10/16/2025
For history lovers in our town……….
A is for artesian wells, the source of the name Clearwater.
B is for beets, as in sugar beets, the major crop in these parts prior two 1920.
C is for the California Cooperative Colony, the original effort to lay out a Tuen that came to be Name of our cities founders.
D is for dairies for which we became known as The Center of the Milk Shed of Los Angeles County.
E is for the Elks and the Women’s Club and the Lions Club and all the civic organizations, past and present, that have worked to bring people together for their own benefit as well as the community.
F is for Fiestas and Festas and Festivals, events that have celebrated like in our town.
G is for Gaines as in J Wesley Gaines our earliest pioneer resident. He came here in 1885, and the school is named after him.
H is for a tree, The Hay Tree , our city’s first registered State Historic Landmark.
I is for Iceland and all of the ice sports, figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey that have prospered at this landmark location for the last 80+ years.
J is for the “Journal” as in Paramount Journal founded in 1923 and remains our hometown paper.
K is for “Kuipje Steken” (“punch the barrel in Dutch), a sort of “dunk tank” popular at the Hay and Dairy Fiesta
L is for Literary Hall, built as the home of the Literary Society in 1894 and was the community’s cultural center, and social hall, for many decades until demolished in 1958.
M is for milk, the primary product of a dairy town, and the major product of our city from the 1920s through the 1950s.
N is for natural disasters, of which Paramount has had its share, in particular the 1933 earthquake, and the major floods of 1928 and 1938, the latter of which was reason for turning the LA River into a flood control project.
O is for Our Lady of the Rosary Church which has has been here since 1898,and a full parish church since 1935.
P is for the Pacific Electric Railway which served the city as interurban transit for over 50 years until 1958.
Q is for a Queen Juliana of The Netherlands , the only royalty to actually visit our city, She attended a service at Emmanuel Reformed Church in 1952 as part of her visit to the US.
R is for the river, the Rio de Los Angeles, which provided the lifeblood for the earliest inhabitants, the Tongva, as well as the early Ranchos and the agricultural settlements here in what is now Paramount.
S is for the Santa Train , an annual event that has been going on for over 50 years. It is also for the Santa Parade, a one time event back in 1950.
T is for Tongva, the indigenous people of our area, who were here for thousands of years.
U is for the Union Pacific, the freight service that began in 1890 and continues to serve our city.
V is for vaqueros, the original “employees” in Paramount, who worked for the Rancho Los Nietosand it’s successor, the Rancho Los Cerritos, and later on the Bixby Ranch, by then known as cowboys.
W is for Washington Street the original name of Compton/Somerset Boulevard
X is for xeriscape (drought tolerant landscaping), and back to in the day the Johnson Cactus Gardens (starting in 1928)was the leading purveyor of cactus, and other “low water”plants, in America. It was also a major mail order operation.
Y is for the year-round climate that we enjoy and that makes it possible for us to do so much of what we do. It also made us at prosperous agricultural community as well as a dairy community.
Z is for the the Zamboni, our most famous manufactured product.
