Every day, thousands of cars pass by the southwest corner of Carson St. and Plaza Del Amo near where three distinctive brick buildings have stood for many decades. If, like me, you were curious about their origins, read on.
The city of Torrance and Los Angeles County owned the land on which they were erected. The parcels adjoin the northern portion of Torrance High School, another venerable brick structure whose main building was erected in 1917.
If you can identify all three of the buildings, you’re a local history whiz. It turns out only one of them is being used for the original purpose for which it was built, and only two of the three are currently occupied.
The currently unoccupied one at 2300 Carson is the furthest east of the trio, and also the oldest. The striking Mission Revival-style building cost $35,000 to build. It opened on Feb. 24, 1933, and housed the Torrance Health and Welfare Center.
The public health center, which was run by Los Angeles County, was open not just to Torrance residents, but to citizens from other nearby communities as well. Any member of the public could avail themselves of its services, which were strictly diagnostic. The staff did not perform surgery, but referred such cases to other physicians.
The center served the communities for more than six decades, but by the 1990s, it had begun to show its age. In 1991, the county commissioned an engineering study which determined that the building as it stood was not up to code, and could not withstand a 6.5 earthquake.
The county could have leased the land to a developer to build a new health center, but the original building’s historical significance kept them from doing so. Instead, it was decided to pursue a new location for the center.
In the early 2000s, the old center was closed down and a new Torrance Health Center opened at 711 Del Amo Blvd. near Vermont Ave. on county land east of Torrance, where it continues to operate today.
The old building was boarded up and fenced off, and has remained so for the past 20 years.
The second brick building at 2320 Carson came about as a result of a long fundraising campaign started by the Torrance Junior Women’s Club in the late 1940s. The group decided that the city needed to have its own Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA); at the time, Torrance YWCA members had to join the San Pedro branch of the community organization.
Longtime downtown Torrance department store owner and community leader Sam Levy counted himself among the ardent supporters of the idea, and he helped convince the city to allow the group to use land at the corner of Carson and Del Amo for its headquarters.
Only one thing: the prospective YWCA had to come up with the money. The $30,000 required for the 24,000-square-foot brick building came from all manner of grants and donations, with a large chunk of it deriving from income from the Miss Torrance beauty pageant donated by the Junior Women’s Club, who ran the annual event.
The new building was dedicated on Nov. 18, 1951. The new YWCA gave Levy a lifetime membership in 1952 for his role in securing approval and funding for the nascent group’s new home.
Having succeeded in that project, the Junior Women’s Club turned to another one: the establishment of a scouting center and clubhouse in Torrance. A plot of land just south of the YWCA was made available, and, by 1954, architectural renderings had been produced and fundraising was underway.
Groundbreaking for the new center was held in February 1958. Building it turned out to be a community effort, relying on members of service organizations for much of the labor and materials.
As a result, the building wasn’t finished right away. The Torrance Scout Center was dedicated four years later on March 11, 1962, and continues to operate at 2365 Plaza Del Amo.
That just leaves the one time YWCA headquarters building. The community women’s group was based there until it dissolved due to financial difficulties in the late 1990s. After its doors closed in March 1998, its members were assimilated into the renamed YWCA of the Harbor Area and the South Bay.
This left the city with two unoccupied brick buildings, but not for long. Five years earlier in 1994, the Torrance Youth Council, which represents students from all Torrance high schools, had approached city officials about establishing a permanent teen center in the city.
The idea resurfaced after the YWCA left, and the city eventually agreed to use its old building to house a new teen center. The idea: to give high schoolers a place to hang out with their friends without worrying about getting kicked out.
The Attic teen center opened its doors on April 12, 1999, to 14-18 year-old students from all public and private high schools in the city, and it continues to do so. Annual membership costs $10, and the center offers a variety of special programs and events in addition to a place to chill out and relax.
On Sept. 28, 1966, the 2 1/2-acre park at Carson Street and Plaza Del Amo where the brick buildings are located was renamed Sam Levy Memorial Park.
Sources:
The Attic website.
Daily Breeze archives.
Torrance Press Herald archives.
The Health building was operated by the County and not the City. Also the land was owned by the County at least at the time it was closed and recently transferred to the City (I think it was done while Mayor Furey was in office).
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Thanks for the corrections, Don! The story has been edited to reflect them.
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