Conservation, Recreation, Education And Transportation Expo Greenway
Main Page
Gallery
Dean Howell�s Expo Greenway Thesis
comments
EMAIL
CREATE EXPO GREENWAY
History of
the EXPOSITION RIGHT OF WAY (and Environs)
In 1875, the Los Angeles and
Independence Railway gained and used the Right of Way to connect Los Angeles
with Santa Monica.� In the Expo Greenway
area, the Right of Way crossed pastoral Rancho La Ballona, south of Rancho
Rincon de los Bueyes.� Maps from 1875
(Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes) and 1896
(United States Geological Survey) show a stream-fed pond near where Bradbury
and Rountree Roads now intersect Northvale Road.�
The Los Angeles Public
Library Photo Database contains (among several more) the photograph to the left
dated March 15, 1939 showing �A view of pastures, railroad tracks, and utility
poles looking south from the NW corner of La Lomita Ranch in Palms on a partly
cloudy day.�� (Visit Expo
Greenway Gallery for more pictures and information.)
The latter area is modern day
Westwood Gardens, between Overland Avenue and Westwood Boulevard.
Palms Park
In May 1958, the Los Angeles
Times reported negotiations
between Los Angeles� Board of Library Commissioners and owners of the �Rainey
property� at 2950 Overland Avenue for the new Palms Library.� That same month, the City�s Recreation and
Parks Commission determined to create
a park either on the Rainey property or at Overland and Rose Avenues to the
south.� (Garnet
and Marjorie
�Marge� Rainey were regulars in Los Angeles� society pages for
decades.)� Mayor
Poulson preferred the Rainey property, siding with Westwood Gardens Civic
Association over the Palms Citizens Advisory Committee.�� In September 1958, Mrs. Rainey sought
rezoning to build 144 apartments on the property, and, in October 1958, the
City Council approved condemning
the land for park purposes.� By December
1958, the parties agreed that the Recreation and Parks Department would buy
the 4.7 acre Rainey property for $302,500 (about $2.3 million in 2011
dollars), with the Los Angeles Times reporting that residents had �been
after such a facility for the Palms-Rancho Park communities since 1947-48, when
the Rancho Park Golf Course was being designed and constructed.�
In 1959, the City named
the park "Palms Park," instead
of Palms Pioneer Park, which was the name preferred by the Palms Chamber of
Commerce.� Also in 1960, the City funded converting
the Rainey house into a clubhouse.�
The City demolished
the remaining Rainey property structures to erect a new recreation center.� (A negative declaration was published on
March 1, 1979 to �replace
the existing outdated structure.�)
The first
sanctioned BMX bicycle racing in the United States, if not the world, ran around a track at Palms
Park on July 10, 1969.� (A Facebook
page is dedicated to that history.)� Wikipedia�s BMX racing page
reported (as of October 2, 2013):�
On
July 10, 1969, a group of boys riding their Schwinn
Sting-Ray bicycles in Palms Park in West Los Angeles wanted to race. A
park attendant, Ronald Mackler, a teenager with motorcycle motocross (MX)
experience, helped them organize. Palms Park became to BMX as Elysian Fields is to
American baseball, for at that moment Bicycle Motocross racing was born. By
1973, entrance fees of US$4.50 (which included a US$1.00 insurance fee for the
year) for a 10-week season of Thursday-night racing was charged, and the top
three racers in the season were given trophies. Then a new season of 10 weeks
would start the following Thursday.
The
track operated well into the 1980s largely unchanged, including the lack of a
modern starting gate.
