Ventura is a city on the Central Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. In 1782, the eponymous Mission San Buenaventura was founded nearby, where it benefitted from the water of the Ventura River. The town grew around the mission compound and incorporated in 1866. The development of nearby oil fields in the 1920s and the age of automobile travel created a major real estate boom during which many designated landmark buildings were constructed. During the post–World War II economic expansion, the community grew easterly, building detached single-family homes over the rich agricultural land created by the Santa Clara River at the edge of the Oxnard Plain.