Other statistics indicative of Hawthorne's progress during 50 years show sales tax collections increasing from $150,000 in 1955 to $1,483,000 in 1970 and the number of electric meters increasing from 2,495 in 1940 to 17,209 in 1970. During the past ten years the number of telephones have more than doubled from 37,608 to 74,803. There is an average of 375,000 telephone calls per day.

No historical summary of Hawthorne would be complete without some reference to the booming, bewitching surrounding area … Southern California. It is, everything considered, one of the most incredibly varied, volatile, productive, dynamic pieces of real estate on earth: Contrasts, both past and present, paint a dramatic picture difficult to equal anywhere. Only a few miles from its roaring freeways, American condors breed and live their long lives in primitive surroundings unchanged since the first Spaniards sailed by centuries ago. Jet airplanes streak to Europe in less than 12 hours time over trails where pioneer wagon trains wound their way past Indians with their poor possessions and beaten Gods. Super highways and subdivisions eat up thousands of acres of land but industry and agriculture yield production that few states can equal. Pleasure seekers and tourists criss-cross Hawthorne to Marineland, Disneyland and Hollywood, but within a radius of a few miles, the minds of the greatest pool of technological and scientific talent in the nation swiftly translate ideas and concepts into one-fifth of all the hardware for U.S. space and military programs. While snows fall softly on peaks that thrust skyward 11,000 feet, thousands of bathers throng beaches and great expanses of orange groves glint golden in the sun.

When the westward march of civilization - by wagon train and railroad - reached the shores of the Pacific, it was thought that the last frontier had been conquered. This thought persisted for over a hundred years until the curiosity and genius of mankind became devoted to the challenge of space. Hawthorne is located in the midst of activity "reaching for the stars". Frontiers always bluster and fight back but give lavish rewards to those who will not be bullied, who will accept new challenges. Hawthorne products were in the moon shots of the Ranger, the Venus probe satellite and the Mars probe satellite. These space vehicles were guided by intricate machinery manufactured in Hawthorne, obeyed commands and sent back pictures with electronic modules and memory systems that were conceived and created in Hawthorne factories. An now, Hawthorne will be a part of the space shuttle system. Hawthorne is no longer the last frontier. It is the launching pad for the continued march of civilization in the search for more goods and services and more commerce for all.

But Hawthorne is not all space by any means. 156 factories manufacture a variety of products of which many are shipped all over the world. These include mean grinding machines, toys, plastics, computers, shower doors, furniture, electric gold carts, trams, ornamental iron, maine automatic pilots, folding doors, girl's sportswear, fishing lures, tools, cleansing systems, air filtration equipment, cosmetics, doors, windows, kitchen cabinets, diamond blades for cutting tile, water heaters, stoves and many others.

And the future is most promising.

For the past several years the city council has been formulating a project to rebuild a large section of the downtown shopping area, a section bound by El Segundo on the south, 120th Street on the north, Hawthorne Boulevard on the west and Birch on the east - about 38 acres in all. Space does not permit an accounting of the many, many trials and tribulations, frustrations and set-backs that the development agency has had to contend with. It is an awesome undertaking. However, perseverance always finally prevails, and within the next few years Hawthorne will have a modern shopping area that will draw hundreds of thousand of shoppers to our city.

Only a few years ago competent agencies predicted that Hawthorne would have a population of 45,000 by 1975. That figure was surpassed in 1965 and it is difficult to estimate how many people will live in Hawthorne if the trends documented in this history continue.

Statisticians will ponder over this question but there will be no question about the continued growth and prosperity of Hawthorne.