Author Archives: Sam Gnerre

Inspired by her visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum at the end of Part 1 of our tale last week, Irene Lewis returned home to Lomita determined to establish her own railroad museum. She planned to dedicate it to the memory of her late husband, Martin. At the time, there were no museums of itsContinue reading “Irene Lewis makes her dream of a train museum for Lomita a reality (Part 2: Lomita Railroad Museum)”

Irene Lewis never saw trains while she was growing up in the tiny farm community of Summerville in eastern Oregon, near La Grande. No railroad lines ran near her childhood home. Born Edith Irene Ott, she was the eldest of Frank and Grace Ott’s 11 children. Frank was a bartender, and Irene kept busy helpingContinue reading “Irene Lewis creates a haven in Lomita for railroad buffs (Part 1: Little Engines)”

Rick Griffin was born Richard Alden Griffin on June 18,1944. He lived in a house on Rainbow Ridge Road on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. His father was an engineer. When Griffin was 14 and attending Alexander Fleming Jr. High School in Lomita, he was introduced to surfing at Torrance Beach by his classmate and lifelongContinue reading “Artist Rick Griffin started his illustrious career in the South Bay”

Construction plans for the Olympic Ice Arena, the South Bay’s oldest surviving ice rink, first were announced in June 1961. An earlier plan to build a different ice skating rink in Torrance as a part of a large commercial development on seven acres at the northeast corner of 230th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard had surfacedContinue reading “Harbor City’s ice rink has served the South Bay for more than 50 years”

Claude C. Inman, born in Bishop, Calif., on Dec. 6, 1872, became a goldrush boomtown lawman in 1903. He’d been drawn to the gold country like a lot of others and did his share of propsecting before turning to something much steadier: construction work. Inman specialized in building woodframe buildings for the boom towns. HeContinue reading “The two lives of Claude Inman: Goldrush boomtown lawman becomes Redondo Beach inventor”

    Prohibition, the banning of liquor sale and distribution in the United States, first was proposed as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution by the U.S. Congress on Dec. 18, 1917. When Nebraska became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on Jan. 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment became law, though it didn’t takeContinue reading “Bootlegging and rum-running in the South Bay during Prohibition”

Alondra Park has been many things over the years, but there’s one thing it never has been, and still isn’t: part of an incorporated city. The original parcel, approximately 320 acres, started off as Los Angeles County land when it was purchased from the Bank of Italy in 1927, and, almost 90 years later, itContinue reading “Alondra Park: An island of greenery comes to life”

  A recent story in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on Jan. 17, 2015, noted that Bell’s first Taco Bell location in Downey had become vacant and was in danger of being torn down. The story also mentioned that the first Taco Bell location to be franchised was located in Torrance. We’ve run into fast-food pioneerContinue reading “Fast-food pioneer Glen Bell’s South Bay connections”

  It feels pretty random, this granite marker in front of a warehouse building in the Watson Industrial Center area of Carson, but it isn’t. The marker denotes that the area was once a Tongva Native American village known as Suangna, a Tongva word meaning “place of the rushes.” It was settled by Native AmericansContinue reading “The Suangna Native American village in Carson”

After South Bay criminal attorney Dudley Gray died at 85 in 2007, defense attorney Robert Shapiro called him “one of the most skilled trial lawyers I have ever been in contact with, totally dedicated to his clients.” Former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Steve Kay described Gray as “a legend in the Torrance courthouse.” ButContinue reading “Dudley Gray’s dream to bring an Iowa courthouse building to Torrance”