City of Lafayette A view of Lafayette, California A view of Lafayette, California Location of Lafayette in California Location of Lafayette in California City of Lafayette is positioned in the US City of Lafayette - City of Lafayette Lafayette (formerly, La Fayette) is a town/city in Contra Costa County, California, United States.
Today Lafayette is known for its pastoral rolling hills, good schools, and wealthy inhabitants.
In 2009, estimated median homehold income in Lafayette was over $120,000, more than double the statewide average and nearly triple the nationwide average.
4 Cross of Lafayette Memorial 5 Lafayette Park Theater Before the colonization of the region by Spain, Lafayette and its vicinity were inhabited by the Saclan tribe of the indigenous Bay Miwok.
Ohlone also populated some of the areas along Lafayette Creek. The indigenous inhabitants' first contact with Europeans was in the late 18th century with the beginning of Catholic missions in the region.
These initial contacts advanced into conflict, with years of armed struggle, including a battle on what is presently Lafayette soil in 1797 between the Saclan and the Spanish, and eventually resulting in the standardised of the native population.
Most of what is presently Lafayette was given as a Mexican territory grant, Rancho Acalanes to Candelario Valencia in 1834.
On March 2, 1857 the La - Fayette postal service was established by the U.S.
(The official document giving this exact date was supplied to the Lafayette Historical Society in 1993 by the Historical Division of the U.S.
Postal Service.) Prior to 1857 the improve that is now known as "Lafayette" actually had no known name - though there are undocumented rumors that it was called Dog Town, Brown's Corner, Brown's Mill, Acalanus, and perhaps Centerville. The name "La - Fayette" came together with the community's first postal service.
In 1857 Benjamin Shreve, owner and manager of a roadside hotel-general store (which faced today's Lafayette Plaza), applied for a postal service for the community, first requesting the name Centerville.
When informed that a postal service with that name already existed in California, Shreve suggested La Fayette, after the French general who became a hero of the American Revolution (probably not because his wife was a native of Lafayette, Indiana).
The first La - Fayette postal service was established at 3535 Plaza Way and Shreve became the town's first permanent postmaster, holding the job for 30 years.
Postal Service, dated 2 March 1857, the name "La - Fayette" is unmistakably written as one word with a capital "F" in the middle.
In 1864 the place name "Lafayette" first appeared on a map of the area, titled "Bancroft's Map of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona (copyrighted 1863.
Yet research by Ruth Dyer, Lafayette historian, shows that the name of the postal service and of the new town itself soon began to be written as two words, "La Fayette." Finally on 31 March 1932 the name of the postal service was officially changed to Lafayette, which has remained unchanged to this day.
Lafayette was the tenth postal service established in Contra Costa County.
In the early 1860s, Lafayette was briefly the site of a station for the Pony Express. During the mid-1900s, Lafayette was transformed from an agricultural village into a commuter town, and was incorporated in 1968.
Lafayette Reservoir Lafayette is positioned at 37 53 09 N 122 07 05 W. According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 15.4 square miles (40 km2).
Lafayette is situated between Walnut Creek, Moraga, and Orinda, and, together with the latter two towns, is considered locally as part of "Lamorinda".
Lafayette is separated from greater Berkeley and Oakland by the Berkeley Hills (and the Caldecott Tunnel running beneath), a geographical boundary inside the East Bay which also represents interesting meteorological, cultural, and political distinct ions.
Like the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, Lafayette has a Mediterranean climate (Koppen climate classification Csa); however, the climate differences can be striking: amid the summer, temperatures can soar beyond 100 F (38 C) in Lafayette and its neighboring metros/cities while the areas west of the hills and nearer to the bay remain up to 20 degrees cooler.
In the southwestern part of Lafayette, is the Lafayette Reservoir, and Briones Regional Park extends into the northern part of Lafayette.
Lafayette's wildlife communities include different woods and oak woodlands.
Climate data for Lafayette, California In 2012, estimated median homehold income in Lafayette was over $150,000, more than double the statewide average and nearly triple the nationwide average. The 2010 United States Enumeration reported that Lafayette had a populace of 23,893.
The ethnic makeup of Lafayette was 20,232 (84.7%) White, 166 (0.7%) African American, 66 (0.3%) Native American, 2,162 (9.0%) Asian, (27.1%) Pacific Islander, 240 (1.0%) from other competitions, and 1,000 (4.2%) from two or more competitions.
There were 9,223 homeholds, out of which 3,262 (35.4%) had kids under the age of 18 living in them, 5,871 (63.7%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 651 (7.1%) had a female homeholder with no husband present, 273 (3.0%) had a male homeholder with no wife present.
The populace was spread out with 5,956 citizens (24.9%) under the age of 18, 1,220 citizens (5.1%) aged 18 to 24, 4,676 citizens (19.6%) aged 25 to 44, 8,069 citizens (33.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 3,972 citizens (16.6%) who were 65 years of age or older.
19,025 citizens (79.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 4,769 citizens (20.0%) lived in rental housing units.
Cross of Lafayette Memorial View of the memorial from the Lafayette BART parking lot.
Main article: Lafayette hillside memorial In November 2006, region residents began placing crosses on a hill overlooking the Lafayette BART station and Highway 24 "to represent and memorialize the American soldiers who have died in the ongoing Iraqi war." Lafayette Park Theater Another historical site found in Lafayette is the Park Theater, which first opened in 1941, and then ceased operations in 2005.
Lafayette Elementary School The Lafayette Library and Learning Center of the Contra Costa County Library is positioned in Lafayette. Oakmont Memorial Park is a cemetery in Lafayette.
The following is a list of notable inhabitants of Lafayette, past and present.
Brian Callister, MD, Lafayette native, physician, and nationally famous community care character and policy expert Died in Lafayette.
Richard Ewell, former Confederate general who was a founder of Lafayette.
Built and lived in elaborate estate in west Lafayette in early 1950s.
Brent Mydland, musician, lived in Lafayette for a time before his death in 1990.
Buried at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette.
Lafayette hillside memorial "City of Lafayette, CA: City Council".
City of Lafayette, CA.
Lafayette Historical Society: Town History "Lafayette Historical Society Newsletter, January 2012" (PDF).
"Lafayette Historical Society Newsletter, March 2011" (PDF).
"Lafayette Historical Society Newsletter, October 2011" (PDF).
City of Lafayette - History of Lafayette Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lafayette, California "Lafayette Historic Weather Averages in California (94549)".
"2010 Enumeration Interactive Population Search: CA - Lafayette city".
The Crosses of Lafayette: About "Lafayette Library." City of Lafayette Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lafayette, California Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lafayette, California.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lafayette (California).
Try Lafayette First: Lafayette Chamber's Blog Lafayette Library and Learning Center Sustainable Lafayette
Categories:
Lafayette, California - Populated places established in 1846 - Incorporated metros/cities and suburbs in California - Cities in Contra Costa County, California - Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area - 1846 establishments in California
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