DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
Issue link: https://www.southbaydiggs.com/i/1473184
22 DIGS.NET | 7.15.2022 JULY 15, 2022 | ISSUE 281 TO OUR READERS South Bay DIGS welcomes your feedback and encourages reader response to our editorial features. Please send your letters to the Publisher at 722 1st Street, Unit D, Hermosa Beach, California, 90254 or via email to WDOW@southbaydigs.com. Please include your name and contact information. Letters may be published and we reserve the right to edit. ADVERTISING For inquiries, please contact Publisher Warren Dow at 310.373.0142. EDITORIAL For editorial inquiries, please email Editorial@SouthBayDIGS.com On The Cover PRESENTED BY KENDLE DESIGN COLLABORATIVE | ARIZONA FEATURED ON PAGE 62 722 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. CREATIVE SERVICES & AD DESIGN/ORIGINAL ARTWORK PROVIDED EXCLUSIVELY BY SOUTH BAY DIGS. © 2022 Micro Market Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Founder & CEO / Publisher President & COO Chief Growth Officer Digital Media Director Video Editor Senior Graphic Designer Senior Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Senior Staff Photographer Warren J. Dow Bud Moore Kyle Coats Kieron McKay Matt Polizzi Jim Alba Rufus Agbede Jenn Thornton Constance Dunn Karine Monié Joclene Davey Abigail Stone Paul Jonason CO N N E C T W I T H U S Listen & subscribe on iTunes, digs.net or your favorite podcast provider. The Titans of Real Estate INFLUENCERS PODCAST .net S O U T H B A Y History Tidbits DRE#: 01368971 Maureen Megowan 310.541.6416 mdmegowan@gmail.com 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, he 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 t r a n s p o r t i n g 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 driftwood homes were also built south of Louis' castle during the 1920s. 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 of Palos Verdes and the South Bay". For more info see http://www.southbayhistory.com.