Palms Rancho Park Library
Palms needed a larger
library, and a voter-passed $6.4
million bond issue in 1957 provided funding for it.� Because the Rainey property northeast of
Overland Avenue and National Boulevard was �the
most central site in proximity to the community, and at the same time � of
equal distance from existing branches at Mar Vista, West Los Angeles and
Robertson,� in 1958 the Board of Library Commissioners favored the Rainey
property for a library.� The Palms
community wanted the facility closer to its core, but to no avail.� In October 1959, the City decided to acquire
more land and put the Palms Library next to Palms Park.� A year later, the coming (c. 1965) Santa
Monica Freeway led to relocating
the planned library
from
the park�s southwest corner to its northwest corner.�
Two Octobers later, ground
was broken for the Palms-Rancho Park library.�
Pictured are Linda Wallace (age 3) in front of Library Commission
President Albert A. Le Vine; Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman;
Ralph Grogdon and Bill Rust of the Westwood Gardens Civic Association; Bill
Highes of the Palms Chamber of Commerce; and Eloise Gillham, of the Rancho Park
Chamber of Commerce.� The 6400 square
foot library was dedicated on August 12, 1964.� A couple of generations later, on November
25, 2002, its two-story 10,500 square foot replacement opened on the same
site.� The upstairs meeting room was
named for Cheviot Hills neighbor, literary legend, and longtime patron Ray
Bradbury, pictured speaking at the library in 1972 and again when he was
honored in 2009 in his namesake room.�

(See
Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park
Library�s site for more about the library and its history at its
prior site, which is now Woodbine Park.)
Palms Depot
The
grassroots organization Save Our Station saved the Palms
Depot, one of The Palms� earliest structures.�
The depot now serves as the visitor center and store for the Heritage
Square Museum.� Read Ralph
Melching�s articles in Timepoints and Wheel Clicks (telling of the
move), and David Cameron�s article in Wheel Clicks (setting the original
construction date).
Palms � Stories by the original Palms
Historian, David I. Worsfold
My 50 Years in Palms (1914-1964
� in nine short parts)
Palms - Earliest Years
Palms - Its Founding
Palms - Its
Subdividers
For the authoritative history of The
Palms, get George Garrigues� Los Angeles's the Palms Neighborhood
(Arcadia Publishing, 2009)
Marshall P. Riddick
Youth CENTER
Built
as a recreation center or �canteen� for a National Guard anti-aircraft gun battalion
stationed in Los Angeles to protect the coast, the Marshall P. Riddick Youth
Center now provides a meeting place for children in the Overland Avenue
Elementary School community.�
Washington State National
Guardsmen arrived at Camp
Haan in Riverside, California, weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor
"The
regiment � arrived at Camp Haan on 22 November 1941 where it was assigned to
the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade (AA).� *
* *� In May of 1942, the Commanding
General, Western Defense Command, was directed to reorganize elements of the
205th into a semi-mobile regiment and bring the regiment up to a full strength
of three battalions.� �.� In the meantime the 205th was ordered to Los
Angeles on temporary duty.� On January
15, 1943, this was made the regiment�s permanent station.� [�]��
On 10 September 1943,� 1st Battalion, 205th was redesignated the 770th
Anti-Aircraft Gun Battalion �. On 10 February 1944, the 770th Gun Battalion was
inactivated at Los Angeles�.�� (Official
History of the 205th Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft) 1941-1945,
Washington National Guard (Military Department, State of Washington, July
1983).)
The Guardsmen erected the recreation building
from �scrap material� on Overland Hill (aka Lowe�s Hill) south of where the
Santa Monica Freeway is now located
�One
hundred soldiers In Battery D stationed at Cheviot Hills owe their new
recreation hall on Overland Ave. to their own ingenuity and skill, coupled with
the generosity of the neighborhood.� They
have erected the main portion of a recreation building from scrap material,
using huge crates in which airplane wings are shipped, old telephone poles and
railroad ties.�� (Los Angeles Times,
January 9, 1944, p. B2, �Soldiers Use Scrap to Build Own Center, Neighbors of
Cheviot Hills Station Pitch In to Help and Staff Canteen�)� �During
the seventh year of the Garden Club, 1943-1944, our course was largely charted
by the war�s necessities.� [�]� �.� We
continued helping at the Overland Canteen until it was phased out at end of the
year.�� (Cheviot Hills Garden Club
History (Thompson, Pat, c. 1996) p. �1943-1944.�)
The Army donated the building to the Overland
Avenue School community, which moved it to its current location
�This
will be your authority to remove that certain building (no. 8), described as a
Recreation Building, located on property leased by the United States of
America, at Overland and Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.� [�]� It
is understood that subject building was erected by members of the 770th A.A.A.
