San Gabriel is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 39,804 at the 2000 census. It is named after the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, one of the original Spanish missions in California.
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish to Alta California, the area that now comprises San Gabriel was inhabited by the Tongva ethnic group, which came to be called the Gabrieleno by the Spanish.
Spanish colonial history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, a California State historical landmark. The founding of the mission establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the modern Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art.
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel served a central role in Spanish colonial society, with many of the area's first Mexican settlers being baptized at the mission, including Pio Pico, who was baptised at the mission in 1801 and became governor of California in 1845.
By 1852, after American occupation, San Gabriel became one of the first townships in the County of Los Angeles. When the 1860 census was taken, there were only 586 persons listed. The city was incorporated as a general law city on April 24, 1913. At the time, the city's population was 1,500.
The city is bordered on the north by San Marino, on the east by Temple City and Rosemead, to the south by Rosemead and to the west by Alhambra.
