Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

When the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived at Los Angeles, a controversy erupted over where to locate the city's main seaport. The SPRR preferred Santa Monica, while others advocated for San Pedro Bay. The Long Wharf was built in 1893 at the north end of Santa Monica to accommodate large ships and was dubbed Port Los Angeles. At the time it was constructed, it was the longest pier in the world at 4700 feet, and accommodated a train.*^

However, just a short four years after the Long Wharf's construction, San Pedro Bay was chosen over Santa Monica to be the main seaport of Los Angeles. The Long Wharf was demolished in 1920.

Historical Notes

The Pacific Palisades lighthouse was built as a bathhouse with a working light in 1927. In the early 1930s the structure along with the beach was sold to Will Rogers and later the beach was given to the state of California and renamed the Will Rogers State Beach.^

Historical Notes

In 1922, the Rev. Charles H. Scott and the Southern California Methodist Episcopal Church bought the land where Incville Studios was located. That same year Scott founded Pacific Palisades, envisioning an elaborate religious-intellectual commune. Believers snapped up choice lots and lived in tents during construction. By 1925, the Palisades had 100 homes. In one subdivision, streets were named for Methodist missionaries. The tents eventually were replaced by cabins, then by bungalows, and ultimately by multimillion-dollar homes.*^

Historical Notes

In the 1920s, William Randolph Hearst commissioned William Edward Flannery to construct a grand beach house for his longtime companion, actress Marion Davies. In 1926, architect Julia Morgan was hired to complete the design and oversee construction of the estate, which featured an ornate swimming pool, several houses, gardens and an opulent 110-room mansion. The beach house served as Davies’ primary residence from 1929 to 1942.

In 1947, Davies sold the estate and it was converted into the Oceanhouse Hotel and Sand & Sea Beach Club. The main mansion was demolished in 1956, and the property was sold to the State of California in 1959. The Sand & Sea Club remained popular with regulars all the way through until the 1990s.*^*#

Historical Notes

The Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica amusement piers were within a mile and one half of each other and they competed directly with each other for the tourist's entertainment dollars. Fourteen coasters were built there from 1904 to 1925.^*^*^

Click HERE to see more in Early Views of Southern California Amusement Parks

Historical Notes

The Spanish and French Renaissance style La Monica Ballroom was designed by T.H. Eslick; it opened in 1924 and was demolished in 1963.^

More than 50,000 people attended the July 23, 1924 grand opening of the La Monica Ballroom, enough to cause the first traffic jam recorded in Santa Monica history. Its 15,000 square-foot hard maple floor and exquisite “submarine garden” interior made the La Monica the hottest ticket in town.*^*^*

Historical Notes

The La Monica Ballroom was located at the end of the 1,600-foot long Santa Monica Pier. It was especially popular during the Big Band Era of the 1920s & 30s, up to 2,500 couples could kick up their heels in this grand ballroom located at the end of the Pier.*^*#

It’s success was short-lived as the Great Depression effectively ended the dance hall days. By the mid-1930’s it became a convention center, lifeguard headquarters and, for a short interim period, the City Jail.*^*^*

Playa del Rey

Long before it became the quiet coastal neighborhood tucked between Los Angeles International Airport and the Pacific Ocean, Playa del Rey was one of Southern California's earliest resort destinations. Its story begins with the land itself — a broad coastal lagoon formed where Ballona Creek reached the sea and where the Los Angeles River had once emptied centuries earlier. The area's calm waters, wetlands, and open shoreline attracted Native peoples, ranchers, fishermen, and eventually developers who saw opportunity along the coast.

Those ambitions often arrived faster than nature would allow. In 1871, a man named Will Tell opened a small hunting and fishing retreat near the lagoon. Later, developers promoted an ambitious harbor project known as Port Ballona, hoping to create a major shipping center connected by rail to Los Angeles. Storms, tides, and shifting sands repeatedly damaged the improvements and brought those early ventures to an end.

A more lasting vision emerged in 1902 when Henry Barbour's Beach Land Company purchased more than 1,000 acres and renamed the area Playa del Rey, meaning "The King's Beach." Supported by expanding rail connections and the growing popularity of seaside recreation, the lagoon became the centerpiece of a resort that featured hotels, a pavilion, boating, boardwalks, and later even automobile racing. For just over a decade, Playa del Rey became one of Southern California's most distinctive coastal destinations.

Historical Notes

The Playa del Rey lagoon was part of a coastal estuary shaped over centuries by changing river channels and ocean tides. Before the Los Angeles River shifted eastward during the early nineteenth century, portions of its flow reached the ocean near this area. Ballona Creek continued carrying runoff from the western Santa Monica Mountains, helping sustain the lagoon as a shallow tidal wetland.

When the Beach Land Company began developing Playa del Rey in 1902, the lagoon became the centerpiece of the entire resort. Its calm waters supported boating and recreation while its shallow shoreline invited visitors to experience the setting directly. The arrival of rail service later that year opened the area to thousands of visitors from Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

This peaceful scene reflects the beginning of Playa del Rey's resort era, but earlier efforts had already attempted to capitalize on Ballona's location. Around 1871, Will Tell established a modest hunting and fishing lodge near the lagoon's mouth. Later, developers launched the Port Ballona project in hopes of creating a harbor and transportation center.

Those plans ultimately failed as storms and sand repeatedly overwhelmed the improvements. The tents visible along the shoreline in this photograph represent a more cautious beginning. Within only a few years, permanent hotels, boardwalks, and recreational facilities would transform the lagoon into a popular destination.

Historical Notes

Playa del Rey officially opened on July 16, 1902, drawing hundreds of prospective buyers and visitors arriving primarily by Santa Fe Railway. The Pacific Electric line had not yet reached full service but would soon provide easier access and dramatically increase attendance.

As the resort matured, the lagoon evolved from a quiet anchorage into an organized recreation area. Boardwalks were constructed, boating facilities expanded, and improvements helped regulate the lagoon's connection to the ocean. Water activities soon became one of Playa del Rey's defining attractions.

Historical Notes

Henry Barbour's Beach Land Company promoted Playa del Rey as a modern coastal resort tied to Southern California's expanding transportation network. Construction advanced quickly and by opening day accommodations, public facilities, and residential lots were already available.

Approximately one hundred lots were reportedly sold during the opening celebration. The water tower visible in this photograph represented a critical piece of infrastructure, supporting resort operations before municipal services extended to the coast.

Historical Notes

Opened in 1902 and later known as the Hotel Del Rey, the hotel became the centerpiece of the resort. Together with the nearby Pavilion completed in 1904, it offered lodging, dining, entertainment, and social activities for visitors arriving by rail.

The hotel stood along Speedway Boulevard, today's Culver Boulevard, near the present location of Tanner's Coffee Company. Although the resort itself disappeared long ago, the surrounding area still preserves connections to Playa del Rey's early development history.

Historical Notes

The completion of the Los Angeles Pacific electric trolley line to Playa del Rey on October 19, 1902 transformed the resort's future. Direct rail service connected the coast with downtown Los Angeles and made Playa del Rey an increasingly popular destination for day visitors.

By the middle of the decade, the lagoon had evolved into an organized recreation center. Grandstands surrounded portions of the shoreline to accommodate spectators watching boating events and regattas. The Pavilion, completed in 1904 in a Japanese inspired craftsman style, became the resort's social center with dining, entertainment, and public gathering spaces overlooking the water.

Historical Notes

By 1907, Playa del Rey had assembled one of Southern California's most complete resort environments. Boardwalks lined the lagoon, a fishing pier extended into the Pacific, and improved circulation around the water connected visitors to the hotel, pavilion, and recreation facilities.

Boat racing became one of Playa del Rey's signature attractions. What had appeared only a few years earlier as a quiet lagoon had become an organized venue for rowing events, sailing activities, and public exhibitions that regularly attracted visitors arriving by electric rail.

Historical Notes

Completed in 1904, the Pavilion became the heart of resort life at Playa del Rey. The three story structure reportedly included dining rooms, a restaurant, entertainment space, bowling alleys, and a large dance floor. Its architecture departed from the more common Mediterranean style found at other coastal resorts and gave Playa del Rey a distinctive identity.

The adjacent Del Rey Hotel supported overnight tourism and encouraged visitors to stay beyond a single day excursion. Together, the two buildings established Playa del Rey as one of the region's most ambitious resort developments during the early twentieth century.

Historical Notes

Excursion travel played a major role in Playa del Rey's success. Electric railway service brought increasing numbers of visitors from Los Angeles who spent the day boating, walking the boardwalk, attending events, and enjoying the ocean environment.

Although Playa del Rey never reached the scale or fame later achieved by nearby Venice, it demonstrated the growing demand for planned coastal recreation and helped shape Southern California's early beach culture.

The resort's active years ran from 1902 through the early 1910s. During the first decade of the twentieth century, a funicular railway carried visitors between the beach and the residential development above the bluffs. Its two cars became locally known as Alphonse and Gaston. In 1910, another attraction arrived nearby when the Los Angeles Motordrome opened at the present day intersection of Culver and Jefferson Boulevards. The steeply banked wooden raceway drew large crowds and nationally known drivers including Barney Oldfield and Ralph De Palma during the early years of automobile racing.

The resort era gradually faded after a series of setbacks during the early 1910s. Fires and changing development patterns eventually brought Playa del Rey's brief but memorable period as a destination resort to an end. Development shifted toward permanent residential neighborhoods, and beginning in 1921 the Palisades del Rey community and later Surfridge introduced a new chapter to the bluffs overlooking the former lagoon. Among those who would later make the area home were film director Cecil B. DeMille and actor Charles Bickford.

Surfridge (Playa del Rey, originally Palisades del Rey)

In 1921, the Minneapolis based firm Dickinson and Gillespie began promoting a three mile stretch of coastal dunes south of Venice as one of the last major undeveloped beach areas within easy reach of Los Angeles. Marketed as "The Last of the Beaches," the project envisioned an upscale residential community overlooking the Pacific.

Under the direction of developer Fritz Burns, who later became one of Southern California’s most influential builders, roads were improved, palm trees lined approach routes, and building restrictions required homes to be constructed of stucco, brick, or stone. The result was a carefully planned seaside neighborhood intended to offer both exclusivity and permanence.

In 1925, the southern portion of the development received a new name through a public contest: Surfridge. Although the Great Depression slowed construction, the neighborhood gradually matured into one of Southern California’s most desirable coastal communities.

At nearly the same moment Surfridge was taking shape, open land to the east began attracting a very different kind of development. In 1928, a modest municipal airfield known as Mines Field opened nearby, a change that few residents could have imagined would one day redefine the future of the community.

Historical Notes

This 1921 aerial view captures the Playa del Rey coastline before large scale residential and aviation development transformed the landscape. The coastal bluffs, dunes, and open lowlands visible here remained among the least developed stretches of shoreline near Los Angeles.

Within only a few years, Dickinson and Gillespie would begin converting portions of this landscape into the planned residential community that became Surfridge, while open land farther inland would be selected for the municipal airfield later known as Mines Field.

The image preserves a brief moment when the future Surfridge neighborhood and the future site of Los Angeles International Airport still existed only as open coastal terrain.

Historical Notes

Surfridge emerged during Southern California’s great land boom of the 1920s and 1930s and was promoted as an exclusive seaside retreat.

In 1925, developers held a public contest to rename the southern portion of the community and awarded a $1,000 prize to the winning entry: Surfridge. The Los Angeles Times praised the name for its "brevity, euphony, ease of pronunciation ... but above all because it tells the story of this new wonder city."

The elevated terrain, formed by ancient windblown dunes rising in places more than 100 feet above the shoreline, gave residents expansive ocean views and helped distinguish Surfridge from other beach communities developing across Los Angeles County.

Historical Notes

To attract buyers, salesmen pitched tents directly on the sand dunes and promoted lots for $50 down and 36 monthly payments of $20.

Strict deed restrictions prohibited wood frame construction and required exterior finishes of stucco, brick, or stone. The goal was to establish a high quality residential community rather than a temporary beach settlement.

Development slowed during the Great Depression, but construction resumed in the 1930s as buyers began building larger custom homes overlooking the ocean. Over time, Surfridge developed into one of Southern California’s most desirable coastal neighborhoods.

Palisades del Rey later became part of modern Playa del Rey.

Historical Notes

The Dickinson & Gillespie sales office occupied one of Playa del Rey’s earliest surviving resort era structures.

Originally built in 1902 as the Hotel Playa, the building stood on Speedway Boulevard, today’s Culver Boulevard, near the present location of Tanner’s Coffee Co. In 1924, Dickinson and Gillespie moved their operation from Minneapolis to Los Angeles and established the building as headquarters for their Southern California activities and the promotion of Surfridge.##*^

Today, the structure remains one of the few surviving reminders of the original Palisades del Rey era.

Historical Notes

This view captures Surfridge during its formative years, when homes were beginning to appear among the dunes and the surrounding landscape remained largely open.

