November Article: 

By : Cozette Vergari

For those of you who have joined my time travel machine journey the last couple of months, we are again jumping on board. Standing in the midst of today’s Westchester/Playa community, our travels initially took us back all the way back to 65,000 B.C.. As we traveled forward,  we witnessed evidence of human settlement on the islands off the coast of Southern California circa 12,000 B.C. and saw the excavation of the skull of the Los Angeles Man, carbon dated back to 8000 B.C. We saluted to three nation’s flags, Spain, Mexico and the United States, over a span of the 300 years leading up to statehood in 1850, while along the ride meeting various indigenous villages and tribes.

Our time machine has been waiting patiently to resume the travel forward toward the future land development of the area. As we begin, we are now looking at the beginnings of the development of the lagoon and wetlands of what we now know as Playa del Rey. We are being introduced, in 1871, to Will Tell, who is giving us a tour of his lodge that sits at the edge of the lagoon, where Ballona Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean. His guests at the lodge are primarily fisherman and hunters. As we revisit in 1884, a storm completely wipes out his small resort. He chooses not to rebuild.

Again, we are on the move, moving forward to 1902, when Henry Barbour of the Beach Land Company purchases 1000 acres of land in the same area we now know as Playa del Rey. Barbour is announcing his plans to build a large resort, knowing the Pacific Electric Railway red car: system will  connect the downtown Los Angeles area with beach cities from Venice, just steps north from his 1000 acres, south to Redondo Beach area. He succeeds in opening an impressive three-story pavilion, with a restaurant and dining rooms, bowling alleys and a grand dance floor, surrounding the lagoon, today our Playa del Rey Lagoon. The structures were designed and built in Oriental Craftsman motif, opening on Thanksgiving Day in 1904, the same year the resort received its own post office. Playa del Rey was promoted as the “The King’s Beach.”

We see Sherman and Clark’s Los Angeles Pacific Railway Company is also building the $200,000 Hotel Del Rey with 50 guest rooms, nearby, with a grand stand overlooking a boat racing course. A bridge is constructed over the mouth of the lagoon, at the ocean’s entrance, with a 1200-foot fishing pier also nearby. Boat racing is becomeing extremely popular. Boardwalks are being constructed and Playa del Rey flourishes as a resort from 1902-1913. However, as we stop to visit the resort in 1913, we are witnessing a fire which ultimately destroys the entire resort, including the Playa del Rey Pavillion and the Del Rey Hotel. Once again, stayed tuned for our continuing time machine travel. 

In the meantime, visit the Westchester/Playa Historical Society Discovery Center in the Westchester Triangle, open on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or by appointment. Learn more at www.wphistoricalsociety.org

(ca. 1908)^^ – View of the boardwalk in front of the Playa Del Rey Pavilion. The pagoda-style Pavilion is on the left of the image and towers over the wooden boardwalk below. There are many tourists crowding the boardwalk, down from Los Angeles on the Balloon Trolley trip. The Del Rey Hotel is visible in the background on the right.