DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
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28 DIGS.NET | 4.19.2019 A P R I L 1 9 , 2 0 1 9 | I S S U E 2 0 3 722 1st Street, Unit D, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254 Office: 310.373.0142 South Bay Digs Magazine is published every other Friday by m3 Media, LLC. Reproduction in any form or by any means is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent from m3 Media LLC. The Publisher and advertisers are not responsible or liable for misinformation, misprints, or typographical errors. All advertised properties are subject to prior sale or withdrawal without notice. Real estate advertised in this publication is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act. M3 Media will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any and all submissions to this publication become the property of m3 Media, LLC and may be used in any media. 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APRIL 19, 2019 DIGS.NET PRESENTED BY BETH MORRISSEY RE/MA X ESTATE PROPERTIES UPDATE INSIDE VISUAL CONNECTION SOCIAL EXPERIMENT MODER N VERTICAL THINKING A REFRESHED PAT KILLEN HOME OFFERS THE ESSENCE OF MANHATTAN BEACH LIVING Special Edition A R C H I T E C T | D E S I G N | B U I L D PRESENTED BY BETH MORRISSEY, RE/MAX ESTATE PROPERTIES 310.977.2475 LIST PRICE $5,199,000 FEATURE ON PAGE 83 CREATIVE SERVICES & AD DESIGN/ORIGINAL ARTWORK PROVIDED EXCLUSIVELY BY SOUTH BAY DIGS. © 2019 m3 Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Publisher Associate Publisher Editorial Director Director of Operations Marketing Director Digital Media Director Senior Graphic Designer Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Senior Staff Photographer Warren J. Dow Carol Skeldon Amy Adams Lauren Potter Kyle Coats Kieron McKay Ryan Lyse Jim Alba Wendy Bowman Jenn Thornton Constance Dunn Karine Monié Joclene Davey Abigail Stone Paul Jonason Flotsam Castle One of the most unusual homes ever constructed in the beach communities of the South Bay was a home constructed entirely of driftwood by a local "hermit" on the beach at the southern end of Torrance Beach. The home was constructed by Louis C. Dart during the period from 1919 to 1925 and was known as both the "Flotsam Castle" as well as the "Hermit's Castle". Louis was an attorney by training who practiced in western Nebraska. After having lost his voice by too many years of "lawyering" and having suffered from kidney disease and other intestinal ailments, like many others at the time, moved to Southern California in September 1919 to try and regain his health. After working at several jobs at local ranchos, he went to the shoreline just south of the area known as Clifton-by-the-sea in Redondo Beach below the area later developed as Hollywood Riviera. There he found an old tent, and exhausted and deathly ill, stayed to die. Soon after, an old Mexican woman told him that the waters of the fresh water spring at the base of the cliff bluffs had healing powers. For a month, he lived only on the spring water. He then found some wild tomatoes at the top of the bluffs and lived for quite a while only on a broth of tomatoes and snails. Over that time, he miraculously regained his health and began to build his castle from driftwood and other materials he found on the beach. The port of Redondo was very active transporting materials, some of which found their way overboard drifting to shore. Louis stated that he only spent 20 cents on nails for an emergency and that all of the other materials were delivered to him by "Neptune's White Horses". On Thanksgiving in 1920, a 45 foot yacht named "Genevieve" moored just offshore, and winds that night broke her moorings and dashed the yacht on the rocks on the beach. The owners of the yacht paid Louis $5 to watch over the yacht overnight and then offered numerous items to him for helping them salvage the remains of the yacht. Many of these items found their way into the castle including an old galley stove whose remains slowly washed up on the shore over a two year period. Louis expanded the castle over the next several years finally reaching 4 stories in height. An old sign hung over the entrance reading "This building cost but little money but much work without which life affords no satisfying kick". Another sign read "My family-outside its appetite- is not so very big-Just a brindle Thomas cat and a black-nosed guinea pig". Over the years, the castle became popular with visitors and Louis raised money by selling soft drinks (cooled by a cooler fed by the spring), cigarettes, candy, and even started to bake and sell thousands of pies. Several other drift-wood homes were also built south of Louis' castle during the 1920's. After abandoning the castle sometime after 1925 and moving to Riverside, the developers of the Hollywood Riviera project burned the house down in May 1930. The above is an excerpt from my book "Historic Tales from Palos Verdes and the South Bay". For more info go to www.southbayhistory.com Flotsam Castle 1924 S O U T H B A Y History Tidbits mdmegowan@gmail.com Maureen Megowan 310.541.6416 Road Construction on the Palos Verdes Peninsula did not take place until the 1920's. Palos Verdes Drive West in the Valmonte and Malaga Cove area was the first road developed as part of the original Palos Verdes Project. Palos Verdes Drive East in the Miraleste area, then known as Western Ave. and which was then part of the Palos Verdes Project, was then developed to facilitate lot sales there. In 1926, the coast road connecting Redondo Beach to San Pedro, previously called Granvia La Costa, now called Palos Verdes Drive West, was completed, including the monumental "Douglas Cut", which was blasted away above Bluff Cove. This road was simply referred to as the Coast Road. Old maps shows the Coast road connecting to "Western Ave", which later was renamed Palos Verdes Drive East and now runs into Narbonne Ave on the north. Western Avenue later was constructed between Narbonne/Palos Verdes Drive East and Gaffey Street in San Pedro. Pacific Coast Highway was named Redondo and Wilmington Road at that time and connected to Anaheim Street at the current junction with Western Ave. Palos Verdes Drive North was completed in the mid 1930's. The extension of Crenshaw from Crest road to Palos Verdes Drive South was never completed due to the Portuguese Bend landslide in the mid 1950's which was triggered by road grading for the extension of Crenshaw Blvd. Road construction moved forward rapidly in the late 1950's and through the mid 1960's. C o n s t r u c t i o n of Crenshaw Boulevard up a canyon from Palos Verdes Drive North to Crest road commenced in mid June 1950. and was completed in September 1951, utilizing labor for the construction by inmates at County Detention Camp No. 7 in the Peninsula Center area. Crest road, constructed by the developers of the Palos Verdes Project, ran from Palos Verdes Dr. East across the top of the hill and then down to Palos Verdes Drive West along the current lower portion of Hawthorne Blvd. Prior to extending Crenshaw up the hill, Crenshaw had extended to the gated entrance to Rolling Hills, and that portion of Crenshaw was then renamed Rolling Hills Road. The extension of Crenshaw from Crest road to Palos Verdes Drive South was never completed due to the Portuguese Bend landslide in the mid 1950's which was triggered by road grading for the extension of Crenshaw Blvd. Construction of Hawthorne Blvd. through the Peninsula was completed in several segments. Hawthorne Blvd. was completed from Silver Spur Road to Crest in 1959. The segment from Palos Verdes Drive North to Silver Spur Road was completed in 1961. Hawthorne Avenue veered right into Palos Verdes Estates at what is today called Via Valmonte. After several years of planning, the final segment extending Hawthorne Blvd. from Newton in Torrance to Palos Verdes Drive North was completed in 1965. The above is an excerpt from my book "Historic Tales of Palos Verdes and the South Bay". For more info see http://www.southbayhistory.com. THE PEACOCKS OF PALOS VERDES S O U T H B A Y History Tidbits