Los Cerritos History

Our old Fire Station No. 9 at 3917 Long Beach Blvd. has been in the news lately.  Concerns about mold have shuttered the station and the Long Beach City Council has agreed to try and renovate the existing station or relocate it.  In the meantime, the hunt is on for a site to temporarily house the firefighters  and equipment.  But this is not the first time in our history that Long Beach’s Fire Station No. 9 has been closed, housed in temporary facilities and then relocated.  In fact, our old Fire Station No. 9 at one time was our NEW Fire Station No. 9.  On May 13, 1939, the new Fire Station No. 9 at 3917 Long Beach Boulevard was formally opened.  What was called a Tudor-style cottage had been constructed by the  Works Project Administration (WPA). 

But this new station was not the City’s first Fire Station No. 9.   The original Fire Station No. 9 was located at the corner of Broadway and Belmont and like many other structures in Long Beach had been damaged by the 1933 earthquake.   Below is a picture of Fire Station No. 9 in 1925.

Earthquake damage, especially to the back of the station was severe enough to require complete demolition of the building. 

The City was in a bind.  How could they house the Fire Station No 9 crew and equipment until a new station No. 9 could be built?  Fortunately the circus came to town.  Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus loaned the city a tent which was used as a temporary fire station until a more “permanent” temporary station could be built. 

It was not unusual after the 1933 earthquake to see make-shift operations, including tents being used to continue providing services and teaching students.  The WPA built many buildings in Long Beach after the earthquake including many of our schools.  Improvements by the WPA were also made to the grounds at the Los Cerritos School.  See https://livingnewdeal.org/us/ca/long-beach-ca/ for a listing of WPA projects in Long Beach.

The new Fire Station No. 9 has had many upgrades over the course of its 80-year history.  It was originally constructed with an air raid siren but two years later, the city changed out the sirens for horns.  The horn could be heard for 30 blocks and a two-minute blast of the horn was a signal to black-out.

So too has the Circus industry changed. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus closed in 2017.  Maybe some tents are still available?

Appreciation to the Gerth Archives at CSU Dominguez Hills, http://digitalcollections.archives.csudh.edu/digital/collection/LBFiremen

This picture of Long Beach Blvd. (then known as American Avenue) taken circa 1925 is a view looking southeast from an area  north of Wardlow Road and South of Bixby Road.   The Signal Hill Oil Field reached into the Los Cerritos Neighborhood.  Many residents had wells in their backyards such as this photo of Reginald Campbell standing in his yard at 3841 Pacific Avenue in 1926.

Nearly every lot on Pine Avenue, Weston Place, Pacific Avenue and Chestnut Avenue south of Bixby Road, as well as lots in La Linda had an oil well on the lot.  Between the fires and the noise, some residents chose to abandon the neighborhood.  Others moved their homes.  The Campbell family moved their home to 235 East Claiborne.   Children could not walk to Los Cerritos school without an escort because of the oil fires.  Initially the wells were productive but by 1927 the field began to decline and the oil flow collapsed.  But by then, the neighborhood was devastated.  The Los Cerritos  Improvement Association under the leadership of its first president, Charles R. Rowlett worked to return the neighborhood to its former beauty.  In 1951 a portion of Los Cerritos Park was renamed for Rowlett.

Thank you to Stephen Dudley for his photo of Long Beach Blvd. and Hyra and David Goldberg for their photo of 3841 Pacific.

Charles T. McGrew was born in Indiana to a father who operated a lumber mill.   Followed in his father’s footsteps, Charles became a millwright.  He moved to Long Beach in 1901 and formed a building company called C. T. McGrew and Sons.  Two of his four children Wallace Milton (“W. Milton”) and Horace H. ((“Hal”) followed him into the business, with W. Milton acting as superintendent of construction and Hal worked in design.    The company would grow to become one of Long Beach’s most prominent general contracting firms in the early part of the 20^th century and would become known for the Pacific Coast Club, a fourteen- story high Normandy style building that once graced Long Beach’s Ocean Boulevard.   The McGrew Company  was called the “firm that built the city’s sky-line.”   But in addition to impacting the city’s skyline, the company also built many homes in the Los Cerritos area, including the home at 165 E. Roosevelt Street.   This beautiful two story revival brick and stucco house, built in 1929, became the home of W.  Milton McGrew.  Other occupants of the home included S. C. Wallace and later Edward Vivian Kuster.   Kuster had patented an invention for turning film in a photographic apparatus along with his business partner John C. Hewitt.

The Independent Press Telegram’s Sunday edition in 1969 included an extensive article about the remodel undertaken by a new family moving into the home, the Hal Steuben family from Redlands, Ca., where Mr. Steuben was General Manager of Servamation.  Servamation operated cafeterias for college campuses and businesses.  Mr. and Mrs Steuben, both graduates of Long Beach high schools were happy to move back to Long Beach where they took on the challenge of lovingly restoring a home which to Most of the Stueben’s remodel was confined to updating the interiors and restoring the mahogany paneling in the dining room to its mellow natural state.  The Pacific Coast Club is gone but homes like this one preserve the legacy of the McGrew Company.  The home is currently owned by the James Baker family.

Hal Steuben and children relax in family room, 1969.

Considering this is the first time in 25 years that the George H. Bixby Mansion  at 11 La Linda Drive in Los Cerritos is on the market, it seems appropriate to post some historical photos of the estate along with a sketch of how the property near the house was used.  The photo above was dated to about 1918 and shows the 1890’s structure after its remodeling by the San Francisco architectural firm of Coxhead and Coxhead in 1901.    George Bixby, the son of Jotham Bixby operated the Los Cerritos rancho business interests after his father’s death in 1917.  George’s own health began to decline shortly thereafter and his wife Amelia took on many responsibilities.  The Bixby property had a bunkhouse, barn, shops and a water-tank house and a house for the gardener.  The bunkhouse was demolished around 1910 when automobiles became popular.

The gardens at the home today have been restored to the original design which is captured in this 1920’s era  photo below.

The wedding of Marguerite Vignes, who lived in Los Cerritos with her family and Bertine James Walp, a young businessman of Long Beach was the highlight of 1914 for Los Cerritos residents.  This is an excerpt of the guest list Los Cerritos residents and others who attended the fete.  Marguerite was the daughter of John Louis Vignes who with his wife and daughters lived in one of the oldest residence in Los Cerritos, built in 1910.  Four hundred people attended the July 17, 1914 event which was held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 8:30 on a Wednesday evening.  Guests then had a supper at the Vignes “Mansion” as the press called it.  The home was located at the southwest corner of Temple and Court Streets which is today Pine and 37^th Street.

The P. Bixby and R. Bixby listed above are Philip Bixby and Richard Bixby, sons of George H. Bixby whose home is today in the La Linda section of Los Cerritos.   According to Bixby family member, Philip Bixby considered himself the “exclusive selling agent” in Los Cerritos as evidence by the advertisement  below which dates  to the period around World War I.