WHITTIER

city, Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It lies at the foot of the Puente Hills. Part of the Rancho Paso de Bartolo Viejo (1847), the site was chosen in 1887 by Aquila H. Pickering for a Quaker community and named for the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It developed as an agricultural and citrus-growing centre and was later caught up in the expansion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Whittier College (the alma mater of President Richard M. Nixon) was established in 1887 and Rio Hondo College in 1960. The Pio Pica State Historic Park contains the partially restored mansion of Pio Pica, who was the last Mexican governor of California. Inc. city, 1898. Pop. (1990) 77,671; (1994 est.) 79,813.