Santa Monica: A Historic Coastal City Within Los Angeles County

Santa Monica is a city in Los Angeles County on the southern California coast, positioned along Santa Monica Bay. The city is bordered by the City of Los Angeles on every side except its western edge, where it meets the Pacific Ocean. That location has made Santa Monica both a distinct municipality and a closely connected part of the broader Los Angeles region.

The city’s name comes from Santa Mónica, Spanish for Saint Monica. Long before the modern city was established, the area was home to the Tongva, the Indigenous people of the region. In the 19th century, the land became part of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, a Mexican-era land grant made in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California.

The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker. In 1875, Baker and his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, a Californio heiress, founded Santa Monica. The community incorporated as a city in 1886, beginning its formal municipal history.

Santa Monica developed as a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its tourist landscape included Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar. These destinations helped establish the city’s reputation as a coastal place for recreation and visitors, an identity that remains central to how Santa Monica is understood within Los Angeles County.

According to the 2020 census, Santa Monica had 93,076 residents. Although it is a relatively compact coastal city, Santa Monica also has a significant business presence. Companies headquartered there include Hulu, Activision Blizzard, Game Show Network, Universal Music Group, Starz Entertainment, Lionsgate Studios, Illumination, and Snap Inc.

That combination of a resort history and a concentration of media, entertainment, music, gaming, and technology companies gives Santa Monica a distinctive place in the Los Angeles area. Its public identity is tied not only to the bay and its historic attractions, but also to industries that play a major role in the region’s cultural and economic life.

For Los Angeles readers, Santa Monica is therefore more than a beach destination. It is an incorporated city with its own history, Indigenous roots, civic boundaries, and institutional footprint—one that has developed alongside, while remaining separate from, the City of Los Angeles.

Source and reuse information This backgrounder adapts factual material from “Santa Monica, California” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica,_California The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://web.archive.org/web/19990218155338/http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/cm/index.htm - https://web.archive.org/web/20040604103557/http://www.naughtydog.com/crash/crash/timeline.htm - https://web.archive.org/web/20001006025115/http://www.mgm.com/corporate/corporate_info/corporate_information.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20141103140028/http://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-citizen-dev-opens-new-office/1100-6407401/ - https://www.cleanenergyfuels.com/press-room/big-blue-bus-fueling-renewable-future-one-bus-time - https://web.archive.org/web/20101214084354/http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phn/docs/HealthCenter/santamonica.pdf Image rights Photograph description: Unincorporated Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County, California, United States Creator: Capella Space. License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUnincorporated_Santa_Monica_Mountains%2C_Los_Angeles_County%2C_California%2C_United_States_(CAPELLA_C09_SP_GEO_HH_20250112071930_20250112071936).png. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.