San Marino Tutors Come To You

Primarily a residential area, San Marino, California is nestled in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley just a few miles north of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. Originally part of Mission San Gabriel property, San Marino was acquired by Benjamin Wilson, referred to as Don Benito, in 1852. Don Benito had three daughters, one with Ramona Yorba, daughter of another important California land owner, and two with Margaret Hereford. His eldest daughter Maria de Jesus, known as Sue, married Maryland native James de Barth Shorb, a trained lawyer who dabbled in several different trades and was working with the Army Corps of Engineers when he met Maria. Shorb and Wilson immediately bonded and the two men collaborated in cultivating grapes and citrus. Wilson gave the couple the rights to what would later become the city of San Marino. Shorb named the area San Marino after his father’s plantation back in Maryland. The name comes from Saint Marinus, a fourth century Christian living at a time when Christianity was frowned upon by the Romans. Marinus fled persecution to the east coast of Italy where he founded a monastery in what is now the Republic of San Marino.

As for Shorb, he went on to be one of the largest wine producers in California with his vineyards having the capability of crushing 250 tons of grapes a day. Unfortunately, Shorb’s crops fell victim to “Pierce’s Disease,” an insect transmitted bacteria which destroyed much of Southern California’s fledgling wine industry in the 1800’s. At the same time, vintners in Northern California were using more modern methods and employing European immigrants, rather than the Mexican and Chinese laborers employed by Shorb, who tended to be more experienced in the wine industry. Today, only the existence of Shorb Street and Vine Street in nearby Alhambra hearken back to a time when grapes were a going concern in this part of California. Another son-in-law of Don Benito, George Smith Patton, a trained military man and the son of a Confederate colonel, became the first mayor of San Marino. Patton’s son, also George S., went on to be one of the most famous generals in American history because of his exploits on the battlefields of Europe during World War II.

Over the last few decades the Asian-American presence has grown significantly in San Marino, so much so that they are now over sixty percent of the population. It’s likely that a San Marino tutor will get you caught up on your studies so you can enjoy the exciting things to do in the area. San Marino is home to the acclaimed Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The Huntington features rare books, famous paintings and more than a dozen spectacular gardens over 120 acres. Famous European paintings by the likes of Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and J.M.W. Turner grace the walls of the Huntington as well as American masterpieces by Mary Cassatt and Edward Hopper.

San Marino is only a short drive from Griffith Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Griffith Park is over 4,000 acres of green space in the middle Los Angeles. The park’s most famous feature is the Griffith Observatory, opened in the 1930’s and offering several science related displays. The observatory was most recently glorified in the popular movie La La Land. The L.A. Zoo, founded in 1966, sits on 133 acres and offers excellent exhibits including Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountain, Campo Gorilla Reserve and Elephants of Asia.