Alhambra City Map Poster

About Alhambra

The original inhabitants of the area now known as Alhambra were members of a Native American tribe whose name has been lost. In 1839, after the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga, Jose Maria Verdugo, a corporal in the Spanish army from Baja California (Mexico), became Governor and Military Director at Los Angeles. The land that was to become Alhambra was part of a 300,000 acre land grant given to Manuel Nieto by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1839; it included Encino and what is now Bel-Air. The northern end later became El Sereno (now officially part) while southern portion remained Rowland Heights for several years before being renamed "Alhambra" by real estate developers around 1900.