Gun Battalion from materials donated to said Battalion, and as evidenced by
letter dated 8 February 1944, signed by Thomas P. Iullucci, Captain of said
Battalion and custodian of said building, the building was donated to Crescent
Bay Council of Boy Scouts.� [�]� It is requested that the building be removed
from present location on or before 20 September 1944.�� (August 23, 1944, letter from Army Corp of
Engineers to Crescent Bay Council, Boy Scouts of America.)� With broad community support, including the
Overland School principal (Mrs. Edna Van Dyke), Overland parents, Boy and Girl
Scout troops, LA City Councilman Harold
Harby, Heyler Realty, and Anawalt Lumber, the
building was moved and fitted out.�
Heyler Realty brokered a discounted price from the neighborhood�s
developer for the vacant land.� Parents
held newspaper drives, rag drives, etc. to raise $5,000 to pay for the empty
lot and costs of moving the building.�
The Cheviot Hills Garden Club helped, too.� �The
year 1944-45 brought increased responsibility to war projects�.� [�] ... $150 to the Riddick Youth
Center.� This building was moved from its
location on the Overland hill where it was an Army observation post to be near
Overland School.� Fathers in our area
helped with manual labor in the project.��
(Cheviot Hills Garden Club History (Thompson, Pat, c. 1996) p.
�1944-1945.�)�
�After
eight months of hard work on the part of the committee in charge of
rehabilitation, with the faithful support of girl and boy Scouts of the
district, as well as parents, the Marshall P. Riddick Youth Center � was opened
this week for a benefit dessert bridge sponsored by the Cheviot Hills Women�s
club.� [�]� Formal dedication of the building is planned
for the middle of June, to which all residents of the Overland Avenue school
district are invited.� [�]� The building, a 40x60 structure, has been
completely remodeled, with concrete foundation, steps and walks, exterior
stucco and plastering on the inside, reinforced roof, lighting and plumbing
installed, lavatories, kitchen, new windows, doors and hardware.� [�]�
Arrangements have also been made for the purchase of the lot on which
the building stands, payments to be amortized over time.�� (Riddick Youth Center Dedication Plans Made,
Rancho Park News (June 7, 1945).)
The Overland Avenue School community organized
to own, maintain, and operate the center for the benefit of area children
�Marshall
P. Riddick Youth Center ... and all of its business and activities are to be
operated and conducted in the promotion of its charitable objectives and
exclusively for the purpose of owning, maintaining and operating the building
and premises known as the Marshall P. Riddick Youth Center, located at 2634
Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, California, for the general benefit of school-age
children attending the Overland Avenue Elementary School and those children
residing within the Overland Avenue School District �.�� (Amended and Restated Bylaws of Marshall P.
Riddick Youth Center, a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation.)�
Marshall P. Riddick Youth Center Named for
Fallen Son Marshall Pruit Riddick
The
youth center was named for Marshall Pruit Riddick, an Overland Elementary
School graduate killed
in the line of duty in November 1943 while training as a World War II
aviator.� Marshall P. Riddick was an
Eagle Scout and his family was active in the community, including the American
Legion (his
father had been commander of the Cheviot Hills post) and Overland Avenue
School PTA. �The building remains a
tribute to Marshall and to others who gave their lives in service.
See the Riddick Center website, Facebook page, and scrapbook.
![]()
Cheviot Hills area
Timeline and Maps
(Click maps or links � large
files)
December 7, 1821 �
Bernardo Higuera and Cornelio Lopez petition for Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes
land grant from Mexico.
