12 Facts About Juan Temple

Don Juan Temple was a Californian ranchero and merchant.

Jonathan Temple was born in Reading, Massachusetts, to Jonathan Temple Sr.

From at least 1823, Juan Temple was a merchant living in the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1827 Juan Temple moved north to Pueblo de Los Angeles, where he opened the pueblo's first general store, a business he operated for almost thirty years.

Juan Temple married Rafaela Cota in 1830, and they had one daughter, Francisca Temple.

In 1836, Juan Temple hosted the first vigilance committee to form in California at his Los Angeles residence.

Juan Temple created a thriving cattle ranch and prospered, becoming after Abel Stearns, the wealthiest man in post-statehood Los Angeles County.

Juan Temple was one of Los Angeles' first developers, constructing such landmarks as the original Juan Temple Block and the Clocktower Courthouse, Market and Theater, which later served as city and county administrative headquarters, contained the county courthouse, and featured the first true theater in southern California.

Juan Temple served as the first alcalde of Los Angeles after capture of the pueblo by the United States during the Mexican-American War and served on the first American-period common council.

In 1849, after Los Angeles was ordered by California's military governor to conduct a survey, but couldn't pay for the work, Juan Temple paid for the Ord Survey out of his own funds, and then was repaid by the sale of lots created in the survey.

Juan Temple Street was developed by him as a modest one-block dirt lane in the 1850s.

Rafaela Cota de Juan Temple moved to Paris, France, to join her widowed daughter, and died there in the 1887.