Mar Vista

By Mena Said

Centinela (Centinela Ave.) comes from the Spanish word lookout. The US military used Mar Vista Hill as a look out for attacks coming from the direction of Catalina. “Can you imagine seeing camels and uniformed soldiers on Grand View Blvd. in 1862?” They used camels because Los Angeles is a desert.

In 1905, Ocean Park Heights, now known as Mar Vista, was established along with Abbot Kinney’s development of City of Ocean Park (now known as Venice). The community changed its name to Mar Vista in 1924. It was known as the “back country” since it was east and south of the City of Ocean Park.

Mar Vista was famous for its rich agriculture soil. All of Mar Vista use to have lots of lima bean fields. Mar Vista was known was the Lima Bean Belt of the Nation. Lima bean was brought to the United States by a South American sailor who was asked where the beans he was eating were from, and he said they were from Lima, Peru. In 1868 Henry Lewis planted the first lima bean field in United States soil. Santa Monica Airport was a lima bean field. Mar Vista holds an annual celebration for its history of Lima Beans for over 80 years and, the celebration is on August 5th.

In 1900 what is now Santa Monica Airport was a farm. In 1928, Douglas Aircraft Company was established. It was based in

Santa Monica Airport, and it manufactured airplanes for the United States Military.

In the 1940s, Gregory Ain Mar Vista Tract, Los Angeles’ Historical Preservation Overlay Zone(2003), built 52 homes which were affordable to employees of the Douglas company and veterans.

Mar Vista was originally about 5 square miles. However, its size increased and continues to do so, because some neighborhoods are losing their organization and becoming part of Mar Vista’s community council.

In 1913, Harry Culver found Culver City. In 1914, Abbot Kinney built and started Venice High School on a

bath house campus. The school was part of Venice, however its zip code became 90066 making it part of Mar Vista’s territory.

In 1925, Mar Vista Post Office is built.

In the 1940s DWP was looking for a place to build a reservoir site. They used Mar Vista because Mar Vista Hill was 200 ft. above sea level. In the 1960s the reservoir was no longer needed because Los Angeles started using water from the Colorado River.

Around 1960 Saint Bede’s Episcopal Church was built in Mar Vista.

North Venice Little League was established in 1966. Ocean View Farms in 1977

“Venice Short Line” was a common term for the “most direct route” from Downtown Los Angeles to Venice, Ocean Park, and Santa Monica which traveled on Venice Boulevard. The photo below shows the train at the train station in 1944. The train system was rarely used after 1950 and started to get eliminated.

Venice Before and After

In the 1950’s Mar Vista had a “sub-branch” library which upgraded to a “full branch.” Its old building is now Sam Johnson’s Bookshop.

The Moreton Bay Fig Tree, planted in 1875, is Mar Vista’s cultural monument.

Demographics

Zip Code: 90066 Population: 35,492 Median household income: $62,611

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