Glendale was originally part of Rancho San Rafael, which was granted by the Spanish governor of California to Corporal Jose Maria Berdugo (later changed to Verdugo) in 1798. Through inheritance, sale, and foreclosure, culminating in the "Great Partition" of 1871, the 36,000-acre rancho was divided among several landowners. Subdivision activity gained momentum in the early 1880s in Glendale, as elsewhere in southern California. Settlement was stimulated by the completion of the transcontinental railroad, its connection to Los Angeles by the Southern Pacific in 1876, and the subsequent link to the Santa Fe system in 1881. With the coming of the railroad, a real estate boom ensued. The 150-acre town of "Glendale" as it became known, was surveyed and recorded in 1887, with the boundaries established at First Street (now Lexington) on the north, Fifth Street (now Harvard) on the south, Central Avenue on the west, and the Childs Tract (the area on the east side of Glendale Avenue and between First [Lexington] and Ninth [Windsor] Streets) on the east.

Concurrent development activities were occurring near and around Glendale Avenue and First Street, development was also occurring at Central Avenue and San Fernando Road. Around the same time the town of Glendale was established, settlers in the southern and southwestern sections of modern-day Glendale (approximately two miles south of the proposed project area) named their small independent community "Tropico," after the name chosen by Southern Pacific for their depot. Prior to its founding as a town in 1887, the area was ranch land used first for grazing cattle and sheep, and later for the cultivation of oranges and strawberries.

In order to promote the town of Glendale, the founders planned a grand hotel in the center of town. Built at a cost of $60,000, the Glendale Hotel was an ornate edifice in the then popular Queen Anne style. However, the boom ended before either the hotel or Glendale could be well established. Growth of the town continued during the 1890s at a very slow pace, culminating in a population of 300 residents at the close of the decade.

Glendale's development began to accelerate after the turn of the 20th century. In 1902, the Glendale Improvement Association was formed. One of its most active members was Edgar D. Goode, who joined forces with Leslie C. Brand to successfully connect the communities of Glendale and Tropico to Los Angeles with a line of the interurban electric railroad. This was to prove a most important stimulus for growth in the area resulting in a population rise to 2,746 in 1910, 13,536 in 1920, and 62,736 by 1930.

The City of Glendale was incorporated in 1906. During this time, the area of the City expanded from 2.32 square miles to 30.6 square miles by means of numerous annexations. One of the most significant of these consolidations was the merging of Glendale and Tropico in 1917. Tropico was initially an independent city incorporated in 1911.

By the early twentieth century, Glendale's commercial center, originally at Glendale Avenue and Wilson, had moved to the intersection of Brand and Broadway and continued to spread in all directions from that intersection. The City's industrial core included health care, pottery, and transportation. Residential buildings encompassed everything from farmhouses to bungalows to the substantial and often architecturally notable homes of the affluent in the foothills north of downtown. With the conclusion of World War II, Glendale experienced the growth of post-war redevelopment. By that time, the City of Glendale was substantially developed.