Brea, California, United States of America

Brea is a city located in Orange County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 35,410.

The city began as a center of crude oil production, was later propelled by citrus production, and is now an important retail center because of the enormous Brea Mall, and the recently redeveloped Brea Downtown.

Brea History

The area was visited in 1769 by Gaspar de Portolà, and a historical marker to that effect stands in Brea Canyon just north of town. He noted the local Indians as "dirty" without realizing that they used crude oil bubbling up in the canyon as topical medicine.

The village of Olinda was founded in present-day Carbon Canyon at the beginning of the 19th century and many entrepreneurs came to the area searching for "black gold" (petroleum). In 1894, the owner of the land, Abel Stearns, sold 1200 acres to the west of Olinda to the newly-created Union Oil Company, and by 1898 many nearby hills began sporting wooden oil-drilling towers. In 1908 the village of Randolph was founded just south of Brea Canyon for the oil workers and their families (and named for Epes Randolph, an engineer on the Pacific Electric Railway).

The villages of Olinda and Randolph grew and merged as the economy boomed, and on January 19, 1911, the town's map was filed under the new name of Brea, from the Spanish language word for tar. With a healthy population of 752, Brea was incorporated on February 23, 1917, as the eighth official city of Orange County.

As oil production declined, some agricultural development took place, especially lemon and orange groves, which itself was gradually supplanted by industrial parks and residential development. The opening of the Orange Freeway (57) and the Brea Mall in the 1970s spurred further residential growth. In the late 1990s, a 50-acre swath of downtown Brea centered on Brea Boulevard and Birch Street was heavily redeveloped into a shopping and entertainment area with movie theaters, sidewalk cafes, a live comedy club from The Improv chain, numerous shops and restaurants, and a weekly farmer's market.

Brea Geography

Brea is located at 33°55'24" North, 117°53'20" West (33.923339, -117.888924).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.3 km² (10.6 mi²). 27.3 km² (10.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.09% is water.

Brea Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 35,410 people, 13,067 households, and 9,303 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,297.1/km² (3,358.1/mi²). There are 13,327 housing units at an average density of 488.2/km² (1,263.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 77.33% White, 1.26% Black or African American, 0.52% Native American, 9.09% Asian, 0.22% Pacific Islander, 7.76% from other races, and 3.82% from two or more races. 20.35% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 13,067 households out of which 34.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.6% are married couples living together, 10.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 28.8% are non-families. 23.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.70 and the average family size is 3.21.

In the city the population is spread out with 25.6% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $59,759, and the median income for a family is $68,423. Males have a median income of $50,500 versus $35,674 for females. The per capita income for the city is $26,307. 5.3% of the population and 3.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 6.7% of those under the age of 18 and 5.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

References

• "History of Brea, California: From Early Oil Field Days to 1950" by Purl Hardy
• Brea Chamber of Commerce history page
• My Orange County: Brea History

External links

• City of Brea official website
• Brea Downtown official website
• Brea Olinda Unified School District website

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Brea,_California".