On December 5,
1821, Bernardo Higuera and Cornelio Lopez petitioned military
commander Jos� de la Guerra y Noriega
(1779-1858) to grant them Rancho Rincon
de los Bueyes.� (Bernardo�s father, Joaquin
Higuera, had been alcalde (mayor and chief judicial official) of the Pueblo
in 1800.)� The petition read:
To the Snr. CapN
Bernardo Higuera and Cornelio Lopez, citizens of the
Pueblo de Nuestra Se�ora la Reina de Los Angeles, and under the command of our
honor, with the greatest respect and submission before your Excellency, appear
and say that, possessing at the present time a number of cattle and not having
any place so as properly to be able to keep them with a grazing ground of
sufficient extent . . . . Therefore ask and beseech your extreme clemency to be
pleased to grant to them the tract within this vicinity called Corral Viejo del
Rincon so as that they may be able to place a corral for herding the said
cattle unless it does some injury to the neighboring residents � a favor they
expect from your extreme goodness and for which they will recognize themselves
very grateful.� May God preserve you many
years.
Two days later
Noriega made an entry on the margin
of the petition:� �Pueblo de Nuestra
Se�ora de
(W.W.
Robinson, Culver City, California: A Calendar of Events: in which is
Included, Also, the Story of Palms and Playa Del Rey Together with Rancho La
Ballona and Rancho Rincon de Los Bueyes (Title Guarantee and Trust Company,
1941).)
c.
1840s Dise�o del sitio nombrado Rincon de los Buelles � Shows drainage, buildings, adjoining ranchos,
etc.� Relief shown pictorially.� Pen-and-ink and watercolor on tracing
paper.� (U.S. District Court. California,
Southern District. Land case 131 SD, page 118; land case map A-1146 (Bancroft
Library).)
1849
� Jos� De Arnaz buys a portion of Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes northwest of
Washington Boulevard from Secundino Higuera
Don Jos� de Arnaz (1820-1895) was a merchant, medic, war hero
and rancher.� He is best known for his
holdings around San Buenaventura (Ventura) California.� His memoirs were transcribed by historian H.
H. Bancroft in 1867 and are at the University of California�s Bancroft Library.� Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez translated �Memoirs of a
Merchant� into English.
1867
� Jos� De Arnaz buys a portion of Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes northwest of Washington
Boulevard from Francisco Higuera.
1875
� Rancho Rincon de Los Bueyes Map showing Arnaz subdivisions � Cheviot Hills will be at the far left, under
�Rincon.�

1880
� Rancho Rincon de Los Bueyes Map showing Francisco Higuera Tract � Cheviot Hills will be below and to the left of
�Hill Land.�
1896
� United States Geological Survey (USGS) Map � Click the map.� Cheviot Hills
will be in the middle, under �Rincon.�
1910
Palms �Sanborn� Maps
Page 1 � Page 2 � Page 3

1931
Map of Westwood Hills and Holmby Hills

1934 USGS (full)
Map (very large file)
1939 WPA Land Use Map

1943-1946
Cheviot Hills area �Sanborn� Maps
Northwest
(AI) � West
(AJ) � North
(AG) � Central
(AF)� East
(AH) � South
(AK) � Street
Index � Key
1946
Culver City charter city campaign map
Cheviot
Hills
West
Los Angeles� �Cheviot Hills� neighborhood is a fusion of several residential
tracts that were developed beginning in the early-1920s.� First came Country
Club Highlands (1923), Cheviot
Hills (1924), and Monte-Mar
Vista (1924).� These three
tracts retained their separate identities until at least the late
1930s.� In 1938 a fourth tract was added
to the south:� Cheviot
Knolls.� The California Country Club
Estates tract opened in 1952, followed by the final nearly two-dozen homes on
the east in around 1968.� The City Los
Angeles Department of Public Works provides access to more tract maps.� Because if its proximity to movie studios,
location shooting has always been a part of the neighborhood, perhaps beginning
with Cheviot Hills resident Stan Laurel and his comedy partner Oliver Hardy
making 1928�s �The
Finishing Touch� in Monte-Mar Vista, in which Monte-Mar Vista developer W.
R. McConnell�s 2728 McConnell Drive house doubled as the hospital next to which
Laurel & Hardy noisily built (and destroyed) a house in the nascent
neighborhood.� The pair made �Bacon
Grabbers� at 10340 Bannockburn Drive, Cheviot Hills, in 1929.
