El Segundo residents started agitating for a new theater when its original theater closed down after being condemned for unsafe conditions in 1919. E.L. McMurray took up the challenge, opening up a theater in June 1921 at 140 Richmond St. near downtown. Architect Edward L. Mayberry designed the remodel of the rectangular brick building. TheContinue reading “How two men and a giant Wurlitzer organ transformed El Segundo’s State Theatre in 1968”
Author Archives: Sam Gnerre
Torrance Elementary is the city’s oldest school still in operation
Torrance Elementary School went by simply “Torrance School” when it opened in a small, two-room building at 1824 Cabrillo Ave. near downtown in September 1913. It was the first school built after the founding of the city of Torrance in 1912. There had been schools operating in the area before then. Rancher Orin Weston started hisContinue reading “Torrance Elementary is the city’s oldest school still in operation”
Rudecinda Florencia Sepulveda de Dodson played a major role in San Pedro’s development
I began this post expecting to write mostly about James Hillsey Dodson, an influential early resident of San Pedro. Born in Los Angeles on Feb. 28, 1861, he led by all accounts an exemplary life, but the story I ended up wanting to tell was that of his extraordinary wife. Dodson was working for theContinue reading “Rudecinda Florencia Sepulveda de Dodson played a major role in San Pedro’s development”
The La Venta Inn has been a Palos Verdes Estates landmark for nearly 100 years
Magazine publisher E.G. Lewis bought three acres of land on a barren hilltop on the undeveloped Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1921. He intended to build a landmark structure at 796 Via Del Monte that would set the tone for the new development he was planning. He bought the land for the development, 16,000 acres, fromContinue reading “The La Venta Inn has been a Palos Verdes Estates landmark for nearly 100 years”
Wilmington Hall wartime housing project became a happening place to live
Before the U.S. officially entered World War II, its federal government already was preparing for the possibility. In March 1941, the War Department had taken over the Panama Pacific Terminal on Terminal Island to use for military purposes. After Pearl Harbor, it commandeered land for a military hospital in Harbor City, and a good-sized chunkContinue reading “Wilmington Hall wartime housing project became a happening place to live”
San Pedro’s Toberman Community Center has helped the needy for more than a century
James R. Toberman founded the Homer Toberman Deaconness Home and Hospital at Sunset Boulevard and Custer Ave. in Los Angeles in 1903. (A deaconness is a female Protestant church deacon.) Born in 1836, Toberman had come to Los Angeles from Virginia in 1864 when President Lincoln appointed him a government revenue assessor for the area.Continue reading “San Pedro’s Toberman Community Center has helped the needy for more than a century”
FDR forced to send in military during 1941 North American Aviation strike
In a post from 2011, I wrote about North American Aviation, the defense company headquartered just southeast of LAX in Los Angeles (then known as Los Angeles Municipal Airport) from 1936 to 1967. In the story, I briefly mentioned the June 1941 strike at the plant, but it’s worth a closer look. Just six months beforeContinue reading “FDR forced to send in military during 1941 North American Aviation strike”
El Segundo turned its big dreams for Recreation Park into reality
El Segundo’s decision to build a large central park in the city during the 1950s came from necessity. The postwar aerospace industry was ramping up in the area, and the sleepy little town’s population was growing rapidly. Recreational facilities needed to be improved and enlarged, and the city’s planners proved up to the task. TheContinue reading “El Segundo turned its big dreams for Recreation Park into reality”
San Pedro hosted the Navy’s first submarine base on the Pacific Coast
Submarine technology already had been developing for decades by the time the U.S. Navy commissioned its first modern-era sub, the USS Holland, in 1900. The ironclad warships Monitor and Merrimack staged the famous 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia during the Civil War. The Confederates repurposed the Merrimack after plucking it from a Union scrapContinue reading “San Pedro hosted the Navy’s first submarine base on the Pacific Coast”
Vista Del Mar offers spectacular ocean views, but better keep your eyes on the road
Vista Del Mar translates from Spanish as “sea view,” and that’s just one of the features, though probably the most spectacular, that this venerable South Bay roadway offers. Its four-mile path takes drivers from Culver Boulevard in Playa del Rey to 45th Street in El Porto at the northern tip of Manhattan Beach, where itContinue reading “Vista Del Mar offers spectacular ocean views, but better keep your eyes on the road”