At the time this photograph was taken, few could have imagined that the broad undeveloped land to the east would soon become the airport whose growth would ultimately reshape and erase the community.

Within only a few years, portions of the coastal plain visible here would begin transitioning into the municipal airfield that later evolved into Los Angeles International Airport.

Historical Notes

By the late 1920s, Surfridge had become an established residential district overlooking the coast.

In 1928, a small municipal airfield opened just east of the neighborhood on former agricultural land. Known as Mines Field, it initially served local aviation activities and became popular for weekend air shows attended by nearby residents. Early exhibitions attracted nationally known aviators including Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh.

During its early years, few considered the airport a threat. Commercial aviation remained limited and aircraft noise was manageable.

Over the decades that followed, however, Mines Field evolved into Los Angeles International Airport. The arrival of larger aircraft and expanding air traffic would eventually transform life beneath the flight paths and alter Surfridge forever.

Surfridge and the Jet Age

For decades, residents of Surfridge lived beside what began as a modest municipal airport and gradually evolved into one of the busiest aviation centers in the world. During the propeller era, aircraft activity remained manageable and many residents accepted occasional noise as part of living near the coast.

That changed rapidly after commercial jet service arrived in the late 1950s. Larger aircraft, expanding flight operations, and increasing airport activity transformed daily life beneath the departure paths.

What had once been promoted as an exclusive seaside retreat would ultimately become one of Los Angeles’ most unusual lost neighborhoods.

Historical Notes

The arrival of commercial jet service transformed life in Surfridge. Residents who had long adapted to propeller aircraft suddenly found themselves beneath the departure paths of larger, faster, and significantly louder jet airplanes.

Jet operations introduced new concerns over noise, vibration, and soot settling onto homes and yards. As one local historian later recalled, conversations often paused whenever aircraft departed overhead.

As LAX expanded during the 1960s, residents increasingly questioned whether a residential neighborhood could continue to exist beside one of the nation’s busiest airports.

Residents organized, petitioned, and challenged airport impacts through legal action, but broader airport expansion plans continued moving forward.

Beginning in the 1960s, the City of Los Angeles initiated multiple phases of property acquisition and eminent domain tied to airport growth and aircraft noise mitigation. Families who remained often found themselves living among increasing numbers of vacant lots and relocated homes.

For many longtime residents, the neighborhood that had once been built as a quiet coastal retreat was gradually becoming difficult to sustain.

Historical Notes

Despite growing impacts from airport activity, Surfridge remained a fully developed coastal neighborhood through much of the 1960s. Streets lined with custom homes reflected decades of investment, community life, and the vision first promoted during the 1920s.

The community included a mix of modest homes and larger residences spread across the dunes overlooking the Pacific. For many residents, Surfridge remained an attractive place to live despite increasingly frequent aircraft activity overhead.

This aerial view documents the neighborhood near its fullest extent, shortly before acquisition and demolition began reshaping the landscape.

Historical Notes

Beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, the City of Los Angeles acquired Surfridge through a series of eminent domain actions tied to airport expansion and aircraft noise mitigation.

Homeowners were required to sell their properties, although some challenged the acquisitions and remained for years after surrounding houses had been vacated. Homes were relocated, demolished, or removed until the neighborhood disappeared almost entirely.

What had once been promoted as an exclusive seaside community gave way to vacant land surrounding LAX.

Historical Notes

More than three decades after the last residents departed, Surfridge remained largely vacant. Streets, curbs, and fragments of infrastructure continued to mark where homes once stood.

For years, portions of the abandoned neighborhood remained accessible and became known locally as one of Los Angeles' hidden landscapes. Following heightened airport security measures after 2001, public access became increasingly restricted.

From the air, traces of the former community remained surprisingly visible, preserving the outline of a vanished coastal neighborhood.

Historical Notes

Today the former Surfridge neighborhood forms part of the LAX Dunes, a protected coastal habitat west of Los Angeles International Airport.

Native vegetation has gradually returned to portions of the former residential area, supporting species including the federally endangered El Segundo blue butterfly.

As restoration efforts continue and portions of the remaining streets are removed, the landscape has slowly begun returning to something closer to the dunes that existed before Surfridge was ever built.

Dockweiler Beach

Dockweiler State Beach stretches for nearly four miles along the Los Angeles coastline between Playa del Rey and El Segundo and remains one of the widest and most accessible public beaches in Southern California. Its broad shoreline, open views, and distinctive location beneath the departure corridor of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) have made it a familiar destination for generations of Angelenos.

Established in 1948 as part of Venice-Hyperion Beach State Park, the beach was renamed in 1955 in honor of Isidore B. Dockweiler, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and civic leader. Although part of the California state park system, Dockweiler is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

Unlike neighboring beaches shaped by boardwalks and commercial activity, Dockweiler developed a quieter identity centered on recreation, public access, and open space. Immediately inland once stood the residential community of Surfridge, removed during the expansion of LAX. Today the beach occupies the edge of a landscape reshaped by aviation, and its unusual relationship with aircraft remains one of its defining characteristics, with departing jets often climbing directly overhead.

Historical Notes

Dockweiler State Beach encompasses approximately 3.75 miles of shoreline across 91 acres of coastal land. Its broad sandy beach and open setting have made it one of Los Angeles County’s most recognizable public shorelines.

Located directly beneath departure paths from LAX, Dockweiler offers one of the few places in Southern California where visitors can experience both open ocean views and close proximity to major international aviation activity.

Historical Notes

The Dockweiler bicycle path extends from Ballona Creek south to the El Segundo city limit and connects with the larger coastal bicycle network.

Today the route forms part of the 22-mile Marvin Braude Bike Trail, one of Southern California’s best known recreational corridors linking beaches across Santa Monica Bay.

Historical Notes

Departing aircraft follow a westbound route that carries them directly above portions of Dockweiler before turning toward their destinations.

The unusual closeness of aircraft to the beach has made Dockweiler a favorite location for aviation enthusiasts and photographers and remains one of the beach’s defining visual experiences.

Historical Notes

Few places in Los Angeles show the relationship between airport and coastline as vividly as Dockweiler. Large aircraft departing LAX create brief moments where sound, motion, and shadow become part of the beach experience itself.

Historical Notes

Despite its proximity to one of the busiest airports in the world, Dockweiler has long remained one of Los Angeles County’s more open and uncrowded beaches.

Its broad shoreline and expansive setting continue to offer moments of solitude that contrast sharply with the urban landscape nearby.

Historical Notes

This image formed part of a broader shift in American advertising during the late 1950s and early 1960s as automobile companies began creating more inclusive campaigns for Black audiences.

Photographer Charles Williams documented Black life, leisure, and civic activity throughout Los Angeles and left an important visual record now preserved at California State University, Northridge.

Historical Notes

The wide beach, open horizon, and uncluttered landscape made Dockweiler an appealing backdrop for photographers seeking a distinctly Southern California setting.

Historical Notes

Williams’ photographs captured moments of everyday recreation and community life often overlooked in mainstream publications of the period.

Dockweiler’s broad shoreline and welcoming public setting helped make it a popular beach destination for many Los Angeles families.

Historical Notes

Dockweiler remains one of the few beaches in Los Angeles County where public fire rings continue to support beach bonfires, a tradition that attracts visitors year round.

The beach also supports protected coastal habitat and continues to balance recreation, aviation, and environmental stewardship.

Just inland, the restored dunes west of LAX now provide habitat for species including the federally endangered El Segundo blue butterfly, creating an unexpected connection between public recreation, modern aviation, and one of Los Angeles' lost coastal neighborhoods.

BALLONA CREEK AND MARINA DEL REY

Long before sailboats filled the harbor and condominiums lined the waterfront, the land now known as Marina del Rey was a broad coastal wetland shaped by tides, seasonal flooding, and the flow of Ballona Creek into Santa Monica Bay. Salt marshes, freshwater ponds, and mudflats created one of Southern California's richest estuarine environments and supported abundant birdlife, fish, and seasonal migration across the Southern California coast.

For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the area remained largely undeveloped. Hunters, fishermen, and a small number of settlers used the wetlands while repeated flooding discouraged permanent construction. As Los Angeles expanded westward, new pressures emerged. Oil development spread across the coastal lowlands, flood control projects reshaped the creek and its banks, and transportation improvements gradually extended the city's reach toward the shore.

By the middle of the twentieth century, the wetlands had become the site of one of Los Angeles County's most ambitious coastal projects. Through dredging, channelization, and large scale engineering, the former marshland was transformed into Marina del Rey, one of the world's largest man made small craft harbors. The remaining Ballona wetlands continue to serve as an important reminder of the landscape that once stretched across much of this coastline.

Historical Notes

This rare photograph captures Ballona before modern development reshaped the coastline. In the late nineteenth century, the wetlands extended across a broad low lying plain near the mouth of Ballona Creek and formed one of Southern California's most productive estuarine environments. Freshwater flowing from inland watersheds mixed with tidal exchange from the Pacific, creating habitat that supported large seasonal populations of birds and wildlife.

The wetlands attracted hunters, fishermen, and outdoor recreation while remaining largely beyond the reach of permanent development. Seasonal flooding and unstable ground discouraged construction, helping preserve the landscape well into the twentieth century. This image provides a rare record of the environment that existed before flood control, oil development, and harbor construction transformed the area.

Historical Notes

This colorized interpretation offers a modern perspective on the same landscape captured in H. F. Rile's original photograph. The added color helps reveal the openness of the marsh, the shallow water, and the broad horizon that characterized Ballona before major development altered the coastline.

Within only a few generations, nearly everything visible here would change. Wetlands would be drained and portions of the landscape would support oil production. Ballona Creek would be channelized, and the harbor basin of Marina del Rey would eventually occupy land that had once been seasonal marsh and open water.

Historical Notes

By the late 1920s, the coastal lowlands surrounding Ballona Creek had become part of Southern California's expanding oil industry. Derricks covered portions of the flat terrain that would later become Marina del Rey, while roads and support facilities extended across areas that had once been marshland and open water.

The industrial landscape visible here helps explain why harbor proposals remained largely unrealized for decades. Oil production, existing infrastructure, and active leases made development of a recreational harbor difficult while petroleum extraction remained economically important. The Surfridge neighborhood visible at lower right would later become another chapter in the changing history of this coastline.

Historical Notes

For generations, Ballona Creek regularly overflowed during major storms, flooding nearby agricultural land and low lying coastal areas. As Los Angeles expanded westward, flood protection became increasingly important.

This photograph captures a transitional moment before the creek assumed its modern form. The channel had already been reshaped and confined, but full concrete lining had not yet been completed. Within only a few years, Ballona Creek would become a controlled flood channel capable of moving stormwater quickly to the ocean and reducing the flooding that had long limited development across the surrounding lowlands.

Historical Notes

This aerial records Ballona Creek shortly after its transformation into a concrete flood channel. The devastating Los Angeles floods of 1938 accelerated regional investment in flood control infrastructure and reinforced the push to manage waterways throughout the basin.

At the same time, oil drilling remained active throughout the coastal zone visible here. The combination of flood control and declining industrial use gradually opened new possibilities for future land development. The engineered channel and altered landscape shown in this photograph created conditions that would later allow construction of Marina del Rey.

Historical Notes

Seen from above, the modern landscape reflects more than a century of deliberate transformation. The dredged harbor basin, channelized creek, residential neighborhoods, roads, and commercial development replaced what had once been a broad tidal wetland.

Yet traces of the earlier environment remain. Portions of the Ballona Wetlands south of the creek continue to preserve fragments of the original estuary and have become the focus of ongoing restoration efforts intended to recover habitat and improve ecological function.

Historical Notes

Before Marina del Rey was constructed, much of this land supported oil production. Derricks occupied the lowlands surrounding Ballona Creek and extended across terrain that had once been part of the broader wetland system.

The eventual conversion of this industrial landscape into a recreational harbor reflected changing priorities in postwar Los Angeles. As oil production declined and demand for public waterfront access increased, Los Angeles County began planning for a marina that would combine boating, recreation, commercial activity, and residential development.

Historical Notes

After years of planning and construction, Marina del Rey began welcoming its first boats before the harbor was fully completed. The arrival of watercraft marked the beginning of a new identity for land that only a generation earlier had been occupied by wetlands and oil infrastructure.

The project fulfilled a long standing vision of creating a harbor near the mouth of Ballona Creek, though in a form very different from earlier commercial port proposals. Instead of shipping and industry, the marina was designed around recreation and public access to the coast.

Historical Notes

Marina del Rey was formally dedicated in 1965 and quickly became a major destination for boating and recreation. The protected inland beach visible in this photograph was created as part of the original harbor design and became known as Mother's Beach.

During construction, winter storms damaged portions of the developing marina and highlighted the need for greater protection from ocean conditions. Improvements made during this period helped stabilize the harbor and support its continued growth.

Historical Notes

By 1968, Marina del Rey had matured from an engineering project into an active waterfront community. The completed breakwater protected the harbor entrance and made year round boating practical within the basin.

