Lathrop (, LAY-thrəp) is a city located 10 miles (16 km) south of Stockton in San Joaquin County, California, United States. The 2020 census reported that Lathrop's population was 28,701. The city is located in Northern California at the intersection of Interstate 5 and California State Route 120, in the San Joaquin Valley.
History Lathrop was developed around railroad interests. The town was founded around 1868 when the first transcontinental railroad was extended to the area after a dispute between the president of the Central Pacific Railroad, Leland Stanford, and the City of Stockton. The two parties had struck a right-of-way agreement to build a railroad through Stockton, but when city officials delayed in deciding where the alignment should go, Stanford decided to instead build the railroad around Stockton and set up a new town along the route. The new town was platted into 16 subdivisions around the site of a train depot named Wilson's Station at a wye built for switching train cars. A merchant store and schoolhouse were built soon after. In 1869, the area was renamed in honor of the family of Leland Stanford's wife, Jane Stanford (née Lathrop), and her brother, Charles Lathrop, who worked for Leland as an engineer at Central Pacific. On September 6, 1869, four months after the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, the San Joaquin River Bridge at Mossdale in Lathrop was finished by Western Pacific. This completed the last westbound link of the transcontinental railroad to the Pacific coast, with the first through train arriving that evening, making Lathrop an important division point and rail stop. In 1871, a post office opened in Lathrop. That same year, the railroad built a hotel for $50,000 called Hotel Lathrop, said to be one of the largest in the state of California at the time. Throughout the 1870s, Lathrop was an important rail stop for the transcontinental railroad. This generated steady growth in the area, with the population increasing to about 600 by 1879. In February 1886, the railroad's hotel caught fire and was destroyed. That, along with the railroad deciding to move its roundhouse and machine shops to nearby Tracy, California around the same time, caused Lathrop to enter into a period of economic and population decline until World War I.
On August 14, 1889, former Chief Justice of California David S. Terry assaulted United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, at the train station in Lathrop. Field's bodyguard, United States Marshal David Neagle (formerly assigned to Tombstone, Arizona), shot and killed Terry. The events led to the United States Supreme Court decision In re Neagle, which granted immunity from state prosecution to federal officers acting within the scope of their federal authority. During the 1940s, Lathrop expanded from its original townsite to an area of about five square miles. Following World War II, housing tracts were built and several large industrial employers moved there. Residential growth slowed during the 1950s and 1960s, but picked up again in the subsequent decades, doubling in population to 2,137 in 1970 and reaching 6,841 by 1990. Lathrop was incorporated in 1989, and its first General Plan adopted in 1991.
Geography The San Joaquin River cuts through the middle of Lathrop, the Old River (California) on the west side, and has elevation of 20 feet (7 m). Neighboring cities and towns include Stockton, Manteca, Ripon, French Camp, and Tracy. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city covers an area of 21.0 square miles (54.4 km2) of which 1.2 square miles (3.1 km2) (5.62%) is covered by water.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Lathrop had a population of 28,701 and a population density of 1,447.6 inhabitants per square mile (558.9/km2). The median age was 34.0 years. The age distribution was 28.8% under the age of 18, 9.4% aged 18 to 24, 28.4% aged 25 to 44, 23.5% aged 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 97.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.3 males age 18 and over.
The census reported that 99.9% of the population lived in households, 0.1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized. In addition, 99.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.0% lived in rural areas. There were 7,571 households, of which 54.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 61.6% were married-couple households, 6.5% were cohabiting couple households, 17.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present, and 14.3% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present. About 8.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.79. There were 6,599 families (87.2% of all households). There were 7,802 housing units at an average density of 393.5 units per square mile (151.9 units/km2), of which 7,571 (97.0%) were occupied and 3.0% were vacant. Of occupied units, 80.2% were owner-occupied and 19.8% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1%, and the rental vacancy rate was 2.5%.
2023 estimate In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $118,605, and the per capita income was $36,037. About 7.3% of families and 8.6% of the population were below the poverty line.
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