Some still lament the loss of Aviation High School in Redondo Beach

The post-World War II population boom in the South Bay, fueled by returning GIs and the rapid rise of the aerospace industry, posed a major challenge to its school systems in the 1950s. How would they accommodate the increasingly large numbers of students pouring through the doors of their schools?

The South Bay Union High School District began to see the writing on the wall in the early 1950s after its officials noted the jump in birth statistics that eventually would swell enrollment at its already crowded two high schools, Redondo Union and Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach. But a 1953 bond measure to approve funds for a third high school was defeated at the polls.

In late 1954, the district decided to try harder, calling more vigorously for an election to approve a $3 million bond issue for the construction of the new school. Voters approved the measure by a three-to-one margin in the special election held on Feb. 18, 1955. (It ended up costing $4 million.)

The district purchased land for the new school on the northeast corner of Aviation and Manhattan Beach boulevards, and opened the bidding for its design and construction. The Pasadena architectural firm of Flewelling & Moody was hired to design its 22 buildings. 

The firm’s plans, much-praised by architecture experts at the time, called for the first completely round building in a state public school, the administration building. Several of the other buildings were curved, including the school library, and the auditorium was structured more like an actual  theater than a traditional assembly hall.

At its Feb. 1, 1956 meeting, the district named Hobart C. “Hob” Uhls as the school’s first principal. Uhls was then serving as vice principal at Mira Costa, and had been with the district since 1928. He was the first of just three principals in the school’s history. His successors were Ted Gossard and Bob Fish.

Also in early 1956, the district asked The Daily Breeze to survey readers informally for suggestions for a name for the new school. Initially, Eisenhower was the top vote getter, followed by Redman (combining Redondo and Manhattan), then Aviation. Other proposed names included Aileen S. Hammond, after the longtime Redondo Union principal, Wright Brothers and Kittyhawk. 

At the March 22 meeting, district trustees voted to go with Aviation High School, which ended up being the most popular choice in the Breeze informal poll. The trustees made it clear that the name was based not on the street, but on the burgeoning aviation industry in the area.

The groundbreaking ceremony for Aviation High took place on July 2, and construction began in early September. The district’s goal was to open its doors to students in the fall of 1957. The contract to build it went to general contractor Tom Norcross, who bid $1,327,300 for the job.

Construction on the school was completed in time to accept its initial group of 640 students on Sept. 16, 1957. In addition to students from its area, others were transferred from Redondo Union and Mira Costa.

Two days after Aviation opened, contracts were awarded for the second phase of construction, which included a gymnasium, additional classrooms and the outdoor athletic field and running track.

Aviation’s official school colors were orange, black and white, and the school’s mascot name was the Falcons. The football team played on the athletic field where the track was located. The school’s athletic teams were rooted on by the Falconettes cheer squad.

The school’s enrollment grew throughout the 1960s, reaching a peak of 2,300 students in 1974. But a combination of skimpier state revenues following the Proposition 13 property tax measure  and slower population growth began reversing the trend in the late 1970s.

Rumors that the South Bay Union High School District would close Aviation High began to spread after it was announced in December 1980 that the district was leasing three lots bordering the school to TRW.

The rumors continued to circulate until the night of April 14, 1982, when the district finally voted to close Aviation by a 3-2 vote. Principal Uhls was outraged, and stormed out of the meeting. About 500 students cut classes the next morning and gathered on the football field in a sad but peaceful protest, but the Class of 1982 would be the school’s last.

Principal Uhls boycotted the school’s final graduation ceremony that June. “I want to go. I just don’t like the tears of little girls, they get to me too much,” he told the Daily Breeze beforehand.

A couple of years of debate over the school site’s future followed. One Redondo Beach City Council member, Archie Snow, supported building a new civic center for the city on the site. The city demurred on that idea, deciding in the end to hang on to parts of the former campus and sell or lease the remainder.

Demolition finally began on Feb. 4, 1985, though the auditorium, gymnasium and outdoor athletic facilities were spared. 

In 2003, the aging auditorium reopened after undergoing a major remodel to become the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, which currently stages concerts and theater productions.

The city combined the gymnasium and outdoor track and athletic field where  Falcons prep football games once took place into Aviation Park. Its facilities are used currently by city recreation programs as well as members of the public.

After declining enrollments prompted a possible closure of Redondo Union or Mira Costa in 1991, voters passed a measure dissolving the South Bay Union High School District in 1993. Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach then formed separate Redondo Union and Mira Costa union high school districts, with Hermosa Beach students choosing between the two.

Aviation High alums remain fiercely loyal to their alma mater more than four decades after it closed. An annual All Class Reunion for former students is held annually on the last Friday in July.

Note: Special thanks to Aviation High Class of 1978 alum and former Aviation teacher and librarian Shaun Lloyd.

Sources:

City of Redondo Beach website.

Daily Breeze archives.

Los Angeles Times archives.