FIND YOUR SAN MARINO HOME

San Marino is one of LA County’s most prestigious & affluent neighborhoods located in the center of the San Gabriel Valley . It is located 15 miles northeast of Downtown LA and is bordered by Pasadena, South Pasadena, Arcadia and other neighborhoods. San Marino is consistently ranked in the top 25 most expensive zip codes in the nation with an estimated median price tag of $2.3 million dollars. It’s neighborhoods are lush with beauty and it’s homes are regularly featured in motion pictures and television shows. Famous examples include Father of the Bride, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Starsky & Hutch, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The University of Southern California owns a house in San Marino which is used as the residence of the President of the University. The residence and grounds are often used for University Presidential events.

Public amenities and facilities are pristine and expertly maintained. The roads, sidewalks, and public areas are often more maintained than it’s neighboring cities. The Huntington Dr. corridor is used by many commuters to get from one end of the San Gabriel Valley to the other, and despite the heavy flow of traffic and visitors, San Marino boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the state.

San Marino’s piece de resistance is its San Marino Unified School District which is ranked as the Number 1 top school district n the State of California, and consistently ranks in the top percentile nationally. Private schools in San Marino include Southwestern Academy, a college preparatory school, and Saints Felicitas and Perpetua Grammar School, a Catholic elementary school serving students from kindergarten through 8th grade.

Before California became the 31st state of the union in 1850, the population of Los Angeles was around 50,000. The principal portions of San Marino were included in a Mexican Land Grant in 1830 to an indigenous lady named Senora Victoria Reid, the widow of a Scotsman. She named her rancho “Huerta de Cuati” (possibly referring to the Spanish word for raccoon, “coati”). Prior to this grant, the area was part of the San Gabriel Mission (the “Old Mill” was the grist mill for the mission), and before that was occupied by indigenous people with their village located at what is now Huntington School.

In 1852, Benjamin Davis Wilson, also known as “Don Benito Wilson” took possession of Mrs. Reid’s rancho. Later, Wilson deeded a portion of his land to his daughter Maria de Jesus, known as Sue. Sue married J. de Barth Shorb, who renamed his rancho after his grandfather’s plantation in Maryland, which in turn had received its name from the Republic of San Marino, in Italy.

In 1903, the Shorb Estate was purchased by Henry E. Huntington and in 1913 the three primary Ranchos of Wilson, Patton, and Huntington, together with the subdivided areas from those and smaller Ranchos, such as Stoneman, White, Rose, and others, were incorporated as the city of San Marino.

Wilson’s daughter from his second marriage, Ruth, married George S. Patton, who not only became the first Mayor of San Marino, incorporating the area into the City of San Marino in 1913, but the father of another famous figure in world history – General George S. Patton Jr.

Henry E. Huntington visited the Shorb estate often and loved the location. He purchased the Shorb property in 1903, and in time the old ranch house gave way to the Huntington mansion. Today the City of San Marino is well known throughout the world for the extensive and priceless collection of art treasures in the famous Huntington Library and Art Gallery.

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