Jared Sidney Torrance (August 3, 1853 – March 29, 1921) was an American

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

, best known as the founder of Torrance in southwest Los Angeles County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Southern California

Jared Torrance was born in Gowanda, New York in 1853, and moved to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

in approximately 1887 to settle initially in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

where he worked in real estate. Among other notable transactions, he briefly owned the

Mount Lowe Railway The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in the United States created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Thadd ...

, above Pasadena in the San Gabriel Mountains, at the turn of the century.

Torrance, California

In the early 1900s Jared Torrance and other investors saw the value of creating a mixed industrial- residential community south of Los Angeles. They purchased part of the Spanish land grant Rancho San Pedro and hired nationally renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to design a new

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

, with the architect

Irving Gill Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve ...

designing the principal buildings. The resulting city,

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay region of the metropolitan area. Torrance has of beachfront on the Pacific O ...

, was founded in 1911 and named after Jared Torrance. In 1920 Jared Torrance formed the Torrance Hospital Association, but he died before a hospital could be constructed in the new city. His widow Helena Childs Torrance followed through on Jared Torrance's vision, and in 1925 the Jared Sidney Torrance Memorial Hospital was opened. It is now named the

Torrance Memorial Medical Center Torrance Memorial Medical Center is a private hospital located in Torrance, California. Torrance Memorial was the first hospital in the Los Angeles South Bay region and is currently one of the three burn centers in Los Angeles County. History ...

Genealogist

Torrance was also an amateur

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

and did extensive research on his family roots. He wrote a book entitled ''The Descendants of Lewis Hart and Anne Elliott'' which was published posthumously by his wife in 1923. Jared Sidney Torrance died in 1921.

References

*Dalton, Peggy Coleman - ''Torrance: A City For Today'', Windsor Publications, 1990
History of Torrance Memorial Medical Center
People from Erie County, New York 1852 births 1921 deaths Torrance Torrance History of Torrance, California 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople American real estate businesspeople American city founders {{US-business-bio-1850s-stub