Cheviot Hills
In 1912, prominent Palms residents Abraham Lincoln (A.L.) King and his wife
Frankie L. King filed
a tract map covering what would become Cheviot Hills in the next
decade.� At the end of 1923 (the year the
Ambassador
Annexation added the Palms Hills area
to Los Angeles) the Kings filed another
tract map for their Palms Hills
land; this time they included planned roads:�
Motor Avenue and Cheviot Drive.�
In 1924, the Kings sold their undeveloped subdivision to Frans Nelson
& Sons for $273,000.� It was a good
investment for Frans Nelson & Sons.�
As the Swedish-born retired banker turned real estate developer
recounted in his biography, �We
had to spend over $400,000 in improvements such as sidewalks, curbs, streets,
electroliers, water and gas mains, and power lines.� But as fast as the utilities went in the
homes went up.�� In April 1927, the
Los Angeles Times article showing Frans Nelson�s own house in Cheviot Hills
reported that although �Cheviot
Hills has been developed only a short time, 80 per cent of the property has
been sold and already seventy-one homes, ranging in value from $10,000 to
$50,000, have been erected.�
Promoted
for its proximity to several country clubs and movie studios, and for its
�convenience to Los Angeles and the beach,� lots in the �finest residential
district between Los Angeles and the sea� were advertised from $1780, with
homes beginning at $10,500.
Frans
Nelson & Sons, advertised that their subdivision was named for its �natural
rolling knolls that are so similar to the Cheviot Hills which separate England and
Scotland.�� But the selection of the name
Cheviot Hills was more prosaic, according to Frans Nelson.� �When
we got ready to put this new property on the market, my sales organization
numbered about thirty�.� We decided to
let them help select a name for the new subdivision and I arranged a contest
among them for that purpose.� �.� One of our salesmen was a Scotchman by the
name of Simpson.� He turned in the name
of a district in his homeland and when this name, Cheviot Hills, was finally
selected offered the further suggestion, producing a map of Scotland, that the
streets be given Scotch names.��
In
1938, the Los Angeles Times showed Cheviot
Hills� Progress
as typifying the
City�s growth; the photograph conspicuously shows the area where Cheviot Knolls
was about to be developed.� The original
Cheviot Hills tract is distinguished by �Frans-Nelson & Sons� stampings in sidewalks
and curbs.
Monte-Mar Vista
In May 17, 1925, a newspaper article promoted Monte Mar Vista:�� Residential
Development Is Surrounded by Beautiful Grounds of Country Clubs.� The
new tract would be �bounded on the northeast by the Hillcrest Country Club, on
the west by the Rancho Country Club and on the south by the California Country
Club.��
Opened for sale in 1926, Monte-Mar Vista (Mountain Sea View) was advertised as the �Central Jewel in a Tiffany Setting.�� Subdivided by W.R. McConnell, Fred W. Forrester, and John P. Hayes, the Frank Meline Company was developing Monte-Mar Vista by 1928.� Architect and developer Frank L. Meline was Alphonzo Bell�s first sales agent in Bel-Air, and he subdivided many other high-end developments, including Pacific Palisades� California Riviera and Castellammare.� Cheviot Hills developer Frans Nelson�s grandson (also named Frans Nelson � his father was George Nelson) told the author of this site that Ole Hanson was another Monte-Mar Vista developer and a friend of the elder Frans Nelson.� Ole Hanson, a former Seattle mayor, is better known for founding San Clemente in 1925.
Monte-Mar
Vista homes were advertised for their proximity to Pico Boulevard, �which
is close at hand, yet far enough to allow freedom from the noise and confusion.�� With �concrete
winding boulevards� and �not
a pole in sight � utilities are underground,� homes on streets such as McConnell
and Forrester were �priced
for quick sale at $3900 and up.��
Original
Monte Mar residents included �Banker, Financier� H. H. Cotton, who was later
president of the Beverly-Arnaz Land Company, a syndicate including Dominguez
family heirs, formed to purchase the Arnaz Tract.� Malibu
heiress Rhoda Rindge Adamson was forced to sell the Arnaz Tract, held through
the Marblehead Company, when she could not use it as oil land to pay off debts.� �Long
coveted by realty developers, the 330 remaining acres of the old rancho
constituted the last important unsubdivided area in western Los Angeles.�� Also on the
Beverly-Arnaz Land Company board was noted Los Angeles developer Walter H.
