[5] The original title to the Bellflower area dates back to 1784 with one of the first Spanish land grants in California.

The Bellflower area was a hunting and fishing spot due to an abundance of wild game, ducks and geese, carp and perch.

[6] The site was formerly rich farmland watered by artesian wells and floodwaters of the now-contained San Gabriel River.

Woodruff, a local real estate investor,[7] founded the first municipality on the site, which was named Somerset in 1909 when a post office was established there.

[8] The present name is derived from the bellflower apple, which was grown in local orchards during the early 1900s.

Originally settled by dairy farmers of Dutch, Japanese, and Portuguese descent, Bellflower and neighboring Paramount served first as the apple and later the milk production centers for Southern California, until soaring post-World War II property values forced most of the farmers to move several miles east to the Dairy Valley/Dairyland/Dairy City area (now the cities of Cerritos, La Palma, and Cypress).

These farms were in turn converted into large housing subdivisions for Los Angeles's growing population that worked in the region's skilled industrial and service sectors.

From the 1950s through the late 1960s, Bellflower Boulevard, the city's main thoroughfare, was a thriving commercial strip for shopping.

Numerous retail and franchise restaurant firms began on this street, which also featured middle- and high-end boutiques, arts and crafts shops, and other small shopkeeps alongside larger department stores and banks.

Today, Bellflower is an urban community within greater Southeast Los Angeles, and ranks amongst the most densely populated cities in the United States.

Bellflower is bordered by Downey on the north and northwest, Norwalk and Cerritos on the east, Lakewood on the south, Long Beach on the southwest, and Paramount on the west.

Bellflower is part of Southeast Los Angeles County and the "Gateway Cities Council of Governments" (GCOG).

According to the 2010 United States Census, Bellflower had a median household income of $49,637, with 17.1% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

[40] The United States Postal Service Bellflower Post Office is located at 9835 Flower Street.

Bellflower is served by bus service from Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Long Beach Transit.

St. John Bosco High School, and Valley Christian Elementary both privately run, are also in Bellflower.