Downey City Map Poster

About Downey

It is the site of Los Angeles County's Downey Regional Park, the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial and The Aerospace Museum of California. Downey was founded by and named after two Irish immigrants who bought a parcel of land from Timothy White for $1,500 in 1873. When their plans to build a new city on their purchased land fell through, they sold it to another developer for $50 down and $5 monthly interest on 49 years worth of mortgage payments (approximately US$1 per month). A short time later, Downey was incorporated as its own city with about 20 residents. It remained sparsely populated until World War II when it became an important industrial hub that included large factories such as Signal Oil & Gas Company; Santa Fe Springs-based Bendix Corporation; Hughes Aircraft Co.; Raytheon Manufacturing Co.; Lockheed Corporation; Northrop Corp., which manufactured aircraft including the T-38 Talon trainer jet used by NASA's astronaut corps until 1999[2]; Rocketdyne Division (now part number one supplier for all major U.