Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California, USA. It is near Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, La Habra and La Mirada. It is one of the oldest cities in the Los Angeles Area. Early settlers included Manuel Nieto and Pio Pico. In the 1880s, the land that is now Whittier was bought by Quakers, who named the city after John Greenleaf Whittier, a Quaker poet. These Quakers started Whittier College. In the early 1900s, Whittier was mostly orange groves, but became a suburb of Los Angeles after World War II. In 1987, a large earthquake hit the city, destroying many buildings and leading to a wave of civic activism. This activism helped save many old buildings, including the Bank of America Building, the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, and the Hoover Hotel.