Residential and commercial development expanded rapidly around the marina during the years that followed. Hotels, apartments, restaurants, and public spaces transformed the harbor into one of Southern California's most recognizable waterfront destinations.

Historical Notes

These two images show one of the most dramatic coastal transformations in Los Angeles County. In 1938, the area consisted primarily of oil fields, open lowlands, and the recently channelized Ballona Creek.

By 1968, dredging, land reshaping, and harbor construction had created an entirely new landscape centered on recreation and public use. The comparison illustrates how quickly Southern California's coastline changed during the middle decades of the twentieth century.

Historical Notes

By 2007, Marina del Rey had evolved well beyond its original identity as a boating harbor. Residential towers, hotels, restaurants, and commercial development had become defining features of the waterfront while the marina continued to serve recreational boating.

At the same time, attention increasingly shifted toward preserving and restoring nearby natural areas. The remaining Ballona wetlands became an important focus for environmental planning and habitat recovery.

Historical Notes

Today, Marina del Rey reflects more than a century of changing priorities along the Los Angeles coast. Wetlands gave way to oil production, oil fields gave way to engineered infrastructure, and that infrastructure evolved into one of Southern California's most active recreational waterfronts.

Although most of the original marshland disappeared, restoration efforts within the Ballona Wetlands preserve a visible connection to the landscape that existed before development transformed the shoreline.

Historical Notes

Few places along the Los Angeles coast demonstrate change as clearly as these paired images. In 1938, open lowlands, oil production, and a newly engineered creek defined the landscape. By 2022, Marina del Rey occupied the same basin while residential communities and restored wetlands reshaped the surrounding shoreline.

Together, these images bring the story full circle. What began as a broad coastal wetland became an industrial landscape, then a harbor, and now a place where recreation, urban development, and environmental restoration exist side by side.

This comparison captures nearly ninety years of change at the mouth of Ballona Creek. In 1937, the landscape remained largely open despite early flood control work. Oil activity, scattered structures, and broad lowlands surrounded a creek that had only begun its transition from natural waterway to engineered channel.

By 2025, the same view reveals a dramatically different coastline. Marina del Rey occupies land that was once part of the Ballona wetlands, while residential neighborhoods, roads, and recreational waterfront development extend across terrain that had historically flooded during winter storms and tidal cycles.

Yet the transformation shown here is not simply a story of urban growth. Portions of the Ballona Wetlands remain visible south of the creek and continue to preserve fragments of one of Southern California's historic estuarine landscapes. Together, these images trace the evolution of the area from wetland to industrial corridor to recreational waterfront while reminding us that pieces of the original environment still endure.

Hyperion Treatment Plant

As Los Angeles grew from a small pueblo into a sprawling metropolis, the question of where the city's wastewater would go became increasingly urgent. In 1892, the city purchased 200 acres of oceanfront property at what is now Playa del Rey. Two years later, in 1894, it built an outfall pipe at this site and began discharging sewage directly into Santa Monica Bay. For the next three decades, wastewater flowed directly into the ocean with little or no treatment.

By the early 1920s, rapid population growth and declining coastal water quality made a more permanent solution necessary. In response, the city built a screening plant in 1925 on the site that would become the Hyperion Treatment Plant. This early facility provided primary treatment, removing larger solids before the remaining wastewater continued offshore.

What followed was a decades long evolution from a basic screening operation into one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the nation. The path included ambitious expansion plans during the Depression, the introduction of full secondary treatment in 1950, operational challenges brought on by continued growth, and major modernization efforts beginning in the 1980s. The photographs below trace this transformation.

Historical Notes

This photograph shows Hyperion during its earliest years. The city had owned this coastal property since 1892 and selected it as the location for its ocean outfall system beginning in 1894. By the mid 1920s, growing concern over coastal water quality led the city to construct its first treatment facility.

The screening plant shown here represented Los Angeles' first significant step beyond direct ocean disposal. Although treatment remained limited to basic screening and primary processes, the facility introduced a new approach to wastewater management. The long pier visible in the photograph carried treated discharge farther offshore.

Even this modest facility required major supporting infrastructure including pipelines, pumps, and ocean discharge facilities. However, the plant would soon prove insufficient for a city whose population continued to grow rapidly.

Historical Notes

The scale of this concrete pipe, large enough to contain an automobile, illustrates the size of the infrastructure being built to support Los Angeles in the 1920s. This section formed part of the North Outfall Sewer, the major trunk line that collected wastewater from across the city and conveyed it to Hyperion.

Photographs like this were often staged intentionally, placing a car or person inside the pipe to demonstrate scale to city officials and the public. Infrastructure of this size required substantial engineering, materials, and labor at a time when much of the surrounding area remained undeveloped.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures an important transitional period in Hyperion's development. By the mid 1930s, City Engineer Lloyd Aldrich had developed plans for a much larger and more advanced treatment facility to replace the increasingly inadequate 1925 plant.

The project coincided with the Great Depression, when public works projects also served as an important source of employment. Despite receiving approximately $7 million in federal funding, only a limited experimental facility was constructed and reports suggest it never entered full operation.

As a result, Los Angeles entered the 1940s still relying largely on the original screening plant while more advanced treatment remained a future goal.

Historical Notes

This photograph shows Hyperion shortly after its major postwar expansion. In 1950, Los Angeles opened a full secondary treatment plant at the site, representing a major improvement over the earlier screening facility. The upgraded plant also captured biogas from anaerobic digesters and recovered useful materials from the treatment process.

Rapid population growth soon challenged the plant's capacity. By 1957, treatment levels were reduced and a blend of primary and secondary effluent was discharged through a five mile outfall pipe, while digested sludge was transported offshore through a separate seven mile pipeline.

Over time, decades of sludge disposal contributed to declining marine conditions in Santa Monica Bay. Studies later documented heavily affected seafloor conditions and continuing concerns about coastal water quality.

These concerns ultimately led to regulatory action and major facility improvements. Beginning in 1980, Los Angeles launched the Hyperion Sludge Out and Full Secondary Treatment Program to eliminate ocean sludge disposal and improve treatment performance. The sludge out portion of the program was completed in 1987, marking an important turning point in the long recovery of Santa Monica Bay.

Hermosa Beach and Pier

Hermosa Beach grew from open ranchland into one of Southern California’s most recognizable beach communities. Set along the southern curve of Santa Monica Bay, the city developed around residential life, recreation, rail access, and a close connection between downtown streets and the shoreline.

The land that became Hermosa Beach was once part of the Rancho San Pedro land grant and later formed part of Rancho Sausal Redondo. In 1900, developers acquired approximately 1,500 acres of coastal land and organized the Hermosa Beach Land and Water Company to create a new seaside community.

Unlike neighboring coastal towns that grew around ports, industry, or large amusement districts, Hermosa developed as a planned beach town. Streets were laid out, lots were subdivided, and transportation connections were developed to attract residents and visitors seeking ocean air, beach recreation, and convenient access from Los Angeles.

Residents held the city’s first municipal election on December 24, 1906, and Hermosa Beach officially incorporated on January 14, 1907 as the nineteenth city in Los Angeles County. The name Hermosa comes from the Spanish word meaning beautiful, an appropriate name for a shoreline known for its broad sandy beach, ocean views, and outlook toward the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Hermosa Beach

From Ranchland to Seaside Community

The earliest years of Hermosa Beach unfolded at a time when much of Southern California’s coastline remained lightly developed. Streets had only begun to appear, homes were scattered across the landscape, and the shoreline still retained much of its open character.

These early photographs capture the physical beginnings of the community, the first homes, the original wooden pier, and the gradual shift from open coastal land into an identifiable town. Long before Hermosa became known for its beach culture and active waterfront, it began as a small collection of structures facing the Pacific.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures Hermosa Beach while it was still in its earliest stage of development, with scattered homes rising above a mostly open coastal landscape. Developers Moses Sherman and Eli Clark, working through agents A. L. Burbank and Eugene Baker, acquired the land in 1900 and organized the Hermosa Beach Land and Water Company to sell lots and build the infrastructure needed for a new beach community.

From the beginning, Hermosa Beach was promoted as a residential and recreational seaside town. Early planning emphasized orderly development, family-oriented living, and access to the beach. The wooden pier, completed in 1904, gave the young community a focal point and helped distinguish Hermosa as more than a real estate subdivision along the sand.

Historical Notes

Hermosa Beach’s first pier was built in 1904, three years before the city incorporated. Constructed of wood and extending approximately 500 feet into the ocean, it served as an early gathering place for residents, fishermen, and visitors drawn to the new beach town.

The wooden structure did not last long. In 1913, a powerful winter storm broke apart much of the pier and carried sections out to sea. The damage reflected a common challenge along the exposed South Bay shoreline, where wooden piers often struggled against heavy surf and winter storms. Its destruction led directly to the construction of a stronger concrete pier the following year.

Hermosa Beach

The Pier and Downtown Hermosa

When the storm of 1913 destroyed Hermosa Beach’s original wooden pier, the city responded with a more durable and ambitious replacement. Dedicated in 1914, the new concrete pier extended approximately 1,000 feet into the Pacific, twice the length of its predecessor, and was designed to better withstand the powerful winter surf that had damaged so many wooden piers along the South Bay coast.

Soon after the new pier opened, an auditorium building rose at its foot, a structure that still anchors the entrance to Pier Avenue today. Over the decades it housed a changing mix of public functions including library services, the Chamber of Commerce, lifeguard operations, and community space, making the waterfront both a recreational and civic destination.

For the next four decades, the short stretch of Pier Avenue leading to the shoreline formed the heart of downtown Hermosa Beach. As electric rail service gave way to buses and eventually the automobile, storefronts and civic buildings gradually adapted to changing patterns of travel. Through the Depression, the Second World War, and into the 1950s, Hermosa’s waterfront remained the city’s defining gathering place and most recognizable landmark.

Historical Notes

Hermosa’s second pier replaced the storm damaged wooden structure completed just a decade earlier and represented a substantial investment in the city’s future. Built of concrete and paved with asphalt along its full 1,000 foot length, it was designed from the beginning to better withstand the winter storms that had destroyed its predecessor.

Small tiled pavilions placed at intervals along the sides offered shade for fishermen and picnicking families, and a bait stand was eventually added at the far end. The dedication drew a crowd that filled the deck, a fitting beginning for a structure that would remain one of Hermosa Beach’s most recognizable landmarks for generations.

Historical Notes

Postcards were among the most effective promotional tools available to Southern California beach communities during the early twentieth century, and Hermosa Beach was no exception. Elevated views like this one introduced prospective visitors and future residents to the shoreline and helped spread the city’s image far beyond Los Angeles County.

Soon after completion of the new pier, an auditorium building was constructed near its entrance. Over time the structure housed public facilities including library services, lifeguard operations, visitor functions, and community gathering space. More than a century later, it remains part of the recognizable entrance to the pier district.

Historical Notes

The Los Angeles Pacific Railway introduced electric trolley service through Hermosa Beach in 1904, operating along Hermosa Avenue between Los Angeles and Redondo Beach. A few years later the route became part of the larger Pacific Electric Railway system, better known as the Red Cars.

Reliable rail access transformed Hermosa from a relatively isolated shoreline into an easily reached beach destination and attractive residential community. The tracks running close to the sand, visible in this photograph, became one of the defining features of Hermosa’s early growth.

Historical Notes

This view captures the traditional arrival experience for generations of visitors coming to Hermosa Beach. Overhead electrical lines powered Pacific Electric rail service while hotels, shops, and civic buildings framed the approach toward the ocean.

Visible near the foot of Pier Avenue is the building that housed public functions including library services and lifeguard operations. The intersection of Hermosa Avenue and Pier Avenue remains one of the South Bay’s most recognizable gathering places and continues to serve as the symbolic center of Hermosa Beach.

Historical Notes

By 1940, Pier Avenue had evolved from a sandy access road into an established commercial street lined with businesses serving both year round residents and seasonal beach visitors. That same year, electric trolley service through Hermosa Beach came to an end when the Pacific Electric line was discontinued on May 12, 1940 and replaced by bus service.

The flagpole standing in the center of the street reflects a civic design element common in small Southern California communities of the era. The waterfront beyond remained the city’s visual and social anchor as Hermosa gradually entered the automobile age.

Historical Notes

The building at the foot of the pier, completed soon after construction of the concrete pier, had by the postwar years become one of Hermosa Beach’s most visible civic spaces. Housing a branch library alongside visitor and community functions, it reflected the city’s identity as both a residential community and a beach destination.

By the late 1940s, the entrance area had become one of Hermosa Beach’s most active public spaces. Residents passed through to reach the library, visitors stopped for local information, and beachgoers moved between downtown and the shoreline. The scene reflects how closely civic life and recreation remained linked in Hermosa Beach through the middle of the twentieth century.

