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.

Early Ranch House—American Period