"The County had recently divided our community in two, with a freeway decision in which we had no participation – something we seek should never happen again."

Warren Hillgren said that in May of 1976 at a Local Agency Formation Commission meeting in the LA County Supervisors chamber. The city's own history counts 986 La Cañadans at that meeting. LAFCO's view at the time was that suburban areas should belong to the cities next to them. Hillgren was arguing the opposite, and six months later voters backed him by a wide margin.

The city now marks 50 years under the theme "Together for 50 Years." In the same week as the anniversary celebration, residents get free entry to Descanso Gardens. Under the plan that pushed La Cañada toward cityhood, Descanso Gardens would have belonged to Glendale.

The Map Drawn in Sacramento

Before 1976, "annexation" was, in the words of local historian Don Mazen, "a nasty word around these parts." The threat that made it urgent came from the State Legislature. In 1971, Assemblyman John T. Knox introduced Assembly Bill 813. It would have placed unincorporated areas of LA County, La Cañada and Flintridge among them, under the "sphere of influence" of neighboring cities.

Pasadena and Glendale then sketched how they would divide the area. Pasadena wanted all of Flintridge plus the part of La Cañada running east of Alta Canyada Road to the Arroyo Seco, north of Foothill Boulevard. Glendale would take everything else, including what Mazen's 2005 Valley Sun column called "a prize plum, Descanso Gardens."

AB 813 passed the Assembly but died in the Senate after being amended and weakened. Knox brought back an identical bill in 1975, and it failed too. In all but one of the annexation threats Mazen recounts, the bill was stopped by La Cañada Assemblyman Frank Lanterman. The one loss came in 1965, when La Cañada gave up 15 acres to Glendale so Verdugo Hills Hospital could be built with sewer service. No one could count on Lanterman winning every time, and cityhood was the protection that didn't depend on him.

It Took Three Tries

Incorporation failed twice before it worked, and each failure shows a different weak point.

1. 1964. The Chamber of Commerce and Realtor Dick Keilholtz led the first incorporation committee. Late in the process, the County Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Warren Dorn of La Cañada redrew the proposed boundaries and cut the city nearly in half. The plan collapsed.
2. 1969. A small group led by John Bond, with two residents from Flintridge and two from La Cañada, studied the question again and mailed the community. The effort ended after about six months because Flintridge, which had long wanted to stay separate from La Cañada, pushed back too hard.
3. 1974. At a town meeting hosted by the La Cañada Coordinating Council and backed by the Chamber, a show of hands came out 658 for cityhood and two against. George Parrish took the lead of the new La Cañada Cityhood Action Committee.

The 1964 attempt was undone by boundaries drawn from outside, and the 1969 attempt by division inside. By 1974, the annexation map gave both communities a reason to settle the second problem so the first couldn't happen again.

What Flintridge Had to Be Persuaded Of

According to the city's history, the hardest part was getting Flintridge on board. Parrish's committee brought several Flintridge leaders into the effort. Even so, it took "a lot of selling" to Flintridge voters, who wanted to keep their low-density zoning. Some of the sharpest local resistance to cityhood came from the community that the Pasadena plan would have absorbed entirely.

On Nov. 2, 1976, voters approved incorporation 7,355 to 2,849. The same ballot elected a City Council. Fifteen candidates ran, and the five winners in vote order were Mike Mount, George Parrish, Warren Hillgren, Edmund Krause and J.D. Smith. Parrish, one of the cityhood leaders, was sworn in as the first mayor.

The name was part of the compromise. La Cañada Flintridge became known as the city without a hyphen, as a sign of unity. When a clerk in Sacramento added a hyphen to city paperwork by mistake, it caused a local uproar, and correcting it took an ordinance.

A First Year Planned Around the Calendar

Cityhood became official on Dec. 8, when Councilman Edmund Krause filed the incorporation certificate of completion with the County Recorder. That evening, about 500 people gathered at the La Cañada Golf and Tennis Club, later the Country Club, to watch County Supervisor Baxter Ward swear in the five council members. Ward had earlier defeated Warren Dorn, the supervisor whose boundary cut ended the 1964 attempt.

The December date was planned. Krause, a retired senior state tax collector, scheduled the incorporation timetable so that cityhood would be completed late in the year and the new city would receive a full year of state funding. He and City Treasurer John McCormick then invested well enough to build what the city history calls "an unheard-of $10 million reserve fund" in 1977, the city's first year of operation. The new city also chose to contract with Los Angeles County for police and fire protection, road repair and building inspection. The goal was local control over land use without the cost of running every department itself.

October 22, Mapped Against 1971

The city's main celebration falls on a Thursday, well before the December date. Following that day in order means crossing the same ground the 1970s map would have split.

• 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive. La Cañada Flintridge residents get free daytime admission for the anniversary. Bring proof of residency to Guest Services when you arrive. Under the sphere-of-influence plan, this is the garden that would have gone to Glendale.
• 5 to 7 p.m., Olberz Park, 1 Civic Center Drive. The city's 50th Anniversary Celebration includes music, an inflatable obstacle course, performances by members of the LCHS Chamber Singers, and a scavenger hunt for a limited-edition LCF50 picnic blanket.
• After dark, back at Descanso. Carved, the garden's fall evening event, runs Oct. 2 through Nov. 1 with glowing jack-o'-lanterns, giant hand-carved pumpkins and illuminated railroad displays. It needs a separate ticket. Nonmember adults pay $29 to $52 and members pay $22 to $45.

If Oct. 22 doesn't work for you, Carved also runs on Halloween night, Oct. 31, with trick-or-treating.

The Rest of the Anniversary Year

Some of the year's other programs will last longer than the party. Through "50 Trees for 50 Years," the city plans to plant 50 trees during the anniversary year. Residents can ask for one of them to be planted in the public right-of-way in front of their home, using the city's tree-planting request form. The program launched at the Earth & Arbor Day Sustainability Celebration on April 23. The city also held a public logo contest for the anniversary, and the anniversary page displays the submissions from local artists and designers of all ages.

The city's Together for 50 hub includes an archival gallery that covers most of the history above. It has the cityhood election victory and a front page from Nov. 2, 1976, the city's 1976 parade entry, the first City Council's swearing-in, the first city staff from July 1977, and portraits of Frank D. Lanterman and Frank Flint. To read the cityhood story in full, the City History page reprints Don Mazen's account, first published in the Outlook on Dec. 6, 2001.

Lanterman House is holding a special open house on Sunday, Oct. 18, as part of Pasadena Heritage's Craftsman Week, which runs through Oct. 25. The listing presents it as a Craftsman Week event, not as part of the city's anniversary.

Descanso's winter season will be underway when Dec. 8 arrives. Enchanted: Forest of Light runs 5:30 to 10 p.m. from Nov. 22, 2026, through Jan. 9, 2027, and is closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Adult general admission is $29 to $52 for nonmembers and $22 to $45 for members. This year's Enchanted has Giant Koi in the Japanese Garden to mark the garden's 60th anniversary, so the garden and the city are celebrating milestones in the same season. The Holiday Market follows Dec. 2 through 6, 1 to 8:30 p.m., with local makers selling jewelry, pottery, plants and botanical gifts. It's included with daytime or Enchanted admission.

As of early October, the city's anniversary hub doesn't list a separate event for Dec. 8, the date the incorporation certificate was filed.

Many La Cañada Flintridge homes date from the years when this city was being argued into existence, and that history becomes part of the house's story when it's time to present it. If you own one of those homes and want to talk through how to tell its story, or just want to compare notes on the neighborhood's past, Addora Beall would be glad to hear from you. Schedule a Personalized Consultation.