Category Archives: Uncategorized

The first Catholic church in Torrance began as an idea in the minds of the area’s Catholic residents who had moved to the area after the city was founded in 1912. They began holding informal religious gatherings in various spots including the city’s library near the corner of Carson Street and Cabrillo Avenue, a movieContinue reading “Nativity Catholic Church: Torrance’s first Catholic church”

Dennes Dale Boon died 30 years ago this month, on Dec. 22, 1985, to be exact. 14 years before that, when he was 13 years old, he dropped out of a tree in Peck Park in San Pedro park in front of startled fellow teen Mike Watt, saying “You’re not Eskimo.” Watt replied, “No, I’mContinue reading “30 years later, D. Boon of the Minutemen remains a San Pedro legend”

We met Logan Cotton briefly in last week’s blog post on South Bay Hospital. At the time, he was heading up a committee to push for passage of a 1956 bond issue to help fund the hospital’s development. (It passed.) Well, it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg. Logan Cotton turnsContinue reading “Logan Cotton: An active community participant for more than six decades”

Imagine the dismay among those pushing for new hospital in the beach cities area of the South Bay when state officials denied their request in 1947 after two years of struggle because, “The South Bay is a beach resort and doesn’t need a hospital.” The state instead recommended beefing up existing hospitals in the area.Continue reading “Beach cities don’t take no for an answer in bid to create South Bay Hospital”

Frank Robinson tried to tell his employers in the aerospace industry repeatedly in the late 1960s and early 1970s that a viable market existed for non-military helicopters. They weren’t interested, so, together with financial partner C.K. LeFiell, he founded Robinson Helicopter, now the world’s leading manufacturer of civil helicopters and one of the largest employersContinue reading “Frank Robinson turns a rejected idea into the world’s largest maker of civilian helicopters”

News concerning the development of a major shopping center on a 50-acre site at 174th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard in Redondo Beach began to become public in February 1955. The May Co. department store chain signed on to be its anchor store that December, with executive vice president Tom May noting that the South BayContinue reading “South Bay Center changes the retail landscape”

Martin J. Bogdanovich was born on the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea just off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia on Nov. 5, 1882. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1908, the same year that he married his wife, Antoinette, with whom he would raise a son and six daughters. He began his career inContinue reading “Martin Bogdanovich launches an empire in Fish Harbor”

Los Arboles Park first came onto the City of Torrance drawing boards late in 1954, when Recreation Director Harry Van Bellehem told the city planners about a five-acre hilltop site next to Riviera School that looked like a promising site for a park. At the time, the city had been feeling the effects of theContinue reading “Torrance residents: Don’t mess with our rocket ship!”

The presence of the Del Amo name on everything from one of the South Bay’s major thoroughfares to its gigantic mall to dozens of smaller businesses can be traced to one man: Dr. Gregorio Del Amo. Del Amo was born into a prominent Spanish family in Santona in the province of Santander on Aug. 18,Continue reading “Why the Del Amo name seems to be everywhere you look in the South Bay”

Malaga Cove School, one of the South Bay’s most iconic historic buildings, came into existence largely due to the efforts of Romayne Martin. Martin was one of the three original trustees of the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District – L.F. Horner and Col. J.C. Low were the others – when it was formed in 1925. Continue reading “Malaga Cove School, the Peninsula’s first permanent school building”