In 1875 the leaders of the newly surveyed township of Pomona awarded Solomon Gates, a local nurseryman, the prize of a town lot for proposing that the community be named in honor of the Roman goddess of fruit. Pomona seemed the ideal name for a place the Los Angeles Star proclaimed as blessed with " rich, friable loam of exhaustless fertility, and adapted to the growth of all fruits and cereals indigenous to this section." One hundred years after Pomona's incorporation in 1888, Clemett L. Neibel, chairman of the Pomona Centennial Committee, wrote this glowing account of the early days in the golden land named for a goddess.
On a crisp, clear Spring morning in 1833, two Mexican caballeros gazed from their vantage point atop a hill at a scene of wondrous beauty. Stretched out before their eyes were thousands of acres in a valley verdant with spring grass, oak and sycamore trees and laced with sagebrush. To the north were snow capped mountains looming up as if they could be reached in a few minutes ride, and in the distant east other mountains, also white with snow, formed a backdrop to this beautiful and peaceful scene.
The two young caballeros were don Ygnacio Palomares and Don Ricardo Vejar, former soldiers who had fought together to help free Mexico from Spanish rule. The hill on which they stood was Ganesha, [site of the historic Native American community of Toybipet], and the panorama spread in front of them was the Pomona valley, with Old Baldy [Mt. San Antonio] to the north and San Gorgonio and San Jacinto to the east.
The land had remained public domain for nearly 300 years while under Spanish and later, Mexican rule . . . The two caballeros fell in love with the land and, being determined to own it, petitioned Juan B. Alvarado, governor ad interim of California, for a grant of two square leagues. They received it on April 15, 1837, and immediately moved with their families, hired hands, stock and possessions and settled on this virgin land.
This was the beginning of Pomona, and the founders left their mark. The four Adobes which still remain from the Rancho days are constant reminders of their hospitable and gracious ways which gave birth to the feeling of warmth and friendliness which has continued to be a way of life in Pomona.
Once occupied, the area attracted other to come. The way they lived, what they did and the community they built shaped the history of Pomona.
The lives and accomplishments of many of those who shaped Pomona are embodied today in the rich legacy they left behind in the form of historic structures such as the remaining nineteenth century adobes. Just as the adobes embody the spirit of Pomona's Rancho days, numerous other historic structures tell the story of the periods following Mexican rule, which together comprise Pomona's rich history. These structures-the fruits of Pomona's past-ranges from trees to trellises, modest cottages to mansions, mundane commercial buildings to magnificent churches. All are precious resources that enrich the lives of those who live, work, and play in the city. Unless Pomona's historic structures are conscientiously preserved, they will be lsot as sources of identity, pride, aesthetic pleasure, and economic wealth.