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William Wrigley’s Catalina Island Bird Park hosted hundreds of avian species
Undated postcard of the pre-World War II Catalina Island Bird Park. When William Wrigley Jr. bought Catalina Island from its owner Phineas Banning in 1919, he immediately set about to strengthen its...
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Rancho San Pedro housing project originally housed defense workers
The Rancho San Pedro housing project opened in 1942. It is operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. (January 2014 Daily Breeze staff file photo) The Rancho San Pedro housing...
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The long, tumultuous voyage of the USS Potomac, FDR’s presidential yacht
The USS Potomac with President Roosevelt and the King and Queen of Great Britain onboard as the ship travels from Washington to Mount Vernon and back on June 9, 1939. (Credit: Naval History and...
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Renowned architect Paul Revere Williams left his touch on the South Bay
Paul Revere Williams in 1951. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) The American Institute of Architects (AIA) bestowed its highest honor, the Gold Medal, on Paul Revere Williams in...
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Terranea: Creating the $480 million seaside development took more than two...
The Terranea resort on Long Point in Rancho Palos Verdes shortly after it opened in 2009. The nine-hole golf course is at right rear, behind the hotel. Point Vicente can be seen in the distance, upper...
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Torrance’s Palos Verdes Bowl served up strikes for more than 60 years
The Palos Verdes Bowl’s distinctive sign as seen on the center’s final day of business, Jan. 31, 2020. (Photo by Eric Sabroff) The recent closure of the Palos Verdes Bowl in Torrance after 61 years of...
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Murals by Frank Bowers graced churches, civic buildings — and many a dive bar
Frank Bowers The walls of the Foc’sle Bar in Wilmington are adorned with a pair of racy murals painted more than half a century ago by an artist who allegedly agreed to render the tropical island...
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Torrance women rise up against rumored 1952 plan to repeal the 19th Amendment
Women promoting suffrage march in downtown Los Angeles on Broadway near 4th Street, looking north, in undated pre-1920 photo. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) The year 2020 marks...
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Hughes Aircraft: Birthplace of the Spruce Goose, the world’s largest seaplane
Undated aerial view looking west of Hughes Aircraft plant and airport, circa 1960s. Buildings 1-3 in foreground, Building 15 at left middle with twin roofs. LMU is atop hill at top center. (Credit:...
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How Playa Vista sprang up from scratch at the foot of the Westchester Bluffs
Playa Vista Phase 1 housing under construction in March 2002. (Daily Breeze staff file photo) The planned industrial/residential community of Playa Vista had been on corporate drawing boards long...
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Torrance flower producer once supplied gardenias and orchids nationwide
Panoramic view of Wright’s Greenhouses gardenia and orchid farm in Torrance at 190th St. and Western Ave. on May 27, 1937. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) The lot near the corner...
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The Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. weathered some storms, but not all
Launch of the U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Salisbury Sound (AV-13) at the Todd-Los Angeles Shipbuilding Company in San Pedro on June 18, 1944. (Credit: Naval History and Heritage Command website) When...
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Emitt Rhodes engineered his musical career from a shed in his parents’...
Emitt Rhodes, recent undated photo. (Credit: Musical Shapes blog) Emitt Rhodes celebrated his 70th birthday this past Feb. 25 in Hawthorne, in his house on 132nd St. He’s lived there most of his life,...
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New Horizons in Torrance among the first wave of condo developments in...
The clubhouse, center, at the entrance to New Horizons South Bay. (April 2020 photo by Sam Gnerre) The late 1950s and early 1960s brought peace and prosperity to the South Bay, along with a rapacious...
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Lennox retains its identity despite decades of annexations, unincorporated...
Boundaries of present-day Lennox, center, outlined in red. (Credit: Google Maps) Lennox, the 1.1-square-mile community flanked by Inglewood, Hawthorne and Los Angeles International Airport, once was...
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John Olguin’s lifelong love affair with San Pedro and the sea
John Olguin of San Pedro, the “father” of whale watching, was one of the instructors on the Cabrillo Whalewatch naturalist training trip aboard the Voyager along the Palos Verdes Peninsula on Dec. 26,...
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How the South Bay chose to honor President John F. Kennedy’s memory
Torrance High students gather to hear more news about the shooting on Nov. 22, 1963. Torrance Press front page, Nov. 25, 1963. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories...
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Members of Catalina Island’s exclusive Tuna Club pioneered big-game sportfishing
Professor Charles Frederick Holder, left, of Pasadena and his boatman, Jim Gardner at Catalina Island, displaying a 183-pound tuna caught by Holder on June 1, 1898. (Credit: California Historical...
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Ted Tanouye: The only Torrance recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor
Ted Takayuki Tanouye Ted Takayuki Tanouye was working at his friend Ray Takayama’s grocery story, Ray’s Friendly Market in Torrance, when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor over...
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The San Pedro Drive-In Theatre was a local landmark for 37 years
Aerial view looking southwest shows the San Pedro Drive-In, bottom center. Gaffey St. runs diagonally below it, and the Di Carlo Bakery complex can be seen to the left of the theater, with Westmont...
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