Family Dental Plus — Serving Lakewood, CA
Lakewood was assembled almost overnight — 17,500 homes on 3,500 acres of former sugar-beet fields between 1950 and 1954 — and it has been a family city ever since. Family Dental Plus, established in Wilmington in 1995, is a short drive away and sees Lakewood families regularly.
A city built at full speed
On March 24, 1950, an estimated 30,000 people lined up to walk through seven model houses on what had been sugar-beet and bean fields south of Los Angeles. More than 200,000 visited the sales office in the first month alone, and as many as 107 homes were sold in a single hour. What drew the crowds was price and timing: World War II veterans were offered 30-year mortgages at 4 percent interest with no down payment. By 1954, roughly 17,500 homes on about 3,500 acres had been completed — the LA County Library describes it as “the nation’s first post-war planned housing development.”
Incorporation and the Lakewood Plan
Lakewood incorporated as a General Law city on April 16, 1954 — at the time, the largest community in the country ever to do so and the first city in Los Angeles County to incorporate since 1939. Rather than build standalone municipal departments from scratch, the new City Council contracted with Los Angeles County for road repair, water and sewer, and fire protection. That arrangement became the Lakewood Plan, earning the city the label “the nation’s first ‘city by contract.’” The model let a community with limited tax revenue offer a full range of municipal services from day one, and it was later adopted by many other California communities.
How those first homes were laid out
Those original homes sat on 5,000-square-foot lots, averaged 850–1,200 square feet, and came in 13 floor plans. In 1954, prices ranged from $9,400 to $14,000. Green space was built into the plan from the beginning: a park was placed in every neighborhood so that every home would be a short distance from recreation and open air. That commitment held — eight of Lakewood’s parks are still staffed for supervision daily, and the city continues to maintain the walkable, neighborhood-park character its original designers intended.
A family city, by the numbers
The 2020 Census counted 82,496 residents in Lakewood. The ACS 2020–2024 estimate puts the average household at 3.04 persons — well above the national average of roughly 2.53 — and shows that 20.5 percent of residents are under 18. Those figures reflect a city that has remained oriented toward families across three generations. The school geography reflects that density: depending on where a household sits within Lakewood’s boundaries, children attend one of four separate school districts — ABC Unified, Bellflower Unified, Long Beach Unified, or Paramount Unified. Lakewood High School, at 4400 Briercrest Avenue, is part of Long Beach Unified and enrolled 2,580 students in 2023–2024.
Lakewood Center
When Lakewood Center opened on February 18, 1952, its May Company anchor — a four-level, 346,700-square-foot store — was the largest suburban department store in the world. Today the center spans about 2,069,000 square feet of gross leasable area with 225 stores. In August 2025, Macerich sold the property to Pacific Retail Capital Partners, Lyon Living, and Silverpeak for $332 million, with plans for a mixed-use redevelopment.
Family Dental Plus, nearby in Wilmington
Family Dental Plus has been open at 104 W Anaheim Street, Suite C, Wilmington, CA 90744 since 1995 — built on the principle that families should not have to office-hop for different kinds of care. The practice is led by Dr. John Cohen, DDS, and offers six specialties under one roof: general dentistry, pediatric care, orthodontics, dental implants, oral surgery, and cosmetic dentistry. Records stay in one place regardless of which service a patient needs, and the same practice that handles a child’s first cleaning can also place an implant or fit braces — no outside referrals needed.
The office is open Monday 10:00 AM–5:30 PM and Tuesday through Friday 9:00 AM–5:30 PM. Staff are bilingual in English and Spanish, and the full site is available in Spanish. Most PPO insurance is accepted, with direct filing; in-house payment plans and financing through CareCredit and Cherry are available for patients without insurance. Call the office to confirm that your specific plan is accepted before your first visit.
Lakewood is a short drive from the Wilmington office along the Harbor corridor. Schedule a visit online or reach the practice at (310) 830-3452. For more on the practice’s thirty-year history in Wilmington and the clinicians on staff, see the about page.
Sources
This page is general information about our practice and the communities we serve. It is not dental advice, and it is not a description of any specific treatment outcome. Please speak with us about your own situation.
Last reviewed October 22, 2026.