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 surely understood the sunny SoCal connotations of the Valencia orange, once a major cash crop. Accounts differ as to how the orange, which did not originate in Spain, came by its name. Some say California citrus pioneer William Wolfskill christened it. Unlikely. A 1915 book by pomologist Dr. John Eliot Coit claimed that Los Angeles lawyer/developer A.B. Chapman imported it from English nurseryman Thomas Rivers in the 1870s and that his Spanish-born orchardist 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 – called it a brand new variety that was indeed grown on Wolfskill’s Los Angeles orchard and named by a “Don Vasquez of Valencia”, who sounds like a made-up person.
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