Category Archives: Uncategorized

The first short freeways in the Los Angeles area, the Ramona east of downtown where the 10 Freeway runs now, and the Arroyo Seco Parkway running south from Pasadena, were hugely successful experiments built beginning in the 1930s. Their popularity fueled much enthusiasm among civic planners, who proceeded to propose a massive system of 1,500Continue reading “The 91 Freeway never made it quite as far west as originally planned”

The method used to kill John Kmetz could have come straight out of an old “Perry Mason” episode. The 54-year-old Kmetz, a landscape gardener for the Los Angeles Unified School District, received an unsolicited package at his home at 4549 E. Third St. in Los Angeles from the Herb Specialty Co. on Oct. 11, 1941. Continue reading “1941 “murder by mail” case with a San Pedro connection remains unsolved”

It might sound surprising to some that Jared Sidney Torrance never lived in the South Bay city that bears his name. But Torrance, who was 59 when he founded the city in 1911, had no need to move there. He already was a wealthy businessman who lived in a mansion in Pasadena at the time.Continue reading “Torrance’s founder envisioned the city as a home for both factories and their workers”

At 1:47 p.m. on June 18, 1984, El Al Airlines Flight 6 to Tel Aviv by way of Chicago and Amsterdam left Gate 101 to become the first plane to use the new $123 million Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at Los Angeles International Airport. Necessity forced the new building’s creation. International flights originally usedContinue reading “That fancy “new”  international terminal at LAX is nearing its 40th birthday”

Developer Henry Barbour and his partners in the Beach Land Co. had high hopes for the area they named Playa del Rey (“the King’s Beach”) when he declared it open to prospective lot buyers on July 16, 1902. The company wanted to build a full-fledged resort there, based around the arrival of the Pacific ElectricContinue reading “Tragic 1924 fire at Hope Development School in Playa del Rey led to reforms”

The World Cruise Center at the Port of Los Angeles is a sprawling, three-building complex near the western base of the Vincent Thomas Bridge that accommodates massive cruise ships that travel the world. Its traffic is such that the Port is attempting to build an additional cruise ship berth in the Outer Harbor to handleContinue reading “Exotic journeys start from the World Cruise Center at the Port of Los Angeles”

The initial settlement of Inglewood was based on one substance: water. It came from the Centinela Springs, as the artesian springs later would become known. Artesian springs occur naturally when water rises through the surface of the land without the aid of a pump. Members of the indigenous Gabrielina/Tongva tribe lived in the area beforeContinue reading “The bubbling waters of Centinela Springs attracted early settlers to the Inglewood area”

Torrance High School, opened in 1917, served the city’s need for secondary education for almost four decades. But, by the 1950s, the postwar baby boom made it clear that more high schools were needed. Desperately needed, as double sessions had to be conducted at many schools to handle the overflow of students.  The Torrance UnifiedContinue reading “At 60, West High is the newest of Torrance’s four main public high schools”

Torrance’s Sleepy Hollow Christmas lights and decorations displays perennially draw huge, traffic-stopping crowds to the city’s Seaside Ranchos area, and have done so since the early 1980s. But they’re not the oldest neighborhood holiday displays in the South Bay. That distinction belongs to Candy Cane Lane, a cul-de-sac street in El Segundo with 26 housesContinue reading “El Segundo’s Candy Cane Lane has celebrated the holidays since 1949”

San Pedro had become a major location for defense plants before the U.S. entered World War II. Major shipbuilding operations such as Los Angeles Shipbuilding and the government-sponsored California Shipbuilding had ramped up production to aid the Allied war effort. The defense buildup had a ripple effect. More defense plants and increased production created aContinue reading “Celebrated architect Robert Neutra designed wartime Channel Heights housing in San Pedro”