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How and why the “Shoestring Strip” came into existence
Traveling the short distance from Point A to Point B (blue line) on map takes one through four different jurisdictions, marked in purple from left to right. (Credit: Google Maps) Head east on Carson...
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Deadly 1949 oil tank blast in Inglewood wasn’t the end of Basin Oil’s woes
Firefighters train their hose on the massive fire following the explosions at the Basin Oil tank farm in Inglewood in 1948. Madera Daily News, Sept. 17, 1948, Page 1. (Credit: Madera Daily News) Oil...
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Torrance’s National Guard armory opens with flyover, huge parade in 1955
The California National Guard armory in Torrance in 1956, a year after it opened. (Credit: Military Museum website) Military historians have traced the origins of the U.S. National Guard as far back as...
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Imperial Highway once figured as part of a superhighway plan
Route chosen in 1931 for the Imperial Highway project is highlighted in red on this 1936 map. (Credit: Orange County Historical Society) To South Bay residents, Imperial Highway is that east-west...
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American Honda finds its corporate home in Torrance
American Honda Motor Co.’s U.S. headquarters building at 1919 Torrance Blvd. in Torrance. (June 2020 photo by Sam Gnerre) Soichiro Honda started out as an auto mechanic in the late 1930s, and the...
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Di Carlo Bakery served up goodness to San Pedrans for almost 100 years
A horse-drawn truck delivers fresh goods from the Di Carlo family bakery. Undated photo ca. 1910-15. (Credit: San Pedro Bay Historical Society) Lorenzo Di Carlo came to the United States from Italy...
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Pietro Di Carlo’s successful life ends mysteriously on the San Pedro docks
Pietro Di Carlo in 1966. Last week, we told the story of San Pedro’s Di Carlo Bakery, founded by Italian immigrant Lorenzo Di Carlo in 1906. Born in Italy on Feb. 14, 1898, Di Carlo’s son Pietro was a...
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The Polynesian restaurant brought South Seas atmosphere to the South Bay
The Polynesian restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. Undated postcard. Pete and Pearl Reitz of Palos Verdes Estates often had traveled to Hawaii and other parts of Polynesia before opening...
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Historic Wilmington Cemetery has weathered its share of storms
A pair of women arrive with flowers at the Wilmington Cemetery on May 10, 2017. (Daily Breeze staff file photo) Phineas Banning built the Wilmington Cemetery in 1857 on three and a half acres of land...
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Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku a major figure in South Bay surf culture
Duke Kahanamoku surfs at Wakiki in this undated publicity shot from the early 1900s. George Freeth rightfully gets credit for introducing the sport of surfing to the South Bay in Redondo Beach in 1907....
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Palos Verdes College: Noble 8-year experiment may have been ahead of its time
From left, students Coralio “Teddie” Howard, Barbara Lois Verket and Ruth Lissauer (seated) look out over the new campus with Dr. Richard P. Saunders, pointing, President of Palos Verdes College,...
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Closure yet to come for South Bay families devastated by loss of their...
The Tompkins home on Dalton Ave. in Harbor Gateway is brightly lit to guide the missing 11-year old Karen Tompkins home on Aug. 22, 1961. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)...
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Ocean Trails Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes takes shape on former coastal...
Golfers finish up on the tenth hole of the then 15-hole Ocean Trails Golf Course. Jan 24, 2001. (San Gabriel Valley Tribune staff photo) The Rancho Palos Verdes site on which the Trump National Golf...
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Donald Trump transforms Ocean Trails into Trump National Golf Club
Entrance to Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. (Daily Breeze staff file photo) Everything changed for the troubled Ocean Trails Golf Course when real estate mogul Donald Trump announced...
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Wilmington’s Harbor Generating Station power plant took some time to come online
Exterior view of the art deco-styled Harbor steam plant building taken during the second phase of its construction. Dec. 6, 1948. (Credit: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and...
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Lomita Flight Strip in Torrance housed relocated Japanese-Americans after...
Barracks at the Lomita Flight Strip in Torrance provided temporary housing for Japanese-American returnees from internment camps following the end of World War II. Photo by Tom Parker, November 1945....
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Fort MacArthur’s back story includes a bare-knuckles legal brawl over its...
The original military reserve set aside by Mexico in 1846 is reflected in this Los Angeles city map from 1856. (San Pedro Bay at right. Click to enlarge.) (Credit: City of Los Angeles, via Historic...
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Fort MacArthur played a key role in Southern California’s coastal defense...
The Patton Quadrangle at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro. Undated post-1933 photo. (Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division) Fort MacArthur in San Pedro got its name not from Gen....
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“Specs” Saunders and his Skateland roller rink enlivened Redondo Beach during...
Free skating at the Skateland roller rink in Redondo Beach. Undated photo circa 1950s. (Photo by Galen Hunter, from Redondo Beach pier exhibit) The Redondo Beach Pavilion building truly served as a...
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The Battle of Dominguez Rancho and “The Old Woman’s Gun”
Men playing the role of Californios use a replica cannon of the one that was unearthed to help defeat the U.S. Marines in the Battle of the Old Women’s Gun during the Mexican-American War reenactment...
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