Veteran real estate developer Fred W. Marlow was fresh from launching major home building projects in Westchester and upscale Windsor Hills when he began looking toward the San Pedro coastline for his next project.
By then, he’d established ten real estate brokerage offices in the southwest Los Angeles County area, where the Marlow-Burns Development Co. planned most of its projects.
In the spring of 1952, Marlow’s firm decided that it could overcome impediments to developing a large area of vacant land near White Point just west of the Western Ave. intersection with 25th St. on San Pedro’s western edge.
(Credit: South Shores Community Association website)
The property seemed like a natural to Marlow. It had stunning views of the Catalina Channel and the southern Palos Verdes Peninsula coastline. But its sloping hills would require specially contoured streets, and Marlow also had to provide water supply and sewage service to the area.
Having conquered those barriers, the one-time U.S. Army Corps of Engineers member Marlow began negotiations with the owners of the Rancho San Pedro land grant on which the property stood, the Sepulveda family.
In early 1953, Marlow purchased more than 400 acres of land in the area from the land grant family’s Sepulveda Land Co. and began planning the building of his new development, which he named SouthShores, one word, in some promotional materials.
He asked Los Angeles officials to name the streets in the new development after species of fish in honor of San Pedro’s fishing industry, hence Abalone Ave., Anchovy Ave. and all the rest.
In early February 1954, he presented the keys to the first house sold in South Shores to Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Davis of San Pedro. (Davis was an employee of the San Pedro Post Office.) It was one of the first 42 houses to be built. By that June, total construction costs on the work-in-progress site had surpassed $1 million.
During 1954, Marlow ramped up advertising for the new development, and opened a model home and sales office, the Southshore House, at 25th St. and Western Ave.
According to 1955 ads in the San Pedro News Pilot, the three and four bedroom houses with two baths were on sale for $16,500 to $23,500, with empty lots available from $3,500 to $5,750. They sold quickly.
On Feb. 3, 1955, the Los Angeles-based Shoppers Markets grocery chain announced plans to build a $1 million retail outlet on the northwest corner of 25th St. and Western Ave., near Western’s southern terminus.
In addition to a 43,000-square-foot Shoppers Markets store that included its own Van De Kamps bakery, the center also was slated to include a number of smaller business spaces for new retail outlets, as well as a 500-space parking lot. (The still-open grocery store has since evolved into a Smart & Final store location.)
Groundbreaking for the new shopping center took place on March 2, 1956, and its grand opening took place on Dec. 6, 1956.
Additional stores, including a liquor mart, beauty salon and laundromat, were added to a smaller parcel of land directly across 25th St. from Shoppers in a $200,000 building opened in late 1957 that still stands. The popular Sirinat Thai restaurant is among the building’s current tenants.
South Shores Elementary School, currently known as South Shores Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts, at 2060 35th St. near Abalone Ave., also was on the drawing board at the time. It accepted its first group of 250 students when it opened on Monday, Feb. 2, 1959.
The South Shores development spelled the end of the Royal Palms Golf Course, once a popular golfing destination among elite Angelenos back in its day.
The private country club closed in 1933 during the Depression. Under new management, it operated as a public course for the next few years before closing it for good in 1937. It lay fallow for decades.
Even as late as January 1955, it was hoped that the county government would be able to remodel and reopen the course using state tideland funds. But the plan could not be brought to fruition. In April 1955, the ocean-front course fell under the bulldozers to make room for an additional 199 South Shores homes.
In 1972, the upscale Palos Verdes Shores mobile home park opened on the western edge of South Shores. It includes a private nine-hole executive golf course among its amenities.
With its gorgeous views and picturesque location, South Shores remains a desirable place to live to this day. Fred Marlow’s instincts were on the money.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
L.A. Street Names website.
Los Angeles Times archives.
San Pedro News Pilot archives.
Torrance Press Herald archives.
Note: Post corrected to indicate that Smart & Final currently occupies the former Shoppers Market store site. Thanks to alert blog readers Tony Bucci and Mike Harris for pointing out my error.
