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Monrovia is a city located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 36,929 at the 2000 census.

Monrovia is the fourth oldest general law city in Los Angeles County and the L.A. Basin (after Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Pasadena). Incorporated in 1887, Monrovia has grown from a sparse community of orange ranches to a residential community of 37,000. People traveling between Los Angeles and San Bernardino traveled "via Monroe's Ranch," hence the name.

Around 500 BC, a band of Shoshonean-speaking Indians established settlements in what is now the San Gabriel Valley. These native Americans came to be called the Gabrieliño Indians by early Spanish explorers, and are now referred to as the Tongva. The Tongva were not farmers; they gathered wild seeds, berries, and plants along rivers and in marshlands. Abundant oaks in the Valley, such as Coast Live Oak and Interior Live Oak provided a staple of the Tongva diet: acorn mush made of boiled acorn flour.

n 1769, when all California was claimed by the King of Spain, Europeans first visited the San Gabriel Valley, including Monrovia. An expedition from San Diego passed through en route to Monterey Bay, commanded by Don Gaspar Portola. Accompanying Portola were a Franciscan Father from Father Junipero Serra's Franciscan order of Mexico, and Juan Crespi, the expedition's diarist. Much of what is known of early California is known only from Crespi's detailed descriptions.

In 1771, the Franciscans established the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in the San Gabriel Valley. The mission was a resting point for early California travelers and gathered most of the native Tongva into an agricultural lifestyle. Following the Mexican Revolution in 1839, the mission lands were nationalized.

In 1841, California Governor Juan Alvarado gave Rancho Azusa de Duarte to Andres Duarte, a Mexican soldier, and he gave Rancho Santa Anita to Hugo Reid, a naturalized Mexican citizen of American birth. Monrovia is made of parts of these two ranchos.

In the mid-1800s, most of Rancho Azusa de Duarte was subdivided and sold by Duarte to settle his debts. Some of those parcels would eventually end up as part of the ranch of William N. Monroe, Monrovia's namesake.
Rancho Santa Anita changed hands several times before the famous multimillionaire, silver baron and rancher, E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin acquired it in 1875. That same year his Los Angeles Investment Company began subdividing and selling parcels from many of his ranchos. In 1883, 240 acres (970,000 m²) of Rancho Santa Anita were sold to Monroe for $30,000. Additional parcels of Rancho Santa Anita were sold to Edward F. Spence, John D. Bicknell, James F. Crank, and J.F. Falvey.

The completion of the Santa Fe (which would run through Monrovia) and Southern Pacific railroads to Southern California would bring new people looking for homes and investment opportunities. With this in mind, Monroe, Spence, Bicknell, Crank, and Falvey decided to combine their land under the business name of the Monrovia Land and Water Company in 1886. The combined lots formed the Town of Monrovia Subdivision. The original borders of the Town of Monrovia Subdivision were Canyon Blvd. to the east, Walnut Ave. to the south, Magnolia Ave. to the west, and Lime Ave. to the north. The subdivision was then itself quickly subdivided into 600 500-foot (150 m) by 160-foot (49 m) lots and sold. Some lucky buyers of these lots turned around and sold them very quickly. Those who chose to hold on to their property saw its value fall to a fraction of its 1886-1887 value.

The town was incorporated in 1887 under the leadership of prohibitionists who wished to control the arrival of an unwelcome saloon. The first order of business for the newly formed government was to pass a tippler's law, prohibiting the sale of alcohol.

In 1903 the Monrovia News was established. In the same year, the Pacific Electric was opened providing transportation to and from Los Angeles, making it possible for Monrovian homeowners to work in Los Angeles.

In 1905 Carnegie funds became available and with the help of the Board of Trade (forerunner to the Chamber of Commerce), and the Monrovia Women's Club, a bond issue was passed to purchase the Granite Bank Building to be used as a City Hall, and to acquire property for a public park. The Granite Building serves as the city hall, fire and police department facilities in 1961 and the fire department in 1974. In 1956, the old Carnegie library building was torn down and the present library constructed. The library now boasts a book collection of 95,000 volumes.As of March 2007, the city's residents were asked to vote on a new, upgraded library which is ADA-compliant and has twice as much room for books and computer usage as the current one(the measure passed with at least 70% of the vote.).

A city council-manager type government was instituted in 1923.

The Upton Sinclair House, home to activist and author Upton Sinclair, is located in Monrovia and is a National Historic Landmark.

Monrovia has been used extensively for filming many TV shows, movies and commercials.

The CBS-TV drama "Picket Fences" was filmed throughout Monrovia. This included use of Monrovia City Hall as the fictional Rome, Wisconsin Sheriff's Office and the nearby United Methodist Church used as the Logan County Courthouse. To this day, CBS insists that the city of Rome, Wisconsin was a fictional town, although there are two actual cities in Wisconsin that bear that name.

In 1995 Monrovia received the All America City Award from the National Civic League.

Monrovia operates its own Fire & Police Departments led by Fire Chief Christopher Donovan and Chief of Police Roger W. Johnson

Various wildlife ranging from deers to black bears even the occasional mountain lion can be seen roaming in Monrovia's foothills. Monrovia's wildlife population gained notoriety in 1994 when a black bear was seen enjoying dips in northern Monrovia residents' hot tubs and swimming pools. The bear became a local celebrity to Monrovia residents after his falling ill due to his consuming a plastic grocery bag. After capture the bear was originally scheduled to be euthanized, however due to public outcry this did not happen. Instead, Samson was relocated to the Orange County Zoo where he had his own exhibit funded by monetary donations from all over the world, many of which came from school children. Samson lived at the zoo until his death from old age on May 14 2001. A monument to Samson "The Hot Tub" Bear can be seen at the entrance to the Nature Center of Monrovia's Canyon Park.

In 1937, Patrick McDonald opened a simple restaurant at the old Monrovia Airport called the Airdrome (hamburgers were ten cents, and all-you-can-drink orange juice was five cents); the restaurant remained at the airport until 1940, when he and his then teenage sons, Maurice and Richard, moved the entire building to San Bernardino to the corner of 14th and E Streets renaming it "McDonald's". In 1955, milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc made a franchising deal with the McDonald brothers. In 1961 Kroc purchased the business rights for $2.7 million. For years after the McDonald's Corporation claimed the Des Plaines, Illinois location to be the first (it was the first location franchised through Ray Kroc), and only recently has recognized San Bernardino. Some though claim Monrovia to be the "real" birthplace, but that's subjective since McDonald's as it became franchised came into being with the development of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monrovia,_California