Summary

I have found evidence that East Whittier (by that name) was an unincorporated area of Los Angeles as far back as the late 1800s or early 1900s. In 1961 a portion of East Whittier was annexed by the city of Whittier. I haven't seen historical maps, but I assume the area under discussion is the remainder of the land then know as East Whittier that was not annexed by Whittier.

I've compiled some evidence that the unincorporated area is still widely known as East Whittier.

1. There are street signs on the major and some of the minor intersections that say East Whittier. I've put pictures of a couple on the map, but there are many others. I just got tired of driving around and  looking for places to park so I could take picures of street signs. I haven't found any street signs saying East Whittier outside the map area. I can't prove there are none, but I'm pretty sure.

2. There are two Welcome to East Whittier signs, also noted on the map.

3. Realtors call the area Whittier or East Whittier. If you click the map tag on Lambert, you'll see a scanned image of part of a notepad that a local realtor hands out as a promotion. It's a photo of a Welcome to East Whittier sign.

4. Our mailing addresses are Whitter. That may not be the same as East Whittier, but it certainly isn't East La Mirada.

5. The Whittier County Community Coordinating Council, a citizen group which works with the County Board of Supervisors representing the interests of residents in unincorporated Whittier, alternates it's meetings among three sites, in areas they refer to as West Whittier, South Whittier, and East Whittier. The East Whittier meetings are held at the Southern California University of Health Sciences, shown on the map.

6. The Los Angeles Times has a mapping project in which they provide information about Los Angeles communities. They follow the Census Bureaus designation for this area, calling it East La Mirada. Four people (including me) have made comments there. Of the four, three mention that the name is East Whittier. The fourth doesn't mention the name at all.

Admittedly there are some problems.

1) One of the two Welcome to East Whittier signs that I found is located as you enter what is more commonly called South Whittier. I can't account for that. I drove around that region a bit and didn't find any street signs with the name East Whittier on them.

2) East Whittier continues to be used as the name of a neighborhood in Whittier. Hence we have the East Whittier YMCA, located in incorporated Whittier, and the East Whittier School District whose attendance map includes portions of Whittier, La Mirada (incorporated in 1960), and East Whittier. You can find East Whittier on maps, but they point to the eastern portion of incorporated Whittier.

3) Then there's the case for calling the area East La Mirada. ... Oh, wait a minute. There isn't an argument for East La Mirada. So far as I know, only the Census Bureau and people using Census Bureau data ever call the area East La Mirada.