Historical Notes

Parking meters appeared in beach communities across Southern California during the 1950s as automobile ownership expanded and cities worked to manage increasingly crowded curb space. Where visitors once arrived by electric rail, most now came by car, changing both the appearance and daily rhythm of downtown Hermosa Beach.

This photograph captures Hermosa during a period of transition, still anchored by the same pier and street layout established decades earlier, but increasingly organized around automobile traffic. The parking meter serves as a small but revealing symbol of how the city adapted to changing travel patterns.

By 1956, Pier Avenue had become a fully developed commercial corridor serving a community that had grown far beyond its early resort town origins. Storefronts, sidewalks, and automobile traffic reflected a city increasingly oriented toward year round residential life.

This image closes the pier’s first four decades as the center of downtown Hermosa Beach, carrying the city from its early concrete waterfront era through the Depression, the Second World War, and into the automobile age. Though resurfaced and modified over time, the pier remained the constant landmark tying these decades together.

Hermosa Beach

Beach Culture and Resort Era

While the pier and downtown gave Hermosa Beach its civic backbone, the sand itself remained the city’s greatest attraction. Through the 1920s and 1930s, Hermosa expanded its resort infrastructure along the Strand with facilities that made beach recreation easier and more comfortable for visitors and residents alike.

Bath houses, small storefront businesses, and gathering places created a more complete seaside experience beyond simply swimming and sunbathing. Families arrived for the day, visitors came by rail and later by automobile, and seasonal crowds helped shape Hermosa Beach into one of Southern California’s most recognizable ocean communities.

The most ambitious expression of this resort era came with development of the Surf and Sand Club. Though its original private club model proved relatively short lived, the project reflected Hermosa’s growing confidence and its attempt to combine public beach culture with a more refined coastal identity. Together, these images show a city evolving from a young beach town into a mature recreational destination.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures Hermosa Beach during the early years of its development as a recreational destination. By the 1920s, improved transportation and growing regional popularity brought increasing numbers of visitors to the shoreline, turning summer weekends into lively public gatherings.

The scene reflects a period before surfing and volleyball became defining parts of Hermosa’s identity. Beach activity centered on swimming, socializing, and simply spending time at the ocean, traditions that helped establish the relaxed coastal culture that still defines Hermosa Beach today.

Historical Notes

This closer view shows the modest scale of Hermosa’s early beachfront business district, where a handful of family operated establishments served visitors arriving for a day at the beach. Similar combinations of food stands, candy shops, and recreation facilities became common throughout Southern California coastal communities.

The Bath House also served a practical purpose at a time when many visitors did not have convenient places to change or rinse off after swimming. As Hermosa matured into a larger residential city, structures like these gradually disappeared and gave way to newer forms of development.

Historical Notes

This aerial view captures Hermosa Beach during a period of steady growth as residential development concentrated near the ocean while large areas inland remained comparatively open. The city’s expansion reflected both improved transportation access and the growing popularity of Southern California’s beach communities.

Construction of the Surf and Sand Club had begun by this period. Designed in 1923 by the Pasadena architectural firm Hunt and Chambers, the project represented one of Hermosa Beach’s most ambitious resort developments and reflected the city’s growing confidence as a coastal destination.

Historical Notes

Construction on the Surf and Sand Club was underway by 1924, with the cornerstone laid in May of that year. The large oceanfront project would open in stages beginning in 1925 and reached completion by 1926, becoming one of Hermosa Beach’s most prominent resort era landmarks.

Though developed as a private club, the project stood directly beside an active public shoreline and reflected Hermosa’s effort to expand beyond a simple beach town into a more developed recreational destination.

Historical Notes

By 1930, the Surf and Sand Club had become one of Hermosa Beach’s most recognizable oceanfront landmarks. Though intended as a private membership club, it stood directly beside an active public beach filled with families and day visitors.

The contrast visible here reflects an important part of Hermosa’s character during this period. Exclusive recreational spaces and open public shoreline existed side by side, helping create a beach culture that appealed to a broad range of visitors.

Historical Notes

The power plant visible in this photograph was originally built in 1902 to help supply electricity for the growing electric railway system serving Los Angeles and surrounding communities. Southern California Edison later acquired the facility and expanded operations at the site.

This broader aerial view shows that Hermosa Beach developed alongside the infrastructure that powered regional growth. Recreation, transportation, and industry existed together across the South Bay landscape.

Click HERE to see more in Early Power Generation.

Historical Notes

By 1932, the Surf and Sand Club had already moved beyond its original private membership model as operators struggled to sustain an exclusive private beach club during the early years of the Great Depression. Ownership changed several times and the property gradually shifted toward hotel use, eventually becoming known as the Hermosa Biltmore Hotel.

The building remained a prominent landmark on Hermosa’s shoreline for decades afterward. During World War II it briefly served as a federal youth training facility before later returning to private use. The structure was ultimately demolished in the late 1960s and the site later became public open space.

Historical Notes

Photographer Herman Schultheis documented everyday scenes throughout Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s, and this quiet fishing moment captures one of the pier’s most enduring roles as a place for recreation and simple routine.

Oil derricks visible in the distance reflect the broader industrial landscape of the South Bay during this era. Although the exact field visible in this image has not been confirmed, scenes like this illustrate how recreation, industry, and coastal life often existed side by side along the Southern California shoreline.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures Hermosa Beach during the height of Southern California’s postwar beach culture, when growing prosperity and increased automobile ownership brought larger crowds to coastal communities throughout the region. The pier and surrounding beachfront remained the center of activity.

Details visible in the image, including automobiles, clothing styles, and beach activity, support a late 1940s to early 1950s date and help illustrate how rapidly Southern California’s recreational culture expanded after the Second World War.

Hermosa Beach

The Strand and Changing Coastline

By the second half of the twentieth century, Hermosa Beach had largely completed its transition from a seasonal resort town into a year round residential community centered on its shoreline. While the beach remained the city’s defining attraction, daily life increasingly revolved around permanent neighborhoods, local businesses, and a growing identity shaped by recreation and outdoor living.

The Strand evolved along with the city. Early wooden walkways and modest beachfront buildings gradually gave way to paved promenades, denser residential development, and a more active public waterfront. Surf culture, beach volleyball, walking, cycling, and casual outdoor gathering became increasingly associated with Hermosa Beach during these decades.

The images in this chapter show that while buildings, transportation, and patterns of recreation continued to change, the relationship between the city and the ocean remained remarkably consistent. More than a century after Hermosa’s founding, the shoreline still serves as the center of community life.

Historical Notes

By the 1970s, the Strand had evolved into a paved public promenade linking neighborhoods, beaches, and commercial areas along the South Bay coastline. What began as a more modest beachfront walkway became one of Hermosa Beach’s defining public spaces.

The city’s beach culture had also changed. Surfing, beach volleyball, cycling, and a more informal outdoor lifestyle increasingly shaped the public image of Hermosa Beach, replacing many of the organized resort amenities and private clubs that characterized earlier decades.

Historical Notes

The earlier image shows a Strand still closely tied to its resort era origins, with modest development and a simpler relationship between buildings and the beach. By the 1970s, the shoreline had become more intensely developed while remaining publicly accessible.

Comparisons like this reveal that change in Hermosa Beach occurred gradually rather than through dramatic redevelopment. Small decisions repeated over decades shaped the modern coastline while preserving its connection to the ocean.

Historical Notes

The more recent comparison shows a different kind of transformation. Instead of broad structural change, the differences appear in architecture, landscaping, density, and changing patterns of everyday life along the Strand.

Taken together, these paired views span roughly a century of Hermosa Beach history. The details continue to evolve, but the essential relationship remains unchanged: homes facing the ocean, people gathering outdoors, and the shoreline serving as the city’s defining public space.

Redondo Beach

Early Resort, Port, and Waterfront

Long before Redondo Beach became known for its pleasure piers and recreational coastline, the city emerged as one of Southern California's most ambitious seaside developments. In 1889, the Redondo Beach Improvement Company purchased 433 acres from the Dominguez family and set in motion the rapid transformation of the shoreline. Within a year, the grand Hotel Redondo opened, rail connections extended to the waterfront, and the first wharves were built to support commerce and tourism.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the district centered around Pacific Avenue and the beach below became one of Southern California's busiest coastal destinations. Schooners unloaded timber at the piers while visitors arrived by Santa Fe Railway and later by electric streetcar. Hotels, pavilions, restaurants, boardinghouses, and recreational attractions created a lively waterfront that briefly positioned Redondo Beach as both a resort community and an aspiring commercial port.

This section traces Redondo Beach through its formative decades with photographs documenting the Hotel Redondo, early wharves, the A.R. Schafers Casino, waterfront businesses, and the Pacific Light and Power steam plant. Together these images capture the period when Redondo Beach evolved from an ambitious coastal development into one of Southern California's defining seaside communities.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures Redondo Beach during its earliest years of organized development, when the shoreline functioned as both a resort destination and a working waterfront. Boats, lumber operations, rail service, and beachfront businesses illustrate the multiple roles the young community played in Southern California's growing economy.

The transformation began in 1889 when the Redondo Beach Improvement Company acquired approximately 433 acres from the Dominguez family and launched plans for a new seaside community. The opening of the Hotel Redondo in 1890 established the city as an upscale resort destination, while rail connections and the deep offshore submarine canyon encouraged ambitions of creating a major commercial harbor. Although Redondo ultimately evolved into a recreation focused coastal city rather than Los Angeles' principal port, these early years established the foundations of the community that followed.

Historical Notes

The Hotel Redondo opened on May 1, 1890, as one of the grandest resort properties on the Southern California coast. Situated on a 22 acre tract overlooking the ocean, the Victorian style structure offered 225 rooms and modern conveniences for its era, including a bath on each floor. The hotel was designed to establish Redondo Beach as a destination capable of attracting visitors from throughout Southern California.

Developed by the Redondo Beach Improvement Company, the hotel anchored a broader vision for the city that included rail connections, pier construction, and commercial development along Pacific Avenue. The Santa Fe Railway heavily promoted the property, and the combination of luxury accommodations and convenient train access helped make Hotel Redondo a centerpiece of early South Bay tourism.

Historical Notes

Standing before the Hotel Redondo, this pier view illustrates the close relationship between waterfront access and resort hospitality that defined Redondo Beach during its earliest decades. The hotel's location near the beach and wharves made it a gathering point for visitors who came not only for recreation but also to experience the activity of a growing coastal community.

Despite its early success, Hotel Redondo's fortunes declined as San Pedro Harbor expanded and became the region's dominant commercial port. The economic effects of Prohibition further weakened tourism, and the hotel closed in 1925 before eventually being dismantled for scrap lumber. Its brief but influential run helped shape the recreational identity that Redondo Beach would carry forward.

Historical Notes

In the early development phase from 1889 through the 1920s, three successive wharves played important roles in supporting industry and tourism. Wharf No. 1, constructed in 1889, served as a transfer point for timber shipments before being destroyed by storms. Wharf No. 2, built in 1895 with its distinctive Y shaped design, supported rail service, fishing, and freight activity until severe storm damage led to its removal. Wharf No. 3, completed in 1903, became the longest lasting of Redondo's commercial piers.

Visible near the waterfront was the A.R. Schafers Casino, an open air seaside pavilion that reflected the growing recreational appeal of Redondo Beach during this period. Alongside hotels, train service, restaurants, and beachfront attractions, gathering places like this helped transform the shoreline from a working waterfront into one of Southern California's early resort destinations.

Historical Notes

This view of the beach pavilion and Pacific Avenue storefronts illustrates the variety of activity that made early Redondo Beach one of Southern California's most popular coastal destinations. Visitors arriving by Santa Fe Railway encountered a lively mix of maritime commerce, recreation, dining, and beach life concentrated within a compact waterfront district.

The pavilion served as a visual landmark and gathering place along the shoreline. Nearby businesses offered lodging, groceries, fishing supplies, and restaurants that supported both visitors and the growing local population. The energy captured in this scene reflects Redondo Beach during the height of its first resort era.

Historical Notes

By 1910, Redondo Beach had constructed three successive wharves in its effort to become a major commercial port. The first, built in 1889, supported the lumber trade until storms destroyed it. Wharf No. 2 followed in 1895 and incorporated railroad tracks to move freight directly between ships and rail cars. Wharf No. 3, completed in 1903, continued serving maritime commerce and became the longest surviving commercial pier.

The presence of Santa Fe Railway tracks extending onto the wharf reflected the city's serious commercial ambitions. Despite these efforts, storm damage and changing economic conditions ultimately shifted Redondo's focus away from freight activity and toward recreation, tourism, and pleasure piers.

Historical Notes

The Pacific Light and Power Corporation (PLPC), established by Henry Huntington in 1906, built a concrete and metal steam plant in Redondo Beach, strategically located for access to clean water and local oil for fuel. By 1911, the plant had doubled in size and become the fourth largest generating facility in the United States.

Following acquisition by Southern California Edison in 1917, the plant gradually declined and was eventually abandoned during the Great Depression. Postwar growth brought a new generating station to the site in 1948, and later modernization continued under AES Southland Energy. After more than a century of power generation on the waterfront, the Redondo Beach Generating Station permanently ceased operations on December 31, 2023. The future of the site remains under discussion as the community considers redevelopment and new uses for this prominent stretch of the coastline.

Pacific Avenue, Redondo Beach

Long before Redondo Beach became known for its modern waterfront and harbor, Pacific Avenue served as the heart of the city's commercial and transportation life. Running through the center of town and linking the waterfront with hotels, shops, rail service, and entertainment, the street became one of the defining corridors of early Redondo Beach.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, visitors arrived by steam railroad, electric streetcar, horse drawn carriage, and eventually automobiles. Along Pacific Avenue they found bustling storefronts, resort hotels, real estate offices, amusement attractions, and access to one of Southern California's most popular coastal destinations.

This section traces the evolution of Pacific Avenue and the surrounding waterfront through rare photographs and historical notes that document Redondo Beach's transformation from a growing seaside resort into a thriving coastal community.

Historical Notes

Pacific Avenue played a central role in the early development of Redondo Beach, serving as one of the city's principal commercial corridors during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1887, Redondo Beach quickly emerged as a popular seaside resort destination. Pacific Avenue became the heart of the waterfront district, lined with hotels, saloons, shops, restaurants, and recreational attractions that catered to both visitors and local residents.

Electric railway service arrived in Redondo Beach in 1902, greatly improving access from Los Angeles and accelerating the city's growth. The line later became part of the expanding Los Angeles Pacific system before ultimately being absorbed into the Pacific Electric Railway network in 1911, strengthening Redondo Beach's connection to the region.

Historical Notes

By the first decade of the 1900s, Pacific Avenue had become one of Redondo Beach's busiest streets. Real estate offices, hotels, entertainment venues, and transportation services reflected the city's rapid growth during Southern California's early land boom era.

Streetcars running along Pacific Avenue brought visitors directly into the downtown district, while horse drawn wagons and early automobiles continued to share the streets. Nearby attractions including the Redondo Pavilion and Santa Fe Railway Depot helped establish Redondo Beach as one of Southern California's leading coastal destinations.

Historical Notes

By the early 1900s, Pacific Avenue had become one of Redondo Beach's principal transportation and commercial corridors. The street served as part of the extensive Pacific Electric Railway system, whose famous "Red Cars" connected Redondo Beach with communities throughout Los Angeles County and helped establish the city as one of Southern California's most popular seaside destinations.

This view captures a transitional period in Redondo Beach's growth when streetcars, early automobiles, and pedestrians shared the roadway while commercial development expanded around the downtown district. The Garland Hotel, visible in the background, was among the city's prominent landmarks and reflected Redondo's appeal as both a residential and tourist destination.

Prominent in the left foreground is the English Block at the northeast corner of Pacific Avenue and Emerald Street. Constructed in 1893, the building became one of downtown Redondo Beach's recognizable early commercial structures and remained a local landmark for decades before being demolished in the early 1970s and replaced by later development.

The dating of this photograph is supported by period evidence including a contemporary postcard view and architectural and commercial details visible within the scene that place it in Redondo Beach's early development era.

Historical Notes

By the 1920s, Redondo Beach had evolved from a resort centered largely around rail excursions into a more established coastal community. Improved roads and increased automobile ownership gradually shifted how visitors arrived and experienced the city.

Viewed from the Garland Hotel, this panorama captures Redondo Beach during a period of transition when tourism, local commerce, and residential growth continued to shape the waterfront and surrounding neighborhoods.

Historical Notes

During the 1910s and 1920s, Redondo Beach gradually shifted from industrial wharves toward recreational and tourism focused waterfront attractions.

The Endless (later known as the Pleasure Pier) was a V shaped reinforced concrete structure built by George W. Harding for fishing and strolling. Despite its popularity, the pier was condemned for safety reasons in 1928.

Captain Hans C. Monstad constructed the Monstad Pier in 1925, originally extending 300 feet and serving as a center for fishing and pleasure boat landings. It remains in use today.

The Horseshoe Pier, completed in 1929 after demolition of the Pleasure Pier, became one of Redondo Beach's defining landmarks and remained a central community feature until it was destroyed by fire in 1988. Following the fire, the southern remnant remained open until a new concrete pier opened in 1995.

Historical Notes

Completed during the 1910s, the Endless Pier represented Redondo Beach's growing emphasis on recreation and tourism rather than commercial shipping. Built as a reinforced concrete structure extending into the ocean, the pier became a popular destination for walking, sightseeing, and fishing.

Unlike the earlier industrial wharves that supported freight and maritime commerce, the Endless Pier reflected changing public tastes and the rise of leisure culture in Southern California. Visitors arriving by streetcar and automobile helped transform Redondo Beach into one of the region's most visited seaside communities during the 1920s.

Historical Notes

This aerial view captures the contrasting forces shaping Redondo Beach during the 1920s. Along the waterfront, hotels, beaches, pleasure piers, and recreational attractions drew visitors seeking the Southern California coastal experience. In the distance, oil development reflected another powerful economic force transforming the region.

The coexistence of tourism and petroleum development became a defining characteristic of many Southern California coastal communities during this period, illustrating the rapid and often overlapping growth occurring throughout the Los Angeles area.

Historical Notes

By the 1920s, Redondo Beach had become one of Southern California's premier seaside destinations. Visitors arrived throughout the year to enjoy swimming, fishing, boating, dancing, and oceanfront recreation.

The Pavilion and Bath House became iconic landmarks that helped define Redondo's identity as a resort community, while the surviving wharves reflected the city's earlier maritime roots. Scenes like this illustrate the transition from a working waterfront to a recreation focused coastline.

Historical Notes

Redondo Beach's pier evolved over several decades from a collection of independent wharves into a more unified recreational destination serving both residents and visitors. Storm damage, rebuilding efforts, and changing recreational needs continually reshaped the waterfront throughout the early 20th century.

By the late 1930s, the pier had become one of the city's defining landmarks, offering fishing, boating, ocean recreation, and panoramic coastal views. The oil derricks visible in the distance reflect the continued influence of petroleum development across the South Bay region.

Historical Notes

Even during the 1930s, real estate remained closely tied to Redondo Beach's identity and continued development. Painted building advertisements such as this were a common marketing technique used to attract investors, businesses, and homebuyers seeking opportunities near the Southern California coast.

The streetcar tracks visible in the foreground serve as a reminder that electric rail transit continued to influence development patterns and connect Redondo Beach with surrounding communities during a period when automobiles were becoming increasingly dominant.

Scenes like this capture an important transitional period in the city's history, when older forms of transportation and traditional land promotion continued to coexist with the rapid modernization taking place across the Los Angeles region.

Historical Notes

Streetcars remained an important part of daily life in Redondo Beach well into the 1930s, providing reliable transportation for workers, residents, and beach visitors. Pacific Electric's extensive rail network helped make coastal communities more accessible and supported continued residential growth.

As automobile ownership increased throughout Southern California, however, streetcar ridership gradually declined. Within a few decades, many of the region's once extensive electric railway lines would disappear.

Historical Notes

This image captures several defining elements of Southern California at the end of the streetcar era: electric rail transportation, growing automobile use, expanding beach recreation, and industrial development existing side by side.

By the late 1930s, Pacific Electric still provided an important connection between coastal communities and Los Angeles, but changing travel patterns increasingly favored the automobile. Within the following two decades, most of the famous Red Car lines serving the South Bay would be gone, marking the end of an era in regional transportation.

Historical Notes

The Hollywood Riviera Beach Club (1931-1958), designed by Mark Daniels, was located at what is now Miramar Park in Torrance Beach. It was designed as a private club for the original Riviera home owners. The beach club was destroyed by fire and the site was recognized as a Historic Landmark with a plaque by the Torrance Historical Society in conjunction with the Redondo Beach Historical Society.

Historical Notes

Ground had been broken for the private Hollywood Riviera Beach Club on March 4, 1930. Clifford Reid, the developer who envisioned the Hollywood Riviera section of Torrance as a potential playground for the Hollywood elite when he began selling lots there for about $3500 each in 1928, saw the club as a central attraction whose glamorous image would lure homebuyers in to buy lots.

It opened on June 27, 1931. Residents of the Hollywood Riviera development automatically became members of the club, though dues were required to use the pool and to attend special events held there.

Reid’s plan to attract movie stars foundered on two shoals: the advent of the Depression, and the development’s anti-Semitic policies, which prohibited Hollywood elites such as Louis B. Mayer and Sam Goldwyn from owning property there.

But the development’s spectacular location still attracted visits from the rich and famous, though only the late actress Rosemary DeCamp actually became a long-term resident there.*

Historical Notes

Not long after Pearl Harbor, the military installed anti-aircraft guns in the hills by Torrance beach. The pounding of the ensuing target practice structurally damaged the club, which closed in 1942.

It reopened after the war after Reid sold it, and its new owners made it a public club open to all. It had a successful run during the 1950s, though its image became decidedly less elegant and took on more of the atmosphere of a roadhouse than a swanky club.

Since the club straddled the city limit between Torrance and Redondo Beach, the story has been told that imbibers would have to cross from one side of the tavern to the other to stay in compliance with each city’s liquor laws.*

Historical Notes

On the night September 25, 1958 a spectacular fire consumed the seaside resort.  The club was a total loss.  For years afterward, plans were made to re-develop the site. Even before the fire, Torrance and Redondo were trying to formulate plans to buy the club and convert it into a teen recreation center, but they had been unable to sort out the site’s tangled ownership situation.

As early as 1964, the Sovereign Development Co. had proposed a plan to build a 16-story apartment complex on the site. That proposal was defeated in Aug. 1964, but similar attempts and proposals would be made throughout the rest of the 1960s, all of them opposed by Hollywood Riviera residents.

In 1972 a Superior Court ruled that the property had been “dedicated by implication” to the public, and the property’s then-owner, Oscar Berk, could not build upon the property that he had purchased for $600,000.  That ruling eventually led to the development of Miramar Park on the site. The small, beautiful park was dedicated by the City of Torrance on January 11, 1984.

Surfers still refer to the section of Torrance beach below where the Hollywood Riviera Beach Club once stood as “Burnout Beach.” *

Historical Notes

During the 1920s, the Los Angeles Port passed San Francisco as the west coast's busiest seaport. In the early 1930s a massive expansion of the port was taken with the construction of a massive breakwater three miles out that was over 2 miles in length. In addition to the construction of this outer breakwater an inner breakwater was built off of Terminal Island with docks for sea going ships and smaller docks built at Long Beach.*^

Historical Notes

The City of Long Beach was officially incorporated in 1897. The town grew as a seaside resort with light agricultural uses. Gradually the oil industry, Navy shipyard and facilities and port became the mainstays of the city. In the 1950s it was referred to as "Iowa by the sea", due to a large influx of people from that and other Midwestern states. Huge picnics for migrants from each state were a popular annual event in Long Beach until the 1960s.*

Historical Notes

The tall building topped by a cupola on the beach side of Ocean Boulevard is the Breakers Hotel. In front of and between the auditorium and the Breakers is the Capitol Theatre. The sign for the West Coast Theatre at 333 East Ocean Boulevard is visible on the facade of the large building, right. A sign for the theater is also on the water tower at the back. Several cars are parked at the front of the theater. The Robinson Hotel Apartments with its circular driveway is opposite the West Coast Theatre.^

Historical Notes

Designed by Edwardes Sproat, the Victory Fountain stood 45-ft. high and was equipped with electric lights that flashed in time to the water’s spray. At the top was a mirrored ball that reflected the lights at night.

Historical Notes

Designed by Edwardes Sproat and built by cement contractor S. W. Black, the fountain was dedicated to the American Legion in memory of those who fought in World War I. Financed by homeowners from West Long Beach, the 45 foot high memorial includes flasher lights of many colors and various sprays and cascades for water. A basement directly beneath the fountain included a 600 gallon storage tank and pumps.

Historical Notes

The Pike was the most famous beachside amusement zone on the West Coast from 1902 until 1969; it offered bathers food, games and rides, such at the Sky Wheel dual Ferris wheel and Cyclone Racer roller coaster.

Historical Notes

The Pike was most noted for the Cyclone Racer, a large wooden dual-track roller coaster, built out on pilings over the water. It was the largest and fastest coaster in the U.S. at the time.  They called it 'racer' because there were two trains on two separate tracks that raced one another from start to finish.^

Historical Notes

The U. S. Post Office is seen on the left. The Ducommun Building is on the northeast corner of Main and Commercial Streets. In the extreme upper right is the first of many buildings erected by Isaias W. Hellman, on the northwest corner of Los Angeles and Commercial Streets. On the southeast corner of Main and Commercial, being renovated, is the Hellman Building.^

Historical Notes

The Farmers and Merchants Bank was the oldest bank in Southern California from 1871 until 1956 when it was merged into the Security First National Bank of Los Angeles. Later, the Security First National Bank of Los Angeles became the Security Pacific National Bank and is now Bank of America.

Historical Notes

Early Los Angeles streetcars, including the Los Angeles Railway "Yellow Cars" and Pacific Electric "Red Cars," featured distinctive interior layouts that prioritized efficiency and passenger capacity. The Yellow Cars, which operated from 1895 to 1963, typically had forward-facing double seats arranged in rows on both sides of a central aisle, with hand grips on seat backs for standing passengers. The Red Cars, running from 1901 to 1961, offered a mix of forward-facing and side-facing bench seats, also with double seats along the center aisle in many models. Both systems shared common elements such as large windows for natural light, wooden or rattan-covered seats, overhead hand grips, and advertising displays above the windows. As streetcar technology evolved, newer models incorporated improved lighting, ventilation, and seating arrangements to enhance passenger comfort. These early streetcar interiors were designed to accommodate the growing transportation needs of Los Angeles during the first half of the 20th century, balancing practicality with the comfort of riders.

Historical Notes

The Los Angeles Railway (also Yellow Cars, LARy, latterly Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in central Los Angeles and the immediate surrounding neighborhoods between 1901 and 1963. The company carried many more passengers than the Pacific Electric Railway's 'Red Cars' which served a larger area of Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Long before the Grove, Third Street, or Universal CityWalk, Angelenos flocked to another open-air shopping promenade: Mercantile Place. This tiny, private street, which stretched between Spring and Broadway from 1904 to 1923, measured just 22 feet wide and was flanked by identical, two-story brick buildings, creating an intimate contrast to bustling downtown Los Angeles.

Though it resembled a public street with its concrete sidewalks and paved road, Mercantile Place cut through privately owned land leased by developer C. Wesley Roberts in 1904. Roberts ingeniously solved the problem of how to make the central parcel useful—by cutting a street through it, he more than doubled the available storefront frontage from 240 to nearly 600 feet.

Historical Notes

Mercantile Place was planned to be "something entirely new in Los Angeles development"—a private shopping street under the aegis of C. Westley Roberts, who secured a ten-year lease from the Los Angeles School Board and bought the material of the old brick school building, which was to be demolished.

Historical Notes

This walkway between two sets of buildings was razed in 1923, and the Mercantile Arcade Building was built in its place. The Arcade Building has entrances from Spring Street and from Broadway, and retains the feel of a passageway.

Historical Notes

The area around Broadway and 6th Street was a bustling commercial district in the 1910s, with many retail stores, theaters, and other businesses.

Historical Notes

H. Jevne & Company, founded by Hans Jevne in 1882, was a prominent grocer in early Los Angeles. In 1906-1907, the company constructed its flagship store at the southwest corner of 6th Street and Broadway, a building that still stands today next to the Los Angeles Theatre. This store, occupying all six floors of the building, was widely regarded as one of the finest grocery stores in the country, with some even calling it "the finest retail grocery store in the world" due to its equipment and high-end clientele. The store offered a wide selection of groceries, including imported delicacies and products from Jevne's native Norway, as well as liquors and cigars. It represented the pinnacle of H. Jevne & Co.'s success after decades of growth in Los Angeles and was a prominent fixture in downtown Los Angeles during the early 20th century. The store opened at this location in 1907 and operated until 1920, when H. Jevne & Co. closed the retail store to focus on its wholesale business. Today, the H. Jevne & Co. Building remains an important part of Los Angeles' architectural heritage.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more Early Views of Hill and 5th Streets.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more Early Views of Hill and 4th Streets.

Historical Notes

The building on the right is the 'New' Hotel Broadway and on the left is the Broadway Christian Church. The 'New' Hotel Broadway survived many, many years, the 'New' becoming ever more ironic. The church is about to be replaced by the Owl Drug Company which would, in its turn, survive until the CRA bulldozers and the coming of the Hollywood Parkway. The 1888 County Courthouse would be doomed in the Long Beach earthquake of 1933.

Historical Notes

The LA County Courthouse was built in 1888-1891 at the old site of Los Angeles High School. The building was demolished in 1933.

The Hall of Records was built in 1906 and demolished in 1973.

Historical Notes

This tunnel was the second of twin bores through the northeastern section of Bunker Hill. The hill was also referred to as Court Hill. The tunnel connected Temple St. with 1st Street.

Historical Notes

The first of the two Hill Street Tunnels was bored through a part of Bunker Hill in 1909 by Los Angeles Pacific (a predecessor of Pacific Electric). It connects Hill Street from First to Temple. In 1913, the second tunnel (on the left) was bored for streetcar traffic.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more Early Views of the Court Flight.

Historical Notes

The Hill Street tunnels ran through a hill called Court Hill. Both Hill Street and Broadway had tunnels through Court Hill. In the photo above we're looking southwest towards First and Hill. First Street comes in behind the streetcar. At this point First Street is in a valley between Bunker Hill and Court Hill. The apartment houses in the center are on Bunker Hill. The hill at right is Court Hill.

Historical Notes

Within two months of the above photo, construction work to remove the tunnels and enlarge the Los Angeles Civic Center began.

Historical Notes

The Hill Street tunnels and the hill above them were completely removed by June 1955 to make way for the current Los Angeles Civic Center.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see the Construction and Opening of the First Hill Street Tunnel

From Agricultural Park to Exposition Park

Long before the rose garden and the Coliseum, the 160 acres bounded by Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard served a very different Los Angeles. The Southern District Agricultural Society established Agricultural Park in 1872, setting aside the land as a fairground where the region's new farming class could exhibit livestock, produce, and farm equipment.The site made sense at the time. It sat just beyond the southwestern edge of the city, surrounded by open country, and was served by one of Los Angeles's first street railways, the Main Street and Agricultural Park Railroad, which began running horse-drawn cars to the park in 1875.

Over the next four decades the park hosted agricultural fairs, thoroughbred horse races, camel and dog contests, some of the first bicycle competitions in Southern California, and eventually the earliest organized automobile speed runs in the region. By 1910 the racing era had ended. A new chapter was beginning, centered on museums, a rose garden, and civic ambition rather than betting windows and grandstand saloons.

Historical Notes

The Southern District Agricultural Society purchased the 160-acre site in 1872 to promote commercial farming as the old rancho system gave way to American land ownership. Mortgage creditors foreclosed on the property in 1879, and the State of California acquired it in 1880. The City of Los Angeles annexed both Agricultural Park and the neighboring University of Southern California campus in June 1899, bringing them inside city limits for the first time. Civic advocates William M. Bowen and USC President George F. Bovard led the campaign that eventually transformed the grounds into a public cultural center, renamed Exposition Park in 1913.

Fair Days

Racing and gambling defined Agricultural Park's reputation, but they were never the whole story. The Southern District Agricultural Society founded the park to serve the region's farmers, and on fair days the grounds looked exactly as intended — families moving through livestock exhibits, tents pitched across the open fields, animals on display, and children exploring the grounds on foot and on bicycle. These quieter gatherings kept alive the park's original mission even as the racetrack and grandstand saloon drew the headlines and the reformers' complaints.

The agricultural fairs attracted exhibitors from across Southern California who came to show prize livestock, seasonal produce, and horticultural specimens. For many visitors, particularly those who came with children, the fair was the park, a public space that belonged to the community in a way the racetrack and its gambling culture did not. It was this side of the park's identity that reformers pointed to when they argued the grounds could be reclaimed for a higher civic purpose.

Agricultural Park served a dual identity throughout its history. On race days it was a gambling venue with a grandstand saloon and a packed hotel. On fair days it was a public fairground where families came to see livestock exhibits, horticultural displays, and novelties such as the deer shown here. The Southern District Agricultural Society had always intended the site to promote farming and agriculture in Southern California, and it was this original mission that reformers cited when they argued the grounds could be reclaimed for a higher civic purpose.

The Racetrack

The racetrack was the engine of Agricultural Park's daily life. Because the park sat outside city limits until 1899, gambling on races was beyond the reach of Los Angeles law enforcement, and operators took full advantage. The grandstand drew the crowds that made the park financially viable. A saloon operated underneath it, and a hotel in the park's interior catered to those who came for the races and not just an afternoon's entertainment. Horses dominated the early program, but the track also hosted dog races, camel races, and animal fights staged for gambling purposes, the last of which drew condemnation from anti-cruelty organizations.

As the surrounding neighborhood developed and the University of Southern California opened across the street in 1880, pressure mounted on park operators. Officers who attended the meets could observe but had little authority over the gambling taking place. That changed when annexation brought the park inside city limits in 1899 — though the racing and betting continued for another decade before state law finally shut it down.

Historical Notes

The grandstand shown here held a saloon on its lower level, one of the principal attractions for gamblers who came to the park for the races. The hotel that operated inside the park's grounds catered to racing enthusiasts who stayed overnight. Both structures were demolished after the state acquired the property in 1908 and reformers took control of the site. The grounds were eventually redesigned as part of the 1910 Exposition Park plan, which included the sunken garden to the north of the oval, designed by landscape architect Fred H. Howard. That garden became the Exposition Park Rose Garden, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Horse shows at Agricultural Park ran alongside the race meets and drew a somewhat different crowd — one more interested in breeding stock and carriage horses than in wagering. The park's dual identity as both a legitimate fairground and a gambling venue made it a complicated target for reformers, who had to argue that the racing culture had overtaken the agricultural mission the site was founded to serve. Attorney William M. Bowen began his public campaign to annex and reform the park in 1898, one year after this photograph was taken.

Race days at Agricultural Park drew spectators from across the city and beyond. In its early years the park offered horses, dogs, and camels on the oval, a combination that reflected the carnival atmosphere operators cultivated to maximize crowds and betting. California's Walker-Otis Law of 1909 banned racetrack gambling statewide, effectively ending horse racing at Agricultural Park and at venues across the state, including the original Santa Anita track in Arcadia, which closed the same year.

The Bicycle Era

By the late 1880s the bicycle had joined the horse as a fixture at Agricultural Park. Racing on two wheels had begun on the oval as early as 1883, using the same dirt track as the horse meets, but it was the arrival of the chain-driven safety bicycle in the late 1880s that turned cycling into a citywide movement. Organized clubs formed across Los Angeles, and the park's established grandstand and oval became their primary racing ground. The clubs were also central to the Good Roads movement, lobbying for paved streets at a time when most roads in the region were rutted dirt. The racers at Agricultural Park were in this sense making an argument about infrastructure as much as they were competing for prizes.

The October 3, 1893 race meeting documented in several of the photographs below was among the most organized cycling events Southern California had yet seen. Teams arrived with uniforms, support men, and formal starting procedures. The 25-mile race drew entrants from the East Side Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, a squad from Riverside, and others. Prizes sometimes included pianos, a reflection of the sport's broad social appeal and the showmanship of the park's promoters.

The Los Angeles Bicycle Club was one of the earliest organized cycling groups in the city. The high-wheeled penny-farthing bicycles common in the early 1880s had given way by the late 1880s to the chain-driven safety bicycle, which was lower, more stable, and far more accessible to a general public. The change in technology drove a rapid expansion in both recreational cycling and competitive racing. By the early 1890s, Los Angeles had multiple active clubs competing at venues including Agricultural Park.

Historical Notes

The October 3, 1893 race meeting was one of the largest organized cycling events in Southern California to that point, drawing teams from across the region. The grandstand that regularly hosted horse racing crowds was filled for the occasion. Horse-drawn carriages visible inside the oval reflect the track's dual identity — still a horse racing venue on most days, but increasingly shared with the new sport of cycling throughout the 1890s.

The East Side Club was based in Boyle Heights and was among the most active cycling organizations in Los Angeles in the early 1890s. Club races at Agricultural Park were formal affairs, with each rider assigned a support man to hold the bicycle steady before the starting signal. The dark sash worn over the left shoulder identified East Side Club members on the starting line and in the grandstand crowd.

The Los Angeles Athletic Club, founded in 1880, was one of the city's most prominent civic organizations and fielded teams in multiple sports. The presence of the mayor's brother and a city department official among its bicycle team entrants reflects how thoroughly the cycling movement had penetrated middle- and upper-class Los Angeles life by the early 1890s. Athletic club racing at Agricultural Park carried a social dimension well beyond the sport itself.

The Automobile Arrives

The gasoline-powered automobile arrived at Agricultural Park in November 1903 with the force of a revelation. Barney Oldfield, already the most famous racing driver in America, staged a three-day event at the park featuring speed record attempts, match races, and exhibitions aboard a Winton Bullet. Dirt clods flew as much as forty feet in the wake of the machine, and the Los Angeles Times covered the spectacle with mock alarm, writing that Oldfield's attempt to commit suicide at Agricultural Park had resulted only in a compound fracture of the world's automobile record. He returned in December 1904 driving the Peerless Green Dragon and recorded a mile in 54 seconds on the same oval where horses had raced a generation before.

