Former Palisadian-Post editor Bill Bruns recounted a slice of Pacific Palisades history by focusing on the year 1929
Founded in 1922 by a group of visionary Methodists, Pacific Palisades enjoyed steady growth throughout the Roaring 20s but was still a small, isolated community out on the edge of Los Angeles in 1929. The town consisted of only about 365 homes and about 1,000 residents, though residential construction was then expanding into the Huntington, Castellammare and Paseo Miramar neighborhoods.
“The business district centered around the Business Block building (between Antioch and Sunset),” Bruns said, “and though it has been eclipsed by Caruso’s Palisades Village, it still serves as the town’s historic landmark building—joined, since 1972, by the Village Green across the street. To me, this side of Sunset is still the spiritual heart of our community.”
In 1929, there were a number of important events and ongoing developments in Pacific Palisades:
1In August, the German airship Graf Zeppelin was making its first round-the-world journey. It flew from Tokyo to San Francisco—the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific—and then down the coast.
At 4:30 a.m. on August 26, it passed over the Palisades twice at an altitude of just 500 feet. You can imagine how terrifying this might have been to residents—hearing the motors whirring and seeing the lights shining eerily from the windows of the gondola.
“Martha, it’s a UFO!” (The Graf Zeppelin went on to land at Mines Field, today’s LAX.)
2The new Roosevelt Highway (now PCH) was dedicated on June 29, 1929, with Governor James Rolph performing the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
This opened a route from Pacific Palisades through Malibu to Oxnard, providing what the governor deemed “50 miles of virgin seaside beauty…before the eyes of thousands of appreciative motorists.”
3On August 18, the cornerstone was laid for the Methodist Episcopal Church on Via de la Paz, the community’s only church at that time.
Meanwhile, right across the street, plans and financing was underway for the town’s first permanent school building—Palisades Elementary—which was dedicated on June 12, 1931.
4The town finally acquired its own fire station in 1929 (on Sunset, next to where the Chase Bank building stands today), and police coverage expanded.
A year earlier, the Los Angeles police department began renting temporary office space in the Business Block building for $10 a month, and in 1929, a motorcycle officer was assigned to make nightly visits.
5In 1929, all areas of Pacific Palisades were being developed, reflecting Southern California’s booming growth and the town’s coastal allure.
Golfers were enjoying the already acclaimed Rivera Country Club (opened in 1927); the Bel-Air Bay Club was under construction (with an informal opening in March 1930); and Sunset Boulevard–paved in 1925–was bringing an increased flow of traffic through the community and offering more comfortable accessibility to Westwood and Beverly Hills.
6Alas, the stock market crashed in October 1929 and precipitated the Great Depression, which brought residential construction to a grinding halt in Pacific Palisades.
Housing finally started to revive a decade later, and a record 268 homes were built here in 1941. But then came Pearl Harbor and wartime restrictions, which halted all building until early 1946, when the post-war boom years began.
Posted on Circling The News on November 4, 2019 by Sue Pascoe
Photography by Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives
