PV Aerial 1950.jpg — Palos Verdes Grows Up - Post WarDevelopment in Palos Verdes

By Dana Graham

As most people know, settlement in Palos Verdes began in the 1920's with the creation of the Palos Verdes Project, a vision of Frank Vanderlip to create an exclusive residential enclave on the Peninsula. He hired Frederick Law Olmsted, son of the designer of New York's Central Park, to create the overall plan. There were plans for several marinas, a couple of exclusive beach clubs, local small shopping centers, light rail transportation, dedicated school sites -- all the amenities that any 1920's high end home buyer could want.

There was even an architectural committee (now known as the Art Jury) to make sure each home's design was consistent with its neighborhood -- Malaga Cove was supposed to look like a Mediterranean coastal village, Margate was to look like the coast of Cornwall, etc. That was progressing nicely until late 1929 when the Great Depression hit. Development slowed to a crawl and the elaborate plans for the Peninsula were shelved, most of them permanently. There are still signs of the original vision -- Malaga Cove Plaza, Roessler Pool, various light rail rights of way if you know where to look, little parks scattered around that were the sites of the planned small shopping centers, and 55% of Palos Verdes Estates dedicated to parkland.

Development crept along during the Depression, but the Palos Verdes Project was in financial distress and had to drastically reduce the price of the parcels to get any takers. The City of Palos Verdes Estates incorporated in 1939 as "a City of the 4th class" partially to avoid annexation by adjoining cities. When World War 2 hit, things really ground to a halt.

When the War ended in late 1945 it was like someone turned on the switch. Many military men had passed thru Southern California on the way to the war in the Pacific and were captivated by the weather, scenery, and opportunities. After they were discharged, there was a flood of young families who chose to make Palos Verdes their home.

The first area to be settled was the Valmonte section of Palos Verdes Estates, where lots could be had for $1000 and up. The typical Valmonte home of the era was a 2-3 bedroom 1-2 bath 1000-1500 square foot ranch style home with a 2-car garage, costing anywhere from $9000 to $15,000 including the land.

My parents' house was typical -- they bought the land in 1949 for $2000, which included a panoramic view of the LA basin, and bought plans out of a catalog for a 2 bedroom 1 bath 1100 square foot house at 4205 Via Pinzon, that cost $10,000 to build.

You could buy a house in Torrance for roughly the same money, and Torrance had sewers and trash pick-up, which PV did not. All houses were on septic tanks and we took our trash over to the dump off Crenshaw Blvd, now known as the Botanic Garden.

In those days most of the streets in PVE were still dirt, and the City did not have the money to pave them all. So if you wanted to build a house in PVE on a dirt street, you had to agree to have it paved. In the case of Via Pinzon, my parents got together with the Normans, who were building across the street, and paid to have Via Pinzon paved from Hawthorne Ave (as Via Valmonte was then known) down to Via Paro, where existing pavement began.

Hawthorne Ave, PVE (now Via Valmonte) in 1925

Remember this was right after the Depression and War and nobody building these houses had much money. The City did not require that curbs be put in and you will notice the Via Pinzon doesn't have them, because my parents and the Normans could not afford them.

There then began what later became known as the Baby Boom. When we first moved here, there was only Malaga Cove and Miraleste Schools and they only went thru 8th grade.

With the rapid development of the Valmonte area an elementary school was urgently needed and Valmonte Elementary opened in 1951, just in time for me to be in kindergarten there. Lunada Bay was the second area of PVE to see rapid development, and Lunada Bay Elementary opened about 1956. In 1956 the first of the large housing tracts, known then and now as Grandview, in what was then LA County went in off the newly completed Silver Spur Road. Those homes sold for $27,500 to about $35,000 depending on size and location. If you wanted a panoramic view you could plan on a $3-4000 premium. Silver Spur Elementary was completed concurrent with the surrounding houses in 1956. And so it went. Around 1960-61 the first development north of what is now Golden Cove Shopping center went in, and with it Point Vicente Elementary.

The new West Palos Verdes housing tract in 1960

Prior to 1961, once you graduated from 8th grade, you had to go off the Hill generally to either Redondo or Narbonne high schools, depending upon where on the Hill you lived. During the 1950's there were several attempts to create a "unified" school district that would include a high school.

Finally, in 1959, "Unification" passed, which meant that Palos Verdes was now it's own district not subject to the vagaries of the LAUSD, the move to open a Junior College in Palos Verdes was voted down (it ended up being at Dominguez Hills), and we bought the site of a pending Junior High from the LAUSD which, in 1961, opened as Palos Verdes High School.