To the city’s eastern boundary was the San Gabriel Mission with its Moorish architecture and in 1903 Alhambra would formally incorporate as a city. In the 1870’s, the Southern Pacific Railroad established their southern transcontinental rail route through Alhambra eastward to Texas and Louisiana. The girls provided inspiration for the name, Don Benito supplied the land, and his son-in-law devised a state of art means of delivering water to the property. Wilson was establishing a housing tract during this period and various recollections describe his daughters convincing the family that the exotic name of Alhambra would be a good designation for this area in the west end of the San Gabriel Valley. Additionally, Mount Wilson which rises above the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles is named in his honor. Much of what is now Alhambra was part of Wilson’s land holdings. Benjamin Davis Wilson, 2nd Mayor of L.A.īenjamin Davis Wilson (also known as Don Benito Wilson to many locals) was a land baron, second mayor of Los Angeles, founder of Wilson College which ultimately evolved into USC, and US Army veteran who held title to vast quantities of land between Riverside and the west side of what is now Los Angeles. Ruth and Anne’s last name was Wilson… and their father was named Benjamin Davis Wilson. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Thomas Eakins would also travel to Spain for sojourns of artistic inspiration.Īnd in California a 10-year-old girl named Ruth and her sister Anne were enthralled by Irving’s romantic book that they read in the early-1870’s. Spanish art and culture had a profound impact on American writers and artists of the early and mid-1800’s.

He goes on to write about the exotic and passionate people of this part of Spain and the mixture of their Moorish and European roots. Irving described the Alhambra as “picturesque and beautiful” and said that it was situated in “one of the loveliest landscapes I have ever seen”. Tales of the Alhambra tells of Irving’s journey from Madrid to Granada, Spain, where he stayed in a historic Moorish sultan’s palace called the Alhambra. In 1829 Washington Irving also wrote Tales of the Alhambra. Among the stories which Irving is celebrated for writing are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with its spooky Headless Horseman. You can see it in not only in the name of the city, which lies seven miles east of Los Angeles, but also in Alhambra’s various streets and neighborhoods. Washington Irving and the Alhambra, CA ConnectionĪlhambra, California’s real estate has a connection to one of America’s best-known early writers, Washington Irving. Tales of Alhambra, by Washington Irving, vintage cover.

Washington irving and the alhambra