La Cañada Flintridge sits in the Crescenta Valley of Los Angeles County, tucked against the San Gabriel Mountains at the western edge of the San Gabriel Valley. The city was incorporated as a general law city on November 30, 1976, combining two older communities: La Cañada, which grew up around an early agricultural settlement, and Flintridge, a subdivision of large lots laid out by U.S. Senator Frank Flint south of Foothill Boulevard. The name La Cañada translates roughly to "glen between the hills," a fitting description for a community framed by foothills and national forest land on three sides. The city is best known outside the region for two institutions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a center of planetary science and spacecraft operations, occupies a campus here and gives the city a distinctly scientific character and an educated professional base. Descanso Gardens, a 150-acre botanical garden with camellia forests and oak woodlands, draws visitors from across Southern California and serves as the community's cultural anchor. Despite these high-profile institutions, La Cañada Flintridge maintains a low-key, residential character centered on schools and community life rather than commerce or tourism. The city's development unfolded in phases through the twentieth century. The early decades produced estates, bungalows, and ranch homes, and the mid-century period added notable modern residences, including architect J.R. Davidson's Case Study House No. 15. The construction of the 210 Freeway in the 1960s reshaped the southern edge of the community, and incorporation in the 1970s came after years of negotiation between the two founding towns to fend off annexation by Glendale and Pasadena. Today the population of roughly 20,500 skews toward families drawn by the highly regarded school system, the quiet tree-lined streets, and quick access to the employment centers of Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, and downtown Los Angeles. The surrounding San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest provide a dramatic natural backdrop that sets the city apart from the denser communities of the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles basin below.