A Thankful Tribute to the Late Moryann Motley as She Continues to Make Malaga Cove More Magical By Joan Davidson
A Thankful Tribute to the Late Moryann Motley as She Continues to Make Malaga Cove More Magical
By Joan Davidson
Image credit: 1920s fountain with statue of Neptune, at Malaga Cove Plaza By Abby Lanes
If you drive into the Malaga Cove Plaza and enjoy its’ beauty and pristine ambiance you need to give huge credit to a Palos Verdes Estates resident Morynne Motley.
If you see the beauty of the Neptune statue give recognition to Morynne for its’ upkeep.
If you like to see the fountain flowing, thank Morynne Motley.
Although Morynne passed away several years ago her memory will always live on at
the Malaga Cove Plaza in Palos Verdes Estates.
929 Malaga Cove Casa del Portal 1st police headquarters
Morynne dedicated herself to enhance and beautify the Plaza. It took approximately 10 years to get approval for her plans to plant trees and create the brick walkways that we enjoy today.
Casa del Portal 1929 PV Bulletin
It was her insistence and her dedication despite the hesitance of the PVE City Council to approve the plan. And it was all done with community raised funds.
Casa del Portal 1929
Morynne and Bob Motley were married in Paris, Texas in 1941.
Her family originated from Oklahoma where Morynne donated to the upkeep of her family’s namesake park, Hopson Park.
The Motleys lived in many places but moved to Palos Verdes Estates in 1966. In 1986 they purchased the Casa del Portal formerly known as the Syndicate Building. Today the Malaga Bank occupies the edifice that Morynne and Bob purchased.
When Palos Verdes was purchased by Frank Vanderlip it included the 16,000 acres, referred to as the Rancho de los Palos Verdes. Purchased from Jotham Bixby in 1913, Vanderlip envisioned a Mediterranean city with acres of gardens and even a university. Plans and 3-D models were built to suit his vision. He is known as the "Father of Palos Verdes"
Casa del Portal and Neptune Statue
Vanderlip’s plans for the Malaga Cove Plaza were designed by architects Webber, Staunton and Spaulding in 1924. The Gardner building, now Caldwell Banker Real Estate offices, was the first building at the Plaza. Famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, Jr. and City Planner Charles Cheney are responsible for establishing the Plaza and Peninsula plans.
The Syndicate Building, renamed the Casa del Portal, (Malaga Bank) at the other end of the Plaza was next, and was famous for its arch over reaching above Via Chico. When the 1929 Depression hit the Nation, all plans for Palos Verdes came to a halt and the Plaza was slowly built as we see it today starting in the 1950’s.
Originally the first occupants of the Casa del Portal were the local boy scouts, the police under Chief Woolsey, was the city's first nursery school, and during WW II was a Red Cross Center.
When Morynne Motley purchased the Casa Del Portal building in 1986 she set upon a plan to beautify the Plaza as might have happened if not for the Depression and WW II etc. and as Vanderlip might have finalized.
Neptune Statue dedication 1930
Over and over Morynne was stymied by the rejection of her plans, but she never gave up.
In January 1991 her proposal to plant 18 trees in the Plaza was met with a resounding defeat at the Palos Verdes Estates Planning Commission. The Daily Breeze reported that Morynne said: “but I'll keep trying,"
“The commission voted 4-1 on the proposal that calls for the Neptune statue to be flanked with a red brick walkway and 12 trees.”
But resident Morynne Motley's efforts to clean up the aging, Italian style plaza has received support from the local business community.
The Malaga Cove Beautification Project, was established in 1992 by the Motleys,
There was an "anti-tree" contingent who hoped to convince officials that the Neptune statue should remain treeless as it has since it was dedicated 60 years ago.
However, Morynne Motley and several members of the Malaga Cove Business and Professional Association kept promoting the renovation to beautify the plaza and surrounding parking lot.
Those who objected to the trees said trees will diminish the dominance of the Neptune statue and cover the beauty of the plaza buildings and arches.
On October 6, 1993 the Daily Breeze reported: “There's hardly anything Palos Verdes Estates won't do in the name of beautification, including racing porkers around the statue of King Neptune himself in Malaga Cove Plaza.”