Leimert, who developed the Arnaz Tract as Beverlywood
and had earlier developed Cheviot Knolls.
Country Club Highlands
Country Club Highlands was developed by general contractor Hall Johnson
Co.� Advertising said, �The
wise buyers know that they can't equal the combination of low prices, high
elevation, beautiful view, right on Pico Boulevard, the airline to the beaches,
with the Wm. Fox Studios across the street, and three country clubs near by!�
and �homesites
for as low as $750, $112.50 down, 5 years to pay balance.� Some advertised benefits remain � albeit
under different names.� The �air
line to the beach� is today�s Expo Line;
Wm. Fox Studios mostly
remains as Twentieth Century Fox (the north side was sold off to become Century City).� Another advertisement urged, �Population
is rapidly pushing towards Country Club Highlands, pushing on and on!� Los Angeles� population is rapidly growing
solid to the beaches � and property values are rising in proportion.�
Cheviot Knolls
Cheviot Knolls� 120
homesites came to the south side of the neighborhood in 1939.� In 1940, a view
lot was advertised at $1125, and a �California ranch-style
home � two bedrooms and den � 1 1/2 baths � tile kitchen � large walled-in rear
porch� was priced at $7250.�
Cheviot
Knolls was owned
by the Francis Land Company, and developed by Walter H. Leimert.� The Walter H. Leimert Company
may be more known for the eponymous development to the south and east, Leimert
Park; however, it also developed Beverlywood,
to the east of Cheviot Hills.� The Francis Land
Company was incorporated by Henry O�Melveny in 1928 to help manage the Rancho
San Pedro holdings of Dominguez family scion Maria de los Reyes Dominguez de Francis.� She also had property on Dominguez Hill,
making her substantially wealthier when oil was discovered there in the
1920s.� �Due to her immense
wealth, she had to pay more income taxes than any other woman in the United
States.� At the time of her death on June
4, 1933, her estate was worth $15,000,000.�
California Country Club Estates
The next tract added to the area was the California Country Club Estates, which
replaced
its namesake � the California Country Club � in 1952.� Considered part of �Cheviot Hills� by some,
others exclude it especially because it has its own homeowners association, California Country Club Homes Association,
which was formed
to enforce the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) attached
to each lot.� According to a
contemporaneous Los Angeles Times article, Sanford
Adler�s 410 home California Country Club Estates development � valued at
$15,000,000 � was sold out by 1955.
Hillcrest View Estates
The Hillcrest View Estates development was squeezed between California Country
Club Estates to the south and the Chaminade Catholic High School grounds to the
north.� On June 5, 1955, the Los Angeles
Times reported that developer
Sanford D. Adler had completed three models on Medill Place and Anchor Avenue
and had twenty homes (priced from $34,000 to $50,000) under construction �in
Cheviot Hills, on Club Drive at Medill Place, adjoining the Hillcrest Country
Club.��
CHEVIOT
HILLS PARK
What
began as a country
club golf course beyond the city limits, a Los Angeles park because of a
decades-long citizens� campaign.�
ACE
ASELTINE PARK?� On
September 15, 1936, American Legion post commander C. D. "Ace"
Aseltine launched a drive to establish a recreation park on the site of the
bankrupt Rancho Country Club, formerly the property of Los Angeles' famed Ambassador
Hotel.� Realizing the potential of
the 125 acre tract (bounded by Pico Boulevard on the North, Monte Mar drive on
the south, Motor Avenue on the east, and Patricia Avenue on the west) Cheviot
Hills Post #501 of the American Legion sought to provide the community with a
unique recreational resource.� The idea
seemed natural to WWI Navy veteran and gas company engineer Ace Aseltine.� At the time, the country club site was leased
from the federal government (which had taken it over to satisfy tax liens), but
the lease was about to expire.� So the
Legionnaires "pointed
out that . . . Los Angeles [had] not one single large park west of Western
Avenue, [and that] in view of this fact, Western Los Angeles was entitled to
such a place for recreational purposes."
