The community of Valencia was established, like this boulevard, in 1965, under the leadership of Atholl McBean (1879-1968). It was initially called “Valencia Valley” and in fact the name had been registered for a local golf course the previous year. City planners made it explicit that they’d looked to Valencia, Spain for inspiration – the mayor of that city was flown out for our Valencia’s dedication – but they were surely also aware of the Valencia orange, once a major SoCal cash crop. Accounts differ as to how the orange, which did not originate from Spain, came by the name. Some say California citrus pioneer William Wolfskill named it. Unlikely. A 1915 book by pomologist Dr. John Eliot Coit claimed that Los Angeles lawyer/developer A.B. Chapman had imported the orange from English nurseryman Thomas Rivers in the 1870s, and that a Spanish orchardist working for Chapman named it. (Rivers himself had dubbed the orange “Excelsior”.) Maybe. An 1888 report by the CA State Board of Horticulture stated that it was first planted in San Gabriel c. 1882. Finally, an 1886 news article – the earliest mention of the orange, officially known as the Valencia Late – stated that while it was indeed grown on Wolfskill’s Los Angeles orchard, it was a brand new variety named by one “Don Vasquez of Valencia”, who sounds like a made-up person.
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