The Automobile Club of Southern California, which organized the 1903 meet and kept a formal program with results recorded by hand in the margins, understood that racing was the most effective way to demonstrate the new technology to a skeptical public. Local competitors were drawn in as well, including oilman Frank Garbutt, who had watched harness races at the park since 1887 and arrived with a car he had designed and built himself. Spectators who watched a car cover a mile in under a minute went home converts.

What began as exhibition and spectacle quickly evolved into organized competition, and by the end of the decade, full-scale endurance races were being held on the same oval.

Barney Oldfield had become the first person to drive a mile in one minute flat at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in June 1903. His November visit to Agricultural Park just months later brought that national celebrity to Los Angeles for the first time. On December 17, 1904, he set a track record of 54 seconds for the mile on the Agricultural Park oval, driving the eight-cylinder Peerless Green Dragon. The Automobile Club of Southern California, founded in 1900, was among the earliest automobile advocacy organizations in the country and used racing events at Agricultural Park to build public support for automobile-friendly road improvements throughout the region.

Historical Notes

By 1908 automobile racing at Agricultural Park had matured into organized competition, including endurance events such as the 100 mile race shown here. Drivers and machines were now tested not only for speed but for reliability over distance, reflecting the growing practical importance of the automobile.

At the same time, the park itself was nearing the end of its racing era. The city had annexed the grounds in 1899 and outlawed gambling, but racing continued in diminished form. State acquisition in 1908 marked a turning point, and the following year California’s Walker Otis Law banned racetrack gambling statewide, removing the last economic incentive to maintain the track. The grandstand and related structures were soon demolished, clearing the way for the transformation into Exposition Park, formally dedicated on November 6, 1913.

From Racetrack to Park

California's 1909 ban on racetrack gambling removed the economic foundation on which the Agricultural Park oval had operated for three decades. A three-way agreement between the state, the county, and the city divided responsibility for the new grounds: the state would build an exposition building and an armory, the county would construct a museum of history, science, and art, and the city would maintain the grounds. Construction of the Natural History Museum began on December 17, 1910, and the park was formally renamed and dedicated as Exposition Park on November 6, 1913.

The 1918 aerial photograph below shows the new park five years into its life as a public cultural center. The Natural History Museum, the Armory, and the Exposition Building frame the northern portion of the park, and between them the sunken garden, already laid out with its formal grid of walkways and circular center, occupies the ground directly north of the racetrack oval. The oval itself remained fully intact in 1918, its ellipse clearly visible in the center of the park. It was the Coliseum, breaking ground in December 1921 and opening in May 1923, that consumed the western and central portion of the oval, its elliptical bowl built within the old racetrack footprint. Where Barney Oldfield had once covered a mile in 54 seconds, 75,000 spectators would come to watch football — and in 1932, the Summer Olympic Games.

The Natural History Museum building, designed by architects Frank Hudson and William Munsell in a blend of Spanish Renaissance, Romanesque, and Beaux Arts styles, was dedicated on November 6, 1913. The tripartite governance agreement between the state, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles established at that time still governs Exposition Park today. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, completed in May 1923 and designed by architects John and Donald Parkinson, was built as a memorial to Los Angeles veterans of World War I and was constructed within the western and central portion of the old racetrack footprint. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984 and has hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, with a third scheduled for 2028.

The sunken garden, situated between the racetrack oval and the museum buildings to the north, was designed by landscape architect Fred H. Howard and laid out as part of the 1910 Exposition Park plan. Planted initially with grass and walkways, it was redesigned and rededicated as the Rose Garden in 1928. The full story continues in the next section.

The Coliseum was built between 1921 and 1923 directly within the old racetrack footprint, its bowl occupying the same ground where Barney Oldfield had raced less than twenty years before. The oval that had defined Agricultural Park for three decades was gone within a decade of the 1918 photograph.

The 2022 image shows what replaced it. The Coliseum now sits where the oval once ran, its elliptical bowl built within the western and central portion of the old racetrack footprint. The eastern portion disappeared into parking and surrounding streets. That the Coliseum itself is elliptical, echoing the shape of the track it replaced, is one of the more quietly satisfying continuities in the park's history.

The sunken garden visible in its early unfinished state in the upper image became the Rose Garden in 1928 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. That transformation is the subject of the next section.

The Sunken Garden and the Rose Garden

When the old Agricultural Park racetrack was cleared and Exposition Park took shape after 1910, the seven acres between the museum buildings were set aside for a formal public garden. For the first several years the space amounted to little more than a graded field with grass, a few trees, and walkways converging on a concrete circle at the center. Plans for a grand memorial fountain at that center point were announced at the 1913 dedication but never carried out, set aside when World War I began and other priorities took over. Through most of the 1910s the sunken garden was more plan than place.

The transformation happened in stages. In 1915, the city proposed planting the beds with California wildflowers, including poppies, lupines, dahlias, and calendulas. In October 1921, the California Association of Nurserymen held a major horticultural exposition on the site, filling it with thousands of flowers, trees, and a new circular lily pond at the center. Many of those plantings stayed after the show closed. But the garden as it is recognized today did not take shape until 1926, when the city's Parks Department brought in rose experts George C. Robinson and Fred H. Howard, who had also designed the garden's original 1910 layout, to build what the Los Angeles Times called the world's finest public rose garden. The $15,000 project removed eight inches of topsoil across the entire site, replacing it with nutrient-rich soil and leaf mold brought from the canyons of Griffith Park. Workers laid 166 concrete-lined flower beds in four symmetrical quadrants, each anchored by a gazebo. Over 15,000 rose bushes, most donated by Southern California nurseries, were planted across the beds. The garden was completed in April 1928, remained the largest public rose garden in the country for 24 years, and has been operated by the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks ever since. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

The Early Sunken Garden

The sunken garden went through several distinct phases before the roses arrived. In its earliest years after 1910, it was simply graded open ground, cut below the level of the surrounding walkways and left largely as grass with a central concrete circle. The park's 1913 dedication drew attention to the site's potential, but the World War I years delayed any serious development. By the early 1920s the garden finally had real flowers in it, thanks to the California Association of Nurserymen, whose 1921 show planted the space for the first time and introduced the central lily pond and fountain. Events like Pershing Day in January 1920 had already established the sunken garden as a gathering place even in its unfinished state, showing that Angelenos would embrace the space once it was properly planted.

The photographs in this section document the garden during that transitional period, after the racetrack was gone but before the roses arrived, when the city was slowly discovering what the space could become.

Historical Notes

The land seen here had been graded and laid out as part of the 1910 Exposition Park plan, with grass, pathways, and a circular concrete center. Through most of the decade the space sat largely unused, waiting for the civic will and funding to develop it.

The 1921 California Flower Show and Horticultural Exposition was the first major use of the sunken garden for its intended purpose. The California Association of Nurserymen planted thousands of flowers and trees and installed a circular lily pond at the center. An electric fountain lit up the water at night during the event, and at the opening an orchestra played while performers danced traditional Spanish dances as visitors moved through displays of chrysanthemums, marigolds, and two acres of dahlias. Many of the show's plantings remained after the exposition closed, giving the garden its first real life as a planted space.

Historical Notes

Pershing Day marked the first anniversary of General John Pershing's return from World War I and was observed at public spaces across the country in January 1920. The event at Exposition Park reflected the park's growing role as a civic gathering place even before the sunken garden had been fully developed. The Armory Building visible here was designed by State Architect J.W. Woollett for the California National Guard 160th Infantry and was one of the four original anchor structures of the 1913 Exposition Park plan. It was later renamed the Wallis Annenberg Building for Science Learning and Innovation and now serves as the California Science Center's education annex.

Historical Notes

By 1925 the sunken garden had evolved considerably from the grassy field of the early 1910s, with ornamental planting beds established following the 1921 horticultural show. The grid layout visible in this photograph was carried directly into the rose garden design that began the following year. To prepare the beds for roses, workers removed eight inches of existing topsoil from across the entire site and replaced it with nutrient-rich soil and leaf mold brought in from the canyons of Griffith Park, giving the roses the rich soil they needed to thrive.

The Rose Garden

By the mid-1920s, Los Angeles was a city in full expansion. The oil, aviation, and film industries were booming, the population had more than doubled during the decade, and civic leaders cared deeply about how the city looked to the rest of the nation. When the Parks Department announced in 1926 that it intended to build the finest public rose garden in the United States at Exposition Park, the Los Angeles Times applauded: no better demonstration could be made of the region's devotion to gardens and outdoor beauty, the paper wrote, than by placing the world's finest rose garden at the heart of its greatest city. The work matched the ambition. Rosarians Robinson and Howard designed 166 concrete-lined beds in four symmetrical quadrants, filled them with soil brought from Griffith Park, and planted more than 15,000 bushes representing over 100 varieties. The garden was completed in April 1928.

It was an immediate success, drawing visitors from across the region and serving as a grand entrance corridor for the tens of thousands who came to the adjacent Coliseum for the 1932 Summer Olympics. Art deco lamp posts and concrete benches with Greek-style friezes were added to the garden's north entryway in 1932 in preparation for the Games. In 1936, Danish sculptor Thyra Boldsen donated four marble statues to the garden, one per quadrant, dedicated not to bravery and conquest as most public sculpture was but to love, life, and joy. The garden has remained largely unchanged in its layout since 1928 and continues to be visited by more than a million people a year.

Historical Notes

The rose garden opened in April 1928, timed to be in full bloom before the 1932 Olympics brought international visitors to the adjacent Coliseum. The Los Angeles Times had declared in 1926 that no better demonstration could be made of California's devotion to outdoor beauty than placing the world's finest rose garden at the heart of its greatest city. The garden held its position as the largest public rose garden in the country for 24 years. Danish sculptor Thyra Boldsen loaned four marble statues to the garden in 1936, one per quadrant, each honoring themes of love, life, and joy. They were reclaimed by a descendant in 1968. The All-America Rose Selection has donated its Rose of the Year to the garden annually since 1940.

Historical Notes

The 1950s marked the rose garden's cultural peak. Annual pruning demonstrations held each January drew thousands of enthusiasts for panel discussions, how-to demonstrations on a large model rosebush, and appearances by a rose queen. By 1955 more than 3,000 people attended the event annually. Summer Camera Days brought amateur photographers to the garden each season with flowers, animals, and models in gardening clothes provided by the Parks Department. The garden survived a proposal by the NFL Raiders in 1980 to convert it into a practice field, and a second threat in 1986 when the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission proposed replacing it with a two-story parking garage. In both cases public opposition was swift and decisive.

The Rose Garden Fountain

The fountain that stands at the center of the Exposition Park Rose Garden carries a history older than the roses themselves. Its story begins on November 6, 1913, the day Exposition Park was formally dedicated, the same day the city celebrated the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which had delivered Owens Valley water to the San Fernando Valley the day before. At the dedication ceremony, Senator John D. Works stepped to the platform in the sunken garden and, as he left, a jet of water shot thirty feet into the air from the concrete circle at the garden's center. It was a symbolic gesture, not a permanent structure. Water from the new aqueduct was pushed into the air as a public display. Plans were announced that day for a grand permanent fountain on the same spot, with a one-hundred-foot shaft flanked by sculptures representing California and the spirit of civic advancement. That monument was never built. World War I began, and the plans were shelved.

The fountain that eventually found its permanent place at the center of the garden arrived more modestly. In 1921, the California Association of Nurserymen built a circular lily pond and fountain for their horticultural exposition on the site, and this became the garden's first lasting water feature. When Fred H. Howard redesigned the space as a rose garden in 1926, the fountain was retained and fitted with electric lights that changed color at night, making it one of the first illuminated public fountains in Los Angeles. The display became one of the garden's most popular attractions, visible from the museum buildings and park pathways after dark. The fountain has been operated continuously by the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks since 1928 and remains the visual anchor of the garden today, its jets still rising from the same concrete circle where Owens Valley water first made its symbolic appearance more than a century ago.

Historical Notes

The circular lily pond and fountain seen here were among the lasting contributions of the 1921 California Flower Show and Horticultural Exposition. When Fred H. Howard took on the rose garden design in 1926, he incorporated the existing fountain rather than replacing it, adding electric lighting that allowed the water display to continue into the evening hours — one of the first illuminated public fountains in Los Angeles. The Natural History Museum building visible in the background was designed by architects Frank Hudson and William Munsell in a blend of Spanish Renaissance, Romanesque, and Beaux Arts styles and dedicated on November 6, 1913.

Historical Notes

Senator John D. Works dedicated the water display at the 1913 opening ceremony, and as he left the platform a thirty-foot jet rose from the concrete circle at the garden's center. Plans for a grand permanent commemorative fountain, with a hundred-foot shaft and flanking sculptures honoring California and civic progress, were announced that day but never executed.

Those plans reflected how confident Los Angeles felt in that moment. The aqueduct was done, Exposition Park was open, and the city saw itself on the edge of becoming one of the great cities of the world. For more on the opening ceremonies, see the Commemorative of the Official Opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and Exposition Park.