The
plan garnered support from the mayor, city councilmen, a County Supervisor,
Congressman John F. Dockweiler, Hamilton High School faculty, Emerson and
Overland schools' PTAs, and numerous other civic organizations, as well as the
other American Legion posts.� The
campaign took their long commitment.� It
wasn't until about November 1942 that the city began to lease the Rancho
Country Club.� And it wasn't until about
1944 or 1945 that plans began progressing to transfer the Country Club property
from the federal government to the city in exchange for Reeves Field on
Terminal Island.�
After
years of effort, the private Rancho Country Club became the public Rancho Park
Golf Course, again hosting the Rancho Park Golf Club, and the balance of the
land was converted into Cheviot
Hills Recreation Center, a 40 acre park with a community building, an
indoor gym, 5 ball diamonds, basketball courts, children's play areas, a
football field, an outdoor gym, a picnic area, a soccer field, 14 tennis
courts, a swimming pool, an archery range, and a band shell.� Los Angeles' flagship golf course now includes
the nations' busiest 18-hole golf course, a 9-hole executive par three golf
course, a double decked driving range, several putting greens, and a clubhouse
with a restaurant.� See John Jones� �Rancho
Park Course History.�
CHEVIOT HILLS POST
#501 OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
Post
scrapbook, compiled by Post Historian Bernard Geissler (Large Files)
1934 ●Part
1 ●Part
2
1935 ●Part
1 ●Part
2 ●Part
3
1936 ●Part
1 ●Part
2 ●Part
3
1937 ●Part
1
Ladies
Auxiliary scrapbook, dedicated to Mrs. Bernard Geissler (Cecille) (Large Files)
●Cover
and Index
1942
●July
●August
●September
●October
●November
●December
1943
●January
●February
●March
●April
●May
●June
●Inside
Publicity ●Appendix
BEVERLY HILLS
COUNTRY CLUB
The
Beverly Hills Country Club was built by Cheviot Hills subdivider Frans Nelson
& Sons.� Past owners have included
Ernie Kovacs, Jack Lemon, Edie Adams, and Elmer Griffin, uncle of celebrity
businessman Merv Griffin. �Its tennis
courts first opened on August 16, 1926.�
It
has operated under these names:
Palomar
Tennis Club (August 16, 1925-1932)
Pacific
Coast Tennis Club
(1932-1933)
Palomar-Pacific
Club (1933)
Palomar
Tennis Club (1934)
Colony
Club (1934)
Bath
and Tennis Club (1934-1935)
West
Side Tennis Club (1937-1954)
California
Racquet Club (1955-1962)
Standard
Club (1962-1971)
Cheviot
Hills Club (1972)
Westside
Racquet Club (1973-1985)
Beverly Hills Country Club
(1986-present)
ARTICLES
1932
West
Los Angeles article
1939
�Romance
of a Rancho� � the Arnaz Ranch
1939
Ballona Valley
History
AERIAL PHOTOS
1923
� Cheviot Hills (looking north toward Beverly Hills; Beverly Hills Speedway in
upper center)

1923
(November 5) � Cheviot Hills
1924
� Palms (Hughes Estate)
1925
(May 18) � Cheviot Hills
1925 (October 7) � Palms (Hughes
Estate � currently Le Lyc�e Fran�ais de Los Angeles� Overland Campus)
1927 (May 9) � Country Club
Highlands, Cheviot Hills & Monte Mar Vista subdivisions under construction
(looking east, Pico Boulevard along left)
1931 (October 29) Cheviot Hills
looking south
1931
(October 29) Cheviot Hills looking east
1937 (August 19) Cheviot Hills
(Haddington & Dunleer Drives cross in upper right)
1937
(December 21) Overland Avenue along bottom & Pico Boulevard along left
c. 1941 (May 11) � Rancho Park/Cheviot Hills (Overland
Avenue School in upper center)
Click here if you would like to contribute to this site, or if
you have comments or questions.