City of Brentwood history

The only remaining building from these years, other than homes, is the Boiling Spring Academy, opened in 1834(?) on what is now Moore’s Lane.

Two years later (in 1837), Noriega sold the Rancho to Doctor John Marsh.

The Tennessee & Alabama Railroad established in 1852 led to Brentwood’s development

He formed a partnership with another ambitious man, James M. Hall, and together they devised a plan to lay out a village and sell lots along the railroad route (Church Street area). They named their imagined village Brentwood and began selling lots in 1856.

Sons and brothers left Brentwood in 1861 to join the southern army with high hopes.

The town of Brentwood was founded in 1878 when the San Pablo & Tulare Railroad came through East Contra Costa.

The Brentwood Courier was the first newspaper for the community when it began publishing in 1892.

It is now published by the Bay Area Newspaper Group. It was followed by the Brentwood News (later named Brentwood Enterprise) that began in 1897.

In 1902, Liberty Union High School was established so that local East County students could further their education past the 8th grade.

The first graduation at Liberty was held in 1905.

When Balfour, Guthrie and Company, a British investment concern, purchased the Marsh rancho in 1910, its investments in the town hastened its progress.

The Bank of Brentwood (later to be absorbed by the Bank of America) was opened in 1913.

The Brentwood Library opened a reading room and lending library in 1915.

They bought their first chickens at the Malibu Feed Bin at Topanga Canyon Blvd. on Pacific Coast Highway (The Potter’s Topanga Trading Post of the 1920’s became the Malibu Feed Bin.) Later they ordered the chickens from a catalogue and little chicks were sent out the next day from Oklahoma.

By a large margin, residents of Brentwood voted to establish a water district to serve the town with a domestic water supply in 1926 authorizing the issuance of a $20,000 bond to purchase equipment, install complete fire protection and develop new wells for the residents’ water needs.

Although several doctors had served the community from its founding, it did not have a hospital until Catherine Holden, M.D. opened Brentwood Hospital in 1929.

In October 1947 the Brentwood Improvement Association started a campaign to sign up the necessary number of property owners representing twenty-give percent of the assessed valuation within the proposed boundaries.

Within two weeks, forty percent of the property owners had signed.* Brentwood incorporated on February 19, 1958.

After being housed in inadequate quarters for the first 15 years, Brentwood built a City Hall at the corner of Third and Oak Streets in 1963.

South Brentwood Homeowners Association was officially incorporated In the early 1970’s in response to plans to rezone and develop a creek and forested area still referred to as the “Gross Property,” a large parcel located north of Wilshire and west of Wellesley Ave.

In 1994, in response to complaints about heavy traffic and noisy news helicopters following the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on South Bundy Drive, SBHA represented the community well.