While it is the fifth largest city in Los Angeles County, not a lot of attention is paid to the city of Pomona, California. Pomona has a little over 150,000 people living there and though it was founded in the late 1800s as a primarily agricultural community, it has grown to become more and more industrial over time. Here is a look at thirteen little known facts about the city of Pomona, California.
1. The Los Angeles County Fair, or L.A. County Fair, is held yearly in Pomona and is the largest county fair in the entire United States.
2. Western University of Health Sciences is located within the city and was founded somewhat recently in 1977, during its first year it had a total enrollment of 36.
3. In 1887, Pomona College was founded in the city of Pomona only to relocate to the city of Claremont, California two years later when an unused hotel building was donated for the school’s use.
4. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (known as Cal Poly Pomona) is partially located on what was once the personal ranch of breakfast cereal maker W.K. Kellogg.
5. Some of the people who have been born in or resided in the city of Pomona, California include: Jessica Alba, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Tom Waits, Rich Yett, Mark McGwire, and Richie Sandoval.
6. People from Pomona, California are known as Pomonans.
7. Between 1900 and 1910, the population of the city nearly doubled.
8. The first United States President to visit Pomona was Benjamin Harrison who stopped at the Southern Pacific Rail Station while en route to Los Angeles.
9. Cal Poly Pomona is the second largest, when ranked by land area, campus in the entire system of California State Universities.
10. For a brief period of approximately three and a half months during World War II in 1942, the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona were used as an assembly center where Japanese-Americans were temporarily held before being dispersed to various internment camps.
11. The Pomona Mall is an outdoor pedestrian mall that stretches over nine blocks long. This was the first mall of its kind built west of the Mississippi River.
12. The city of Pomona is named after Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit.
13. The city has regulations that limit when a family can hold a yard sale. The city designates usually four or five weekends a year that yard sales are permitted.
The city of Pomona plays an important role in the life of Southern California, and the Los Angeles area in particular. Many important companies are headquartered there and both Cal Poly Pomona and Western University of Health Sciences contribute greatly to the area both by the jobs they create and the quality of students they turn out. Pomona has a unique history and is a great place for anyone visiting Southern California to come and see.
