Rancho San Rafael
Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish land grant in the San Rafael Hills, bordering the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco in present-day Los Angeles County, southern California, given in 1784 to Jose Maria Verdugo. Geography The rancho includes the present day cities of Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Montrose, Verdugo City; and the city of Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, Garvanza, Glassell Park, Highland Park, and Mount Washington. The rancho's boundaries were primarily defined by the Verdugo Mountains on the west, the Crescenta Valley and Rancho La Cañada on the north, the Arroyo Seco on the east, and the Los Angeles River on the south. The boundary followed north along the northeast bank of the L.A. River, and then wrapped westerly around present day Griffith Park to a point near the Travel Town Museum there. History Corporal José María Verdugo (1751–1831), a Spanish soldier who had served with the 1769 Portola-Serra Expedition, received a provisional eight square league grant of the Rancho San Rafael in 1784, from his army commander Governor Pedro Fages, which was confirmed in 1798 by Governor Diego de Borica. In 1798 Verdugo retired from the army to become a full-time