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The enduring charm of Point Fermin Park and its picturesque lighthouse
The Point Fermin lighthouse in San Pedro has been restored carefully to its original form. (March 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) Before there was a Point Fermin Park in San Pedro, there was the Point Fermin...
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1937 mob hit on The Strand in Redondo Beach led to gambling cleanup
George (Les) Bruneman appears in court in Los Angeles on May 18, 1934. (Credit: Los Angeles Daily News archives, UCLA Library Special Collections) Redondo Beach’s reputation as an entertainment and...
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1960s surfing craze spawned clubs for females as well as males in the South Bay
From left, Judy Carollo, Josette Lagardere, Robin Leedy, Kathy Hoskins and Susie Burke, active members of the California Coast Girls Surf Club, carry their boards on the beach in 1963. (Credit: UCLA...
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San Pedro welcomes you with a smokestack, a park, and a bridge
A large billboard stands to the side of the road to welcome visitors to San Pedro in 1921. Billboard reads: “Welcome to San Pedro, The Gateway to the Pacific Southwest.” (Credit: Los Angeles Public...
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Landslide intrudes on Portuguese Bend Club’s seaside haven
Undated pre-1956 photo of the white-roofed Portuguese Bend Club clubhouse, left, and its adjacent pier. Pool is at right of clubhouse. (Daily Breeze file photo) The Portuguese Bend Club in Rancho...
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Fireboat #2, the Ralph J. Scott, served the Port of Los Angeles with...
The Ralph J. Scott shows off its awsome pumping power in the Los Angeles Channel in September 2002. (Daily Breeze staff file photo) Why all this fuss over a fireboat, lovingly maintaining it and...
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Why Westchester spent 17 years as the nation’s only 15-hole golf course
Westchester Golf Course clubhouse. (May 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) The Westchester Golf Course got off to a perfectly fine start. Construction began on the 4,179-yard, 18-hole public course in 1965....
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The Bartlett Senior Citizens Center has been a downtown Torrance fixture...
The Bartlett Senior Citizens Center was completely remodeled in 1989. (May 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) The idea for a centrally located senior citizens center in Torrance first was floated in April 1951....
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Redondo Beach’s Tent City offered a popular vacation option in the early 1900s
The entrance to Redondo Beach’s Tent City. Dome of Chautauqua Building can be seen in the distance above the sign, top center. Undated photo. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) The...
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The Bijou in Hermosa Beach ends up as a bank after starting out as one
The Metropolitan Theatre in Hermosa Beach in 1924. (Daily Breeze file photo) Hermosa Beach’s Bijou theater wasn’t the first cinema in the small but growing beach town when it opened as the Metropolitan...
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San Pedro Ballet School’s most famous graduate now a fixture on ballet’s...
The San Pedro Ballet School on Pacific Ave. in San Pedro. (June 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) Cynthia and Patrick David Bradley both had enjoyed long and successful careers in dance when they decided to...
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Accordion virtuoso Myron Floren starred with Lawrence Welk, and in the community
Undated publicity photo of Lawrence Welk, left, and Myron Floren. (Credit: Findagrave.com website, contributed by John “J-Cat” Griffith) Myron Floren was four years old when he discovered the accordion...
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Encroaching development forced Torrance to deal with Walteria Lake
The shining surface of rain-fed Walteria Lake stretches across the top center of this undated photo, probably from the early 1950s. (Photo by Paul Comon, from Historic Torrance: A Pictorial History of...
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Millie Riera’s Seafood Grotto served diners in Redondo Beach for more than...
Millie Riera sits near a poster of the Seafood Grotto sign that hangs in her Redondo Beach home in 2005. (Daily Breeze staff file photo) On the occasion of the imminent closure of the Redondo Beach...
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San Pedro’s POLA High School weathered rocky seas on its road to success
Port of Los Angeles High School entrance and main building. (May 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) In the year 2000, San Pedro residents Camilla Townsend and Sandra Bradley began to agitate for the creation of...
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Southwest Manuscripters has been guiding aspiring writers since 1949
A handful of Hermosa Beach residents came up with the idea for a South Bay writers club in the fall of 1949. They were inspired by an earlier, larger group, the Los Angeles Manuscripters Club, which...
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Chester Washington Golf Course played an important role in golf history
Main clubhouse sign at Chester Washington Golf Course in Los Angeles. (July 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) Chester Washington Golf Course opened on 135 acres of land east of Western Avenue and south of...
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The International Printing Museum in Carson takes its educational mission...
The International Printing Museum opened in Carson in 1999. (July 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre) The back story of the International Printing Museum in Carson actually begins with what has been called the...
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Nick Oreb’s restaurant complex on Sixth and Gaffey becomes a San Pedro hot spot
Undated postcard circa mid-to-late 1940s shows Nick Oreb’s dining and entertainment complex in San Pedro. (Credit: Tiki Central website) You know that corner on Sixth and Gaffey in San Pedro where the...
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South Bay’s roller coaster was a hit 100 years ago in Redondo Beach
Undated postcard circa 1913-14 shows the Lightning Racer from the ocean. When it comes to roller coasters, the present-day South Bay currently is sadly bereft. With both Disneyland and Knott’s Berry...
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