spent inside the city on public works as was collected in taxes.[16]
In the 1920s,William Wrigley Jr. built innovative housing in Wilmington that was dubbed the “Court of Nations.”[11]: 9
Wilmington Oil Field
Wilmington is adjacent to theWilmington Oil Field, discovered in 1932. It is the third largest oil field in the continental United States. Consequently, there are at least 8 major refineries in the Wilmington area, many of them dating back to the original strike.[17]
Union Oil Co. refinery in Wilmington with world's largest jack o'lantern, "Smilin' Jack", October 1965[19]
ThePhillips 66 refinery in Wilmington is also home to the "world's largestjack-o'-lantern", which is a 3 million gallon (11.3 million liter) storage tank decorated every year forHalloween. Decorated annually since 1952 (back when it was owned byUnion Oil), the jack-o'-lantern draws 30,000 visitors annually.[20][21]
TheBanning Museum - Phineas Banning—entrepreneur, the founder of the city of Wilmington, and “the Father of the Port of Los Angeles”—built the 23-room residence in 1864.[22]
Only 5.1% of Wilmington residents aged 25 or older had completed a four-year degree by 2000, a low figure when compared with the city and the county at large, and the percentage of those residents with less than a high school diploma was high for the county.[6] Wilmington is home to Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy, ranked the top high school in the city of Los Angeles and the fourth-best school in California.[26]
East Wilmington Greenbelt Community Center, 918 North Sanford Avenue. Basketball courts (lighted/indoor), class room, after school programs, day camps.[29][33]
East Wilmington Greenbelt Pocket Park, 1300 East O Street[29][34]
Wilmington Recreation Center, 325 North Neptune Avenue. Auditorium, baseball diamond (lighted/unlighted), basketball courts (unlighted/outdoors, lighted/indoors), children's play area, community room, four picnic areas with tables.[29][35]
The Wilmington Waterfront Park, opened in June 2011 between the Port of Los Angeles and Wilmington.[37] (This park is not, in fact, on any waterfront: the name is a misnomer.)
^"ASA KEYES SUCCUMBS TO STROKE: Funeral Planned Tomorrow Former District Attorney and Leader in Politics Born in California".Los Angeles Times. October 19, 1934. p. 1.ProQuest163263410.
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