It is a town with streets lined with beautiful trees. It is a city bustling with activity of shoppers, diners, and business people. It is a college town, home to eight different campuses. It is an art community, offering a variety of galleries and museums. It is a picturesque community, settled at the foot of a beautiful mountain range. The town is, of course, Claremont. While it may be located just thirty miles from Los Angeles, Claremont, California is in many ways a step back in time. However, it retains a sense of the modern at the same time.

When you see the historic buildings around the Claremont Village, you may find yourself drawn into the past. You may want to know more about this eclectic city.

Before it was the city you see now, the area was once a wilderness belonging to Spanish settlers who set up a number of missions in the region. In fact, the Claremont area was once part of a long chain of missions referred to as San Gabriel. However, in the early eighteen hundreds, the beginnings of a city formed. At first, there was not much to the small settlement, but then something came along that changed everything.

In the late eighteen eighties, Claremont was founded with the belief that it would soon grow to a vast bustling city when the railroad came along. While this did not happen at first and the town became rather abandoned, things would soon change.

In eighteen eighty eight, the first campus was relocated to the city. This was Pomona College, and it was in a time when more and more colleges were being founded. After that point, more colleges opened and more industry began to form. The Claremont California you see now began to take shape. In fact, it was during that time that the trees that you see along the streets of downtown were planted. That means those trees are over a century old and just as much a part of Claremont history as anything else.

Because the railroad played such a central role in the city’s founding, many of the historic sites are located near it, including the original industries that were located there. The historic Claremont train station still remains and still retains that feeling of the past.

When you walk the streets of the city, look for the historic architecture dating to Victorian and Craftsman styles. Look for the citrus trees that once formed vast orchards. Look for the beautiful century old trees. Claremont is certainly a beautiful town worth visiting.