Playa
Del Rey, California
Real Estate and General Information
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About
Playa Del Rey
Tucked
in between Marina Del Rey to the north, the Ballona Wetlands
to the east and LAX to the South, Playa del Rey offers beautiful
beaches overlooking the Pacific Ocean just a few miles just
about everything. With downtown Los Angeles 19 miles northeast
of here, the commute is far shorter than neighboring cities
such as Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach which makes the
area an ideal combination of small town, beach front and a
shorter drive for downtown and
Westside commuters. Click
here to see recent Marina Del Rey home sales.
Housing
in the area consists of a number of condominium complexes,
large single family homes located on the bluffs with spectacular
ocean and marina views, and beautiful homes located right
on the sand. The residential community is built along streets
that dead-end into a lagoon near the ocean and run on top
of towering bluffs that have sand beach and ocean views. The
beach ends at a rock jetty and channel for boats entering
the Pacific Ocean from the Marina del Rey harbor.
Playa
del Rey appears to be one of those sleepy neighborhood beaches
where residents want to keep secret and prefer fewer people
knowing about their tucked away treasure.
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History
The Playa del Rey area, located about two miles south of Kinney's
Venice of America resort, was once, centuries ago, the mouth
of the Los Angles River. But after the river shifted course
to begin emptying in Los Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, it left
behind a sleepy lagoon more than two miles wide and one fifth
of a mile wide with a trickle of fresh water flowing to sea
along La Ballona
Creek.
Del
Rey Lagoon formed the southwest corner of the 13,920 acre
(15 square miles) Rancho La Ballona that stretched inland
from the ocean into what is now Palms and Culver City and
north to Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. It was a land grant
that was awarded by the Mexican governor in 1839 to Ygnacio
and Augustin Machado and Felipe and Tomas Talamantes.
In
1874, when the widow of Augustin Machado brought suit to evict
Tell, he packed up and moved to Santa Monica. However, in
1877 an Irishman named Michael Duffy opened "Hunter's
Cottage" in Tell's old location.
During
the late 1880's land boom in Southern California, one visionary
named Moye L. Wicks saw the potential of Playa del Rey as
a harbor. In 1886 he organized the Ballona Harbor and Improvement
Company to dredge out "Port Ballona." The company's
plans included a 200 foot channel linking the ocean to the
inner harbor which would be two miles long, 300 to 600 foot
wide and twenty feet deep.
After
the Santa Fe Railroad broke the Union Pacific's railroad monopoly
in Southern California by building a line north from San Diego,
they were searching for a major ocean terminal near Los Angeles
for the markets of the Orient. When the railroad agreed to
extend tracks to the port, Wicks' company began round-the-clock
dredging operations. The first passenger train, carrying 800
prominent and well- fed Angelenos, arrived at "Port Ballona"
on August 24, 1887.
In
June 1902, Sherman and Clark announced the formation of the
Beach Land Company, a syndicate of fifteen investors who had
teamed up with Henry P. Barbour. He had previously purchased
1000 acres around the lagoon and renamed the community Playa
del Rey (The King's Beach). The company intended to develop
the marshy land into a Venetian style resort. The landscape
architect, Alfred Solano, intended to take advantage of a
channel previously dredged in 1885 for a proposed harbor.
His design included Venetian bridges and towers, a bathing
pavilion along the beach, and a 250 room luxury hotel on top
of the bluffs. Some additional dredging was required but there
were no plans to build an extensive canal network.
Nearly
100 lots were sold for prices ranging from 0 to 500 at a July
16th auction and more were sold in August and September. With
the completion of the Sherman andClark owned Los Angeles Pacific
electric trolley line, the "Short Line," to Los
Angeles on October 19, 1902, hundreds began visiting the new
resort. A pavilion and small hotel were eventually built in
Oriental craftsman rather
than Venetian style, around the lagoon in 1904, but few investors
actually built on their lots. While Playa del Rey was considered
a modest success in attracting day tourists, it proved to
be Abbot Kinney's inspiration and served as an example of
a resort that wasn't large enough in scope to attract investors
or excite the public.
The
company built an impressive three-story, pavilion with restaurant
and dining
rooms, bowling alleys and dance floor. Sherman and Clark's
Los Angeles Pacific
Railway Company built the Hotel Del Rey with fifty guests
rooms. A boat racing
course was laid out and a grandstand and boathouse erected
on shore. A bridge
spanned the lagoon's ocean entrance and a 1200 foot long fishing
pier was built
nearby.
While
Playa del Rey wasn't nearly as popular as nearby Venice, it
partially owed
its success to C.M. Pierce who included it on his Balloon
Line Excursion Route.
Tourists could ride big red electric streetcars from downtown
Los Angeles and visit
Hollywood, the Sawtelle Old Soldier's home, Santa Monica,
Venice, Playa del Rey,
Redondo Beach's Long Wharf, and return to Los Angeles. They
would often move
2000 peopleto Playa del Rey and back on a Saturday or Sunday
excursion.
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