About Temple City

Temple City is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Temple City is part of a cluster of cities, along withArcadia, Rosemead, Monterey Park, San Marino, and San Gabriel, in the west San Gabriel Valley with a rapidly growing Asian population. Temple City also has a Cuban and Puerto Rican community, among other Latino nationalities. The population was 35,558 at the 2010 census.

The town of Temple was originated on May 30, 1923 when Walter P. Temple (June 7, 1870 - November 13, 1938), (Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum) purchased 400 acres (2 km2) of land four miles (6 km) east of San Gabriel which had been part of Lucky Baldwin's Rancho Santa Anita.

Temple, the son and tenth child of Pliny Fisk Temple and William Workman's daughter Antonia Margarita Workman, was born on Rancho La Merced, which is today part of the city of Montebello. This was the site of the original San Gabriel Mission, founded by the Franciscan Fathers next to the rich bottom lands of the San Gabriel River. Historically called "Rio de los Temblores", which means the River of the Earthquakes. It is today known as the Rio Hondo River.

Temple envisioned building a community where average people could afford to live and own their homes. He then divided the area into lots and laid out the park facing Las Tunas Drive. He named other streets after friends and family: Workman, Kauffman, Rowland, Temple and Agnes. Bond issues initiated by Temple were responsible for street paving and electricity. Temple also petitioned the Pacific Electric Railway Company to extend its Los Angeles to Alhambra line to a depot adjacent to Temple City Park. The extension of the railway contributed to the steady growth of Temple City.

The town was originally called "City of Temple", but the Postmaster General demanded a name change in 1926 because the mail was instead being directed to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe. It was officially was designated Temple City but remained a City in name only until after the post-World War II population explosion. The redundancy in the name City of Temple City came when Temple City incorporated on May 25, 1960.

Currently, Temple City is a destination for East Asian, Eastern European, Middle East and Latino immigrants, especially Chinese-Americans. Rosemead Boulevard has several strip malls catering to a largely Asian but diverse customer base. A German-American community thrived there in the early 20th century.