Newton Knows the Neighborhood – El Segundo, CA 90245

El Segundo a nada! “Second to none!”

Prior to El Segundo's incorporation in 1917, this area was part of the original Spanish land grant for "Rancho Sausal Redondo." In 1822, what was to become El Segundo was a part of a rancho with a land mass of nearly 25,000 acres which extended from the areas as far north of what is now Playa del Rey, as far east as Inglewood and as far south as Hermosa Beach.

While Newton Plumbing hasn’t been around since the inception of El Segundo, we established ourselves in 1946 to accommodate the growing needs of a dependable plumber in this area and to this day we are who this community calls when looking for credible Los Angeles plumbers.

The land of Sausal Redondo, (“clump of willows”), consisted of wheat and barley fields on which cattle and sheep grazed. In May 1911, five men representing the Standard Oil Company arrived here; Richard J. Hanna and J.E. Howell of the Eclipse refinery of Franklin, Pennsylvania and John Black, Henry Foster and William Rheem from the Standard Oil refinery in Point Richmond, a city 18 miles east of San Francisco.

They were surveying the area as a potential site for their next oil refinery. What was required was an area adjacent to the seashore so their tankers could have appropriate access. The undeveloped nature of the site appealed to them because land costs had to be kept to a minimum. Also, the site had to be close to populated areas so it could attract enough employees. The "clump of willows" was just what Mr. Hanna's team was looking for.

When it was time to give the new site a name, Richard Hanna's wife, Virginia, suggested calling it "El Segundo,” (Spanish for "the second one"). The new name made sense because the site was to be Standard Oil's second oil refinery in California. The first one in Point Richmond refinery was already named as "El Primero." Some moment along the line it was dubbed “El Segundo a nada,” (Translated in Spanish meaning second to none).

The oil industry drove the revenues of the town until the 1920’s when Mine's Field, a landing strip used by early barnstormers, was chosen as the site for the new Los Angeles Municipal Airport that was eventually to become LAX.

In the mid-1950s, Southern California Edison purchased a 43-acre site in El Segundo and erected a major electrical generating station.

The addition of the Los Angeles International Airport, which officially opened in 1930, turned El Segundo into a significant aerospace center. Douglas Aircraft, (DC-3), Hughes Aircraft, (Hughes Flying Boat H-4 (HK-1), Hercules (“Spruce Goose”), Northrop (P-61), North American Aviation (T-6 Texan, P51 Mustang, Mitchell B25 Bomber, F-86 Sabre Jet) and Boeing, (Boeing 314 Clipper), all were located in El Segundo during the 1940s and 1950s. As one might expect Newton Plumbing was playing a support role to all of this growth and still continues to do so now as the areas #1 Los Angeles plumber.

Most of these aircraft-related companies would eventually transition into the aerospace/defense industry and in 1960 the creation of The Aerospace Corporation and Los Angeles Air Force Base gave El Segundo the esteemed title of "The Aerospace Capital of the World."

El Segundo is also the headquarters location for Computer Sciences Corporation and Mattel Toys.

Today, El Segundo encompasses over five square miles spanning from the Los Angeles International Airport on the north to the Chevron Refinery on the south to the Pacific Ocean on the west and Aviation Boulevard on the east. The city's population has leveled off at approximately 16,500 residents which has enabled the community to preserve the small town intimacy and charm.