Leisure World, Seal Beach, California

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Leisure World Seal Beach is an active-seniors’ retirement community opened in 1962 that introduced many innovations characterizing later senior property developments. When built, it was the nation's first mass-marketed housing project, first gated senior community, first all-electric community, and the first to have a health insurance plan and access to an on-site medical center included in its residents’ monthly payments. At its opening, it was the world's largest housing development for seniors,^[1] the United States’ largest cooperative housing development, and the prototype for six other Leisure World communities across the United States^[2] built by the Rossmoor Corp, co-founded by developers Ross W. Cortese and his wife, Alona Marlowe Cortese.^[3] It is located in Seal Beach, which fronts the Pacific Ocean in Orange County, California. Leisure World houses approximately 9,600 residents in 6,608 one- and two-bedroom apartments and condominiums.