Click HERE to see the Commemorative of the Official Opening of the LA Aqueduct and Exposition Park.

Historical Notes

The lily pond at the fountain's base carried through every phase of the garden's development, from the 1921 horticultural show through the 1928 rose garden completion. The grand memorial fountain proposed at the 1913 dedication was never built, and the simpler fountain installed in 1921 became the garden's permanent water anchor. USC's Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy, visible in the background, was completed in 1930 and designed by architects Ralph Flewelling and Allison and Allison. It stands just north of the park boundary along Exposition Boulevard, directly across from the Natural History Museum.

Historical Notes

The Rose Garden and its fountain have endured repeated threats to their existence over the decades. A proposal by the NFL Raiders in 1980 to convert the garden to a practice field was turned down. A 1986 plan by the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission to replace the garden with a two-story parking structure drew immediate public opposition and was defeated.

The 1984 Summer Olympics had brought renewed investment to the park just two years earlier, with the city refurbishing the garden for the millions of visitors who passed through Exposition Park during the Games. The garden was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, giving it a level of formal protection it had not previously held. It remains one of the most visited public gardens in Southern California, with an estimated one million visitors each year.

🏛️ The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stands on ground that had already lived several lives before its construction. What began in 1872 as Agricultural Park, a fairground that evolved into a center for racing and public spectacle, was transformed after California's 1909 ban on racetrack gambling into a civic and cultural landscape known as Exposition Park. By the time of the 1918 aerial view, the mile-long oval remained intact, but its future had already shifted away from racing.

That transformation accelerated in 1921, when Los Angeles leaders moved to construct a major stadium as a memorial to veterans of World War I. Designed by architects John and Donald Parkinson, the Coliseum was conceived not only as a place for sport but as a monumental civic structure, one that could anchor the growing city's cultural and ceremonial life.

Construction began on December 21, 1921. In just over sixteen months, the elliptical bowl rose within the footprint of the former racetrack. When it opened on May 1, 1923, the Coliseum seated more than 75,000 spectators, immediately becoming the largest stadium in Los Angeles and one of the most prominent in the nation.

From Racetrack Oval to Stadium Bowl

The 1918 aerial shows the site at a turning point. The racetrack oval, once the defining feature of Agricultural Park, remained fully visible, even as the surrounding grounds had already been reshaped into a complex of museums, gardens, and public spaces.

By 1922, that oval was being erased. Construction photographs show the Coliseum rising directly within the infield of the track, its form echoing the very shape it replaced. Rather than imposing a new geometry on the landscape, the designers built within it, preserving the ellipse while transforming its purpose.

Where Barney Oldfield and other early drivers once raced against time, a new kind of spectacle took shape, one measured not in seconds but in crowds, ceremonies, and shared civic experience.

Historical Notes

The Natural History Museum, designed by architects Frank Hudson and William Munsell in a blend of Spanish Renaissance, Romanesque, and Beaux Arts styles, was dedicated on November 6, 1913. The governance agreement established at that time between the state, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles still governs Exposition Park today. The sunken garden visible north of the oval had been graded and laid out as part of the 1910 Exposition Park plan, with grass, walkways, and a circular concrete center. It would not be seriously planted until the 1920s and would not become the Rose Garden until 1928.

The International Olympic Committee selected Los Angeles as the host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics in April 1923, the same month the Coliseum was completed. The two events, arriving almost simultaneously, shaped the stadium's first decade in ways no one had fully anticipated.

Engineering Speed and Scale

The speed of construction remains notable. Built for $954,873, the original structure was completed in just over sixteen months. The design featured a continuous elliptical bowl open at the east end, where the peristyle would later become one of the Coliseum's most recognized architectural elements.

The 1922 construction images show this rapid rise. The surrounding Exposition Park grounds, already anchored by the Exposition Building and the Museum of History, Science and Art (later the Natural History Museum), frame the emerging stadium within its broader civic setting.

Historical Notes

The Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to veterans of World War I and rededicated to veterans of all wars in 1968. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on December 21, 1921, with construction completed in just over sixteen months on May 1, 1923. John and Donald Parkinson, whose firm also designed Los Angeles City Hall, Union Station, and the Bullock's Wilshire Building, modeled the elliptical bowl on the Yale Bowl of 1914, the first bowl-style stadium in the United States. The field was excavated thirty-two feet below grade, with the removed soil used to build the surrounding embankments. The structure measures 1,038 feet long and 738 feet wide. Total construction cost was $954,873.

Historical Notes

When the Coliseum opened in 1923, it was the largest stadium in Los Angeles, with a capacity of 75,144. The first event held there was not a sporting contest but the American Historical Review and Motion Picture Industrial Exposition, a month-long celebration of American history and the film industry that ran from July 2 to August 4, 1923, and drew more than 300,000 visitors. The first football game followed on October 6, 1923, when USC defeated Pomona College 23 to 7.

Expansion for the World Stage

The Coliseum's role expanded in preparation for the 1932 Summer Olympics. To accommodate the event, the stadium was enlarged in 1930, with additional rows and two tiers of tunnels raising capacity to more than 100,000 seats. The Olympic cauldron, still visible above the east end of the stadium, was installed at that time.

For a period the stadium was known as Olympic Stadium, reflecting its central role in the 1932 Games. By 1932 the expanded Coliseum had become the dominant landmark of Exposition Park, its bowl filled to capacity for the Summer Games.

The Coliseum hosted the Olympics again in 1984 and is scheduled to do so in 2028, which will make it the only stadium in history to host three Olympic Games.

The $315 million renovation completed in 2019 was funded by the University of Southern California under a 98-year lease agreement signed in 2013, which also transferred long-term management of the Coliseum to the university. The project added new seating throughout, a south side press box and suite structure, loge boxes, and a rooftop terrace with views of the surrounding park and city. Seating capacity was set at 77,500. The renovation was designed by DLR Group and carried out in compliance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, given the stadium's status as a National Historic Landmark.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, visible in the contemporary image, is scheduled to open on September 22, 2026, on the south side of Exposition Park. Designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, it occupies ground that was once the eastern edge of the Agricultural Park racetrack oval. When it opens it will complete a transformation of Exposition Park that began when the racetrack was cleared more than a century earlier.

The Coliseum's elliptical form was not an accident of its site. John Parkinson chose the shape deliberately, drawing on the Yale Bowl and on the ancient Roman amphitheater tradition, and built it within the western and central portion of the old Agricultural Park racetrack oval. The outer dimensions of the bowl, 1,038 feet long and 738 feet wide, made it the second most expensive stadium in the United States when it opened, behind only Yankee Stadium in New York.

In 1930, with the 1932 Olympics awarded to Los Angeles, the stadium was expanded upward to seventy-nine rows and capacity was raised to more than 101,000. The Olympic cauldron added for the 1932 Games remains above the peristyle at the east end and is lit during every USC home game. The Coliseum hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984 and will become the first stadium to host the Games three times when the 2028 Olympics open there.

Continuity Within Change

The then and now comparisons show one of the more interesting aspects of the Coliseum's history: the elliptical form of the stadium still traces the geometry of the racetrack that came before it. The sunken garden to the north, later redesigned as the Rose Garden, remains in place, connecting the park's early layout to its present form.

The surrounding landscape has changed considerably. What were once open grounds and racetrack edges have given way to parking areas, museums, sports facilities, and dense residential streets. The Coliseum, once set within a largely open park, is now part of a much more active urban environment.

Historical Notes

The Coliseum was built between 1921 and 1923 directly within the old racetrack footprint, its bowl occupying the same ground where Barney Oldfield had raced less than twenty years before. The oval that had defined Agricultural Park for three decades was gone within a decade of the 1918 photograph.

The Coliseum now sits where the oval once ran, its elliptical bowl built within the western and central portion of the old racetrack footprint. The eastern portion of the oval disappeared into parking and surrounding streets. That the Coliseum itself is elliptical, echoing the shape of the track it replaced, is one of the more quietly satisfying continuities in the park's history.

The sunken garden visible in its early unfinished state in the upper image became the Rose Garden in 1928 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. That transformation is the subject of the next section.

For a closer look at the Coliseum's construction, including ground level views of the arches, entranceway, and early seating structure, click HERE to see Early Views of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Construction.

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more Early Views of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the Olympics.

Historical Notes

USC agreed to play its home football games at the Coliseum when the stadium opened, a circumstance that contributed to the decision to build it where it was. The university took over long-term management of the Coliseum under a 98-year lease agreement in 2013 and funded the $315 million renovation completed in 2019.

Click HERE to see more in Early Views of U.S.C.

A Living Landmark

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984, the Coliseum has served as more than a stadium. It has been a site of Olympic ceremonies, championship games, public gatherings, and civic commemoration. Originally dedicated as a memorial to World War I veterans and rededicated in 1968 to honor veterans of all wars, it remains both a working venue and a public monument.

The images in this section, from racetrack days through construction, expansion, and present day views, document more than the evolution of a single structure. They trace the transformation of an entire landscape and the ways Los Angeles has redefined how public space is used and remembered over more than a century.

2nd Street Tunnel

Historical Notes

The 2nd Street Tunnel was built to relieve congestion on the earlier 3rd Street Tunnel. Construction actually began in 1916 but was stalled for five years by litigation. Steam shovels didn't begin tearing into the hillside until April 11, 1921.

Historical Notes

For a time, it seemed the tunnel would never open; it became the laughingstock of the city. But by July 25, 1924, workers had finally bored 1,502 feet through Bunker Hill’s shale and sandstone.*

Historical Notes

Construction of the 2nd Street Tunnel began in 1916, and wasn't completed until 1924, with its formal opening on July 25 of that year. The distinctive white tiles, which give the tunnel its glow, came from Germany, which caused controversy at the time due to the legacy of World War I and protectionist feelings.^

Historical Notes

The last days of Bunker Hill: this view from the Second Street tunnel clearly shows the deterioration of the neighborhood’s boarding houses and residential hotels. The Hill would soon be scraped clean to make way for “redevelopment”.

Historical Notes

The above photo was published in the Aug. 22, 1921, Los Angeles Times with story claiming the tunnel would be finished in less than a year. The tunnel did not open for nearly three years.

Historical Notes

The tunnel's two entrances are very different in character – "the grittier east entrance and the glowing aperture of the west side, with flaring buttresses reminiscent of the shell of the Hollywood Bowl." The tunnel creates interesting light textures especially at night.  It’s been frequently used as a backdrop in movies and even more frequently in car advertisements.^

Historical Notes

The 2nd Street Tunnel in Los Angeles is probably the most recognizable city landmark most Americans have never heard of. The tunnel — a 1,500-foot-long bore lined with white tile, like a bathroom that never ends — has been used as an exterior in dozens of films and TV shows, most famously in the sci-fi masterpiece “Blade Runner.”

Historical Notes

Tropico was the name of the southern portion of Glendale, south of Windsor Road, between the late 1800s and 1918. The name "Glendale"  had originated in the 1880s and was utilized north of Windsor Road. Political factions had divided the town in two.   By the turn of the century, the commercial center of Tropico was at Central and San Fernando Road and its population was 700.^##^

Historical Notes

The Palace Grand Theatre was originally built and owned by Henry C. Jensen, who would later build the more palatial Raymond Theatre in Pasadena. The neo-classical building was designed by architect Robert G. Kitts. Construction on the Palace Grand began in August, 1914.^

Historical Notes

The Cahuenga Pass connects the Los Angeles Basin to the San Fernando Valley and is the lowest pass through the mountains. It was the site of two major battles, the Battle of Cahuenga Pass in 1831 (a fight between local settlers and the Mexican-appointed governor and his men, two deaths), and the Battle of Providencia or Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass in 1845 (between locals over whether to secede from Mexico. One horse and one mule killed) both on the San Fernando Valley side near present-day Studio City, and cannonballs are still occasionally found during excavations in the area.

Along the route of the historic El Camino Real, the historic significance of the pass is also marked by a marker along Cahuenga Blvd. which names the area as Paseo de Cahuenga.^

Historical Notes

The site of the Hollywood Bowl was chosen in 1919 by William Reed and his son H. Ellis Reed, members of the newly formed Theatre Arts Alliance who were dispatched to find a suitable location for outdoor performances.*^

Historical Notes

At first, the Bowl was very close to its natural state, with only makeshift wooden benches for the audience, and eventually a simple awning over the stage. Not until 1926 did the Hollywood Bowl get permanent seating when a group known as the Allied Architects was contracted to regrade the surrounding, provide permanent seating and to construct a shell.*^

Historical Notes

On July 11, 1922, with the audience seated on simple wooden benches placed on the natural hillsides of Bolton Canyon, conductor Alfred Hertz and the Los Angeles Philharmonic inaugurated the first season of music under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl was very close to its natural state, with only makeshift wooden benches for the audience, and eventually a simple awning over the stage.

The Hollywood Bowl has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, since its official opening in 1922.*^

The price of admission was only 25 cents in 1922.

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