City History

The history of the City of Whittier and Whittier College are closely intertwined.

In 1885, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe completed a rail line to Los Angeles. Land sales boomed in Southern California and 130,000 settlers came to California.

In 1886, Aquilla Pickering, a businessman in Chicago and a member of the Society of Friends, visited California and Mexico, and decided to establish a Quaker colony on the West Coast. In 1887, Pickering and other investors purchased ranch land near the Puente Hills and formed the Pickering Land & Water Company. Two days later, "Whittier" was adopted as the new settlement's name, honoring Quaker abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier. That same year, the Pickering Land & Water Company board designated 20 acres as the site for the establishment of Whittier Academy, which later became Whittier College, and directors were selected from the community to create a viable institution and academic program.

The City of Whittier was incorporated in 1898.