Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language.[



The first Caucasian group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near present day Wilshire Boulevard on August 3, 1769. There are two different versions of the naming of the city. One says that it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), while the other says that it was named by Father Juan Crespí on account of a dripping spring, the Serra Springs, that was reminiscent of the tears that Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety



The northern sections of the City of Santa Monica once belonged to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica and Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. The Sepulveda family sold 38,409 acres (155 km2) of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica for $54,000 in 1872 to Colonel Robert S. Baker and his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker.



Jones and Baker subdivided part of their joint holdings in 1875 and created the town of Santa Monica. The town site fronted on the ocean and was bounded on the northwest by Montana Avenue, on the southeast by Colorado Avenue and on the northeast by 26th Street. The avenues were all named after the States of the West, the streets being simply numbered. The first lots in Santa Monica were sold on July 15, 1875.