By : Cozette Vergari
March 2022
Jumping back on board our time-travel-machine, we continue our adventures into the past, and, as a reminder, we board each time from amidst today’s Westchester/Playa geographic footprint. Though standing still, our time machine has magically taken us from 65,000 B.C. forward. Our last adventure took us forward from 1912 and the first of many air races at Mines Filed, then a small airfield set in the rural outskirts of the city of Los Angeles and located at what is now the eastern edge of LAX. We sped forward and stopped in the 1920s, where we saw a young Fritz B. Burns, just 22 years old, opening the land sales office for Palisades del Rey, which still stands and today is home to Tanner’s Coffee Co., as well as Flowers By Felicia among others. It is located where Culver Boulevard makes its turn south and becomes Vista Del Mar. The Surfridge land development project sat on the cliffs above. The crash of “Black Tuesday, October 29,” dramatically interrupted these two developments and was the moment in time we last witnessed.
We have now stopped in the 1930s, a time of desperation for many. We see from our time machine, Fritz B. Burns living in a tent, at what we now know as Toe’s Beach, notwithstanding owning several pieces of undeveloped real estate in the area. In an attempt to rally his resources, we see Burns negotiating the purchase of the former dormitories from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad Village in Baldwin Hills. After record breaking heat in the summer of 1931, hovering around 100 degrees for the entire summer, and seeing as many as 350,000 people fleeing to the beaches, as we previously witnessed on July 26, 1931, between what is now Playa del Rey and the Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, Burns recognizes the popularity of beach living and foresees relocating and using the Olympic dormitories as rental cottages. We also witness Burns enlisting the Herndon Oil Company to prospect for oil on his real properties.
The 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics had been a financial disaster, with less than half of the 1928 Summer Olympic participating countries choosing to participate in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, due to the worldwide economic downturn set off by Black Tuesday. President Herbert Hoover became the first sitting head of government to miss their country’s hosted Olympics. We notice the organizers are selling anything and everything, in an effort to recover from their financial losses. After successful negotiations and acquiring the dormitories, we are watching Burns arranging for their relocation to the beach where he is living and renaming the beach to Olympic Beach.
Moving west from the beach, we are seeing the success of Loyola University on the bluffs of what is now Westchester, surrounded by nothing but farm land, a few homes and a few rundown farm houses. Initially, the bluffs had been targeted for the Del Rey Hills land development, to sell parcels of land to potential homeowners. Harry Culver, found of Culver City, donated one hundred acres of what was to be Del Rey Hills, to build and relocate the Loyola College of Los Angeles, from what is now Loyola High School, to the bluffs on the east side of Lincoln Boulevard in 1929. Loyola College of Los Angeles earned University status by 1930, after opening its campus on the bluffs. Culver and Burns had also jointly donated one hundred acres on the bluffs west of Lincoln Boulevard, to build a Lutheran college, which never came to fruition.
Moving southwest from the bluffs, we witness the boom of aviation in this footprint. Mines Field, the site for the newly opened airport servicing the city of Los Angles and having opened in 1930, is now being purchased by the city in 1937. The main airport for the city, at this moment in time, remains the Grand Central Airport in Glendale. However, at this time, we see the aircraft manufacturing industry swelling in the 1930s, and this area is becoming the major center of aviation-related industry, as we observe large plants being built for Douglas Aircraft, North American Aviation and Howard Hughes Aircraft.
It is 1938, and we are back standing atop the bluffs. After years of serious flooding, even causing deaths to some residing throughout the Los Angeles region, we find ourselves looking down on what is now Playa Vista and Marina del Rey, which is completely underwater caused by a pair of oceanic storms. The storms have made the area inaccessible by normal transportation for months. The water level of the intersection of Lincoln and Jefferson Boulevards is 20 feet deep. Ballona Creek, which weaves throughout the region, for nearly 15 miles from the ocean inland, has caused repeated devastation to developing communities in Los Angeles. Out of necessity for safety to the emerging neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the creek is being channelized by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. As we observe them, they line the creek with concrete and boulders brought over the 26 miles from Catalina Island on barges.
At the same time in 1938, we make an about face in our time-travel-machine and witness the birth of the Woman’s Club of Playa del Rey, which still continues to serve our local community today, in keeping with its purpose to promote civic improvement, cultural interest and philanthropy. Stay tuned, our next journey will take us into the 1940’s and 50’s, where we will see the leadership of female pioneers in our local community. Honoring those women of history (‘herstory”), the Westchester/Playa Historical Society will open it s next exhibition at the society’s Discovery Center, located at 6207 W. 87th Street in Westchester, on March 20th. The ”Celebrating Women” exhibit is very generously being sponsored by the Woman’s Club of Playa del Rey, www.wcpdr.org , coinciding with National Women’s Month. The exhibit will continue to run through May 15th, open to the public each Sunday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. or otherwise by appointment.
Following, from May 29th through June 26th, the Westchester/Playa Historical Society will be honoring local veterans in its “Commemorating Veterans” exhibit. If you know a veteran who has been, or is, a resident of the Westchester/Playa area, we will be honoring those names submitted to us with a photo and his or her branch of service, including posthumously. Please submit to info.wphistorical@gmail.com
6207 W 87th St - Westchester, CA 90045 