February 2017 | Business View Magazine

140 141 A t approximately one square mile, Cudahy, California is a relatively small city. And yet, it has one of the highest popu- lation densities of any incorporated city in the United States. This, however, was not always the case. In fact, at one time, Cudahy was notable for the way in which it was intentionally laid out to be far less dense than most American towns. Cudahy is named after its founder, Michael Cudahy, a meat-packer from the Midwest, who purchased the original 2,777 acres of Rancho San Antonio in 1908, with plans to resell the land as one-acre lots. These “Cudahy lots” some- times known as “railroad lots,” were in- tended to allow the new town’s residents to keep a large vegetable garden, a grove of fruit trees (usually citrus), and a chick- en coop or horse stable. This arrange- ment, popular in the towns along the lower Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, Cudahy, California Small city, big plans Cudahy, California