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The early days of Hollywood Park
Hollywood Park from the air in 1938. (Photo: Turf and Sport Digest) With all the hubbub over the proposed new NFL stadium and the related commercial/residential development planned for the former site...
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Hollywood Park’s glory years, and its gradual decline
Hollywood Park. May 6, 1999. (Daily Breeze staff photo by Robert Casillas) In part two of our look at Hollywood Park, we pick up the story after the racetrack’s first very successful racing season in...
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The beach cities greenbelt: Joggers take over from railroad trains
Veterans Parkway in Manhattan Beach. (June 2015 Daily Breeze photo) The Santa Fe Railroad started working on a branch line through the cities of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach in the 1880s. When...
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Beloved animals get a final resting place at Pet Haven Cemetery
The grounds at Pet Haven. (June 2015 Daily Breeze photo) M.V. Grifith and C.E. Ranzenberger began Pet Haven Cemetery in 1948. The pair were frustrated by watering restrictions at the Los Angeles Pet...
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When saber-toothed cats, mammoths and dire wolves roamed the South Bay
Postcard from the Chicago Natural History Museum shows saber-toothed cats defending their kill. From mural painting by Charles R. Knight. These days, you have to go to the dioramas at the Page Museum...
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Rebranding becomes a way of life at Rolling Hills Estates mall
Bullocks Wilshire can be seen at the top of the escalator in this October 1988 Daily Breeze file photo of the Shops at Palos Verdes. Quick now, the name of the mall in Rolling Hills Estates is, uh, The...
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Wallichs Music City opens for business in Torrance
Undated postcard from the 1950s shows the Hollywood Wallichs Music City, left, at Sunset and Vine across the street from NBC. Glenn Wallichs opened the first Wallichs Music City store on the corner of...
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Hermosa Beach’s Pier Plaza a recent addition to cityscape
Pier Plaza, Hermosa Beach, 2013 Daily Breeze file photo. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer) The block-long stretch of Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach between Hermosa Avenue and the city’s pier always...
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Wilmington during wartime: The Los Angeles Port of Embarkation and Camp Ross
Arrival and debarkation of the 38th Division at the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation during World War II. (U.S. National Archives at Riverside) The U.S. Armed forces wasted no time in preparing for the...
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Ports O’ Call in San Pedro has seen its ups and downs
Aerial view of Ports O’ Call from September 2009, with Ports O’ Call Restaurant in the center. (Robert Casillas / Staff Photographer) The idea for the Ports O’ Call shopping and restaurant complex on...
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Development of Redondo Beach’s Alta Vista Park took some time
Stairs lead down from the Camino Real street level entrance into Alta Vista Park in Redondo Beach. (August 2015 Daily Breeze photo) On March 20,1962, the Redondo Beach City Council committed itself to...
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The Crest in Old Torrance is just the most recent tavern at 1625 Cabrillo
The Crest Sports Bar & Grill at 1625 Cabrillo Avenue in Old Torrance. (August 2015 Daily Breeze photo) The Crest in Old Torrance has been a part of the local landscape for so long that its...
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Carson High School opened before the city was incorporated
Carson High School. (August 2015 Daily Breeze photo) By the end of the 1950s, overcrowding had become an increasingly hard-to-ignore problem in the booming South Bay. Population had increased, and...
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Tracing the history of a very important South Bay vacant lot
Proposed site in Carson to build an NFL stadium. Feb. 21, 2015. Main Street at left; 405 Freeway, diagonally through center. South Bay Pavilion mall is across the 405, center. (Chuck Bennett / Staff...
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American military hero Gen. James ‘Jimmy’ Doolittle’s postwar career brought...
Lt. General James “Jimmy” Doolittle in 1942. (Associated Press) Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle’s exploits as a test pilot, war hero and postwar military expert make him one of the greatest aviation...
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Torrance’s Fern Elementary School survives, and thrives
Fern Elementary School. (September 2015 Daily Breeze photo) Fern Elementary School in Torrance began in 1926 as a group of bungalows assembled as a remote addition to Torrance Elementary School. The...
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The battle to fly the POW/MIA flag at federal buildings began in the South Bay
The POW/MIA flag flies during a torch relay event in honor of National POW/MIA Appreciation Day at the Los Angeles Air Force Base El Segundo on Sept. 18, 2008. (Daily Breeze file photo) U.S. Army...
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Walter Mitchell and Robert Ferrante turn Redondo Beach politics on its ear
Brookside Village in Redondo Beach. (September 2015 Daily Breeze photo) Walter Mitchell was earning his living as a house painter in Redondo Beach before running for and winning a city council seat in...
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Redondo Beach’s Chautauqua Assembly hosted ambitious, short-lived educational...
The Redondo Beach Chautauqua Assembly auditorium building. Undated Daily Breeze file photo, circa 1890-92. An estimated 1,500 people came to the dedication ceremonies for the auditorium at the...
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The early years of the Torrance post office
The Marcelina Avenue branch of the U.S. Post Office in Old Torrance. (October 2015 Daily Breeze photo) The Torrance post office was authorized to operate on Sept. 18, 1912, a few weeks before the...
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