Rancho Repetto, as such, was not an original Spanish or Mexican rancho,
yet in character and size it was just as a Spanish or Mexican rancho
would be. Its history, although covering a period much shorter than the
life of the Spanish grant, is full of the romance of the ranchos of the
Dons.
The rancho derived its name from Alessandro Repetto, later known as
Alexander Repetto, who purchased its five thousand acres shortly after
the Civil War. Some of the land had been found by the United States Land
Commission to belong to the Rancho San Antonio and this Repetto
purchased from the Lugos. Some of the land he obtained from the
government and forty acres came through state patent.
Toward its west boundary ran a road recently widened and paved by the
County of Los Angeles. One of the deeds to Repetto refers to this as
“the Road used by the horsemen coming from the rancho of Juan Matias
Sanchez” (originally Mission land of San Gabriel). Later the road was
called Portesuelo de la Rosa de Castella, and still later it was
officially changed to Monterey Pass. It is commonly called Coyote Pass.
In 1885 Alexander Repetto died leaving as his heir Antonio Repetto, a
brother who lived in Italy. The heir preferred Italy to California and
came here only long enough to collect his inheritance, sell the rancho
and return home. Harris Newmark, John D. Bicknell, Kaspare Cohn, who
founded the Union Bank & Trust Co., Stephen M. White, once United States
Senator from California, and whose figure in bronze stands in front of
the Los Angeles County Court House, and I. W. Hellman purchased the
rancho for $60,000—about $12.00 an acre.
Out of the Harris Newmark and Kaspare Cohn holdings in Rancho Repetto
was platted Montebello, originally called the Town of Newmark. I. W.
Hellman, whose interest in the rancho equalled 1,500 acres, chose his
land in the northwestern part of the rancho and with that foresight
which made him the foremost banker in Los Angeles when he lived here and
the foremost banker of San Francisco when he removed there he held the
land for the future. This remainder of Rancho Repetto though closer to
Broadway than Hollywood has almost to this day remained just as it was
when it was the property of Alessandro Repetto, while to the south was a
view of intensive development, as Los Angeles industrially spread
eastward, and to the north was another view of intensive development as
Pasadena and Alhambra became cities.
Recently the last of Rancho Repetto has given up its aloofness. Atlantic
Boulevard has been cut through from north to south and Beverly Boulevard
is to cross it from west to east. The Hellman heirs have conveyed a
large part of it and the J. B. Ransom Corporation has announced an
immediate subdivision program. The final chapter in the history of
Rancho Repetto is being written.
[Illustration: _Early Ranch House—American Period_]