Getting to Know San Marino
How San Marino Sits
San Marino is an affluent residential city in Los Angeles County, just southeast of Pasadena, at the western edge of the San Gabriel Valley. It covers about three and three-quarters square miles and had about 13,000 people at the 2020 census. It is one of the wealthiest and lowest-density cities in the region, with large lots, wide streets, and almost no commercial or industrial land. It borders Pasadena to the north, South Pasadena to the west, Alhambra to the south, and San Gabriel and Arcadia to the east.
The city was laid out as a garden suburb and is held to that vision by strict zoning. Nearly all of San Marino is single-family residential. Lot sizes range from around 9,000 square feet to more than an acre. The code reaches down to details like fence heights and exterior alterations. Homes range from Spanish Colonial Revival and Monterey Colonial to Tudor and traditional designs, many by prominent architects, on streets lined with mature sycamores. Neighborhoods like Oak Knoll hold the grandest estates on the largest lots.
At the heart of the city is the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. It spans 207 acres of research library, art galleries, and more than a dozen themed gardens on the former Huntington estate. The 30-acre Lacy Park gives the city a green center. The San Marino Unified School District ranks among the best in California, which is a major reason families move here. More than six in ten residents today are of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, part of the larger East Asian community across the San Gabriel Valley.
From the Wilson Ranchos to a Garden City
The land was home to the Tongva people and later part of the Spanish Mission San Gabriel holdings and the Mexican ranchos that followed. In the nineteenth century, it lay within the lands of Don Benito Wilson, a former mayor of Los Angeles, whose Lake Vineyard estate was divided among his family. One portion went to his daughter and her husband James De Barth Shorb, who named his 600-acre ranch San Marino after his grandfather’s Maryland home.
In 1903, the railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington bought the Shorb ranch, razed the old house, and built the mansion that now anchors the Huntington Library. His business partner was George S. Patton, father of the World War II general. Together they set out to turn the area from farmland into a residential suburb, helped along by the electric streetcar lines Huntington controlled.
In 1913, the Wilson, Patton, and Huntington ranchos and several smaller ranches were incorporated together as the city of San Marino, with George S. Patton serving as the first mayor. Huntington opened his library and gardens to the public in 1919. Over the following century, the city filled in with estate homes while holding to its garden-suburb design, and it remains one of the most prestigious addresses in Southern California.
What a San Marino Move Really Involves
San Marino is built of large, often historic homes on deep lots, so most moves here turn on the property and its grounds rather than distance. The first thing we settle is the access. The driveways are long, the lots are deeply landscaped, and homes sit well back from the street. So we work out where the truck can park and how far the carry runs to the door. We also confirm any neighborhood association rules before the day.
The home is the next factor. A large estate may hold heavy antique furniture, fine art, a piano, and a full library, with detailed millwork, stair railings, and hardwood floors that must be protected. A historic house needs care around original materials and finishes. We walk the home and its grounds ahead of time, then bring the crew size, the equipment, and the protection the house calls for.
The third factor is the handling. White-glove care is the standard here, not the exception. We wrap and pad every piece, build a written plan for fragile and high-value items, and lay floor and door protection through the whole route from the truck to the room. With the access, the home, and the handling settled before move day, the crew works steadily from the first piece on.