“And these aren't just ordinary pigs. They're all-Alaskan racing pigs that have received the seal of approval from the ASPCA and Humane Society for their pampered care. These blueblood hams will be racing on a special track in "Malaga Gulch" Oct. 23 as part of a Wild Western Hoedown sponsored by the Malaga Cove Plaza Beautification Project.”
“The plaza will be transformed into an Old West town, complete with a saloon and Santa Fe-style grub by the Santa Maria Elks B-B-Q team. Other entertainment includes country-western singer Jo Anne Montana and Los Dudes Country Band and line dance instructors Pam and Randy Turner, who will teach the Tush Push, Electric Slide and other popular line dances.”
Morynne and her friends created the Western Hoedown fund raiser right in the Malaga Cove
to raise an additional $40,000 to add to the $90,000 collected. And they did it.
Palos Verdes Diorama 1921
The Hoedown Committee included: Juan and Loretta Forteza, co-chairs; Jere Murray, Morynne and Bob Motley, Ninoska French, Jane and Ben Sharp, Kay and Bill Finer, Kathi May, Tom Barnett, Mary Roderman, Ben Loughrin, Betty Learned, Sue and Ken McNeill, Sharon Ryan, Carole Davis and George Sweeney.
Finally, by 1997 the City Council agreed to begin a $101,578 restoration project to include rebuilding the Neptune statue sculpted in Italy. It had many broken and missing marble pieces and needed repairing of the fountain pipes so the water could flow freely again.
"It is arguably the most important historic fountain in Southern California," conservator Glenn Wharton wrote in a 1991 report to the city.
Neptune's greatest champion was Morynne Motley, who launched a campaign to kindle community interest in the aging fountain and Malaga Cove Plaza.
Not only did Morynne take exquisite care of the installation of the trees, she and her friends ensured that the trees were properly planted. One of her friends reported to me that they had to lie down on the ground and remove the gravel under the roots to allow for proper drainage.
In addition, Morynne made sure that every planter was matched along the seams connecting the buildings to hide the connecting walls. One person painted the planter urn white, and one wiped off the paint to look like the faded white bricks.
It was a long journey for Morynne. Morynne spent three decades and “significant resources” to improve the plaza, according to John Motley, their nephew and trustee of their estate.
The couple left a large perpetual endowment to help preserve the beauty of the plaza.
That endowment maintains the plaza’s trees, the Neptune fountain, the sidewalks and the curbing. The funds offsets much of the cost the city would have to absorb.
In 2012 PVE resident Ann Hugh wrote the book “Almost Wonderful” discussing and illustrating the saga of restoring the Neptune statue restoration, and the battle that Morynne fought to beautify the Plaza. The photos of the residents at the Hoedown and the letters supporting Morynne and her efforts are worth the read. The PV Library has many copies.
Just this year, the Malaga Cove Plaza was given formal recognition on the National Register of Historic Places for its historical significance. That is a great honor. The CA State Historic Resources Commission wholeheartedly supported the Plaza for listing on the state registry on July 30, 2021 and it received National Registry on October 5, 2021.
CA Commissioner thanks for bringing this to the Commission “because the Malaga Cove Plaza reads like a who’s who of 20th Century architects and site planning of Cheney and Olmsted.” And “Once you’re there you are drawn into a different world due to the site planning of the architects.” Commissioner Alan Hess stated “Malaga Cove Plaza dispels the myth of CA as pure sprawl. Palos Verdes is a planned community.”
That’s something that Morynne Motley would have been so happy to know.
She needs to be recognized for her dedication and realization of the importance of the Neptune Statue and the Plaza.
The Plaza is the iconic symbol of our history and its’ past.
Thank you Morynne from everyone.
Photos courtesy of the PVLD Library
Joan Davidson has lived in PVE since 1976 where she raised her three children Lisa, Josh and Alex.
She and her husband Sandy have been active community members.
Joan received a B.S. and M.A. in Art Education.
As a CA credentialed teacher she spent many years teaching at South High School in Torrance.
She served on the PVPUSD School Board and the SoCal Roc Board locally.
Recently she founded the PV Heritage Preservation group to promote the preservation of the iconic landmarks and the history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
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