Six years before incorporating as a city, South Gate was born in 1917 as Southgate Gardens. (This street was named the following year as Southgate Ave.) The land had previously belonged to meatpacking titan Michael Cudahy, who once hoped to establish stockyards here. The Southern Extension Company, an investment syndicate led by L.A. realtor William I. Hollingsworth, picked up the land for $2 million in 1912, two years after Cudahy’s death; Charles B. Hopper was the townsite’s sales agent once sales finally opened to the public. Its name, which gradually evolved into “South Gate”, presumably alluded to its location south of Los Angeles. Ads claiming it was “right at the city’s south gate” were promotional hogwash, as L.A. never had a “south gate” and is over three miles north of here.
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