Los Cerritos History

A reader requested a photo of the one rooms school house that was built at the corner of San Antonio Drive  and Pine Avenue and here it is.  The school was built to accomodate the growing population of the Los Cerritos subdivision which was created in 1906.  Because there already was a Los Cerritos School on Willow Street, the school built at San Antonio and Pine became known as Los Cerritos School North.  The photo is dated 1914, the first year this school was used.  In the doorway, is teacher Marie Vignes. Note that this photo had been damaged at some point and someone traced in the outline of the bell tower on the top of the school.  After a  new two room school was built at the site of today’s Los Cerritos School. this building was moved to current school site at 515 West San Antonio Drive.  The building was used as a wood shop and caretaker’s quarters until it was demolished in June 1970.   I wonder if the school district knew that they were demolishing the original one-room school house at that time.  Fortunately, the school bell was saved.

The bell was moved to the new school built at 515 West San Antonio Drive and used until 1946.  The bell was restored by the Los Cerritos PTA and school patrons.  A ceremony to dedicate the monument with the bell was held in 1958.  Former teachers and students were invited back for the ceremony.  This is a recent photo of the school bell monument which is right in front of the Los Cerritos School Auditorium.

Another photograph of the Los Cerritos School south has just surfaced found in the Vignes family photo album in the possession of the descendants of Amelia Vignes, youngest daughter of John and Mary Kent Vignes.  John and Mary Vignes were one of the earliest residents  in the current Los Cerritos neighborhood which was subdivided in 1906.  The Los Cerritos school district had petitioned the county for a school in 1878 (yes, before Long Beach existed!) and the first school opened at 1415 West Willow Street in 1881.  As the number of children grew, a newer building was built.  This is the second building that was built at 1445 West Willow Street.   This photo is likely dated 1906 (see the comments below) and the one published in Long Beach’s Los Cerritos was probably around 1904-1905.   I have never seen a photograph of this school with the water tower in the front.  This school later became know as Los Cerritos School south when another school to serve the current neighborhood of Los Cerritos was built at Pine and San Antonio, opening in 1914.

This old photo of the Pacific Electric car was taken by former Los Cerritos resident Stephen Dudley, a member of the Bixby family.  He took this photo just after he hopped off a train.  At one time there was a more elaborate “station” with access for cars, steps down to the tracks and a small shelter on the west side of the tracks.  In the 1950’s when many in Los Cerritos worked in downtown Los Angeles, there were two three-car express trains each weekday that made their last stop coming out of Long Beach at Los Cerritos and first stop coming south from Los Angeles at Los Cerritos.   Many left their cars parked at the stop, but numerous spouses came down and waited for the train.  A very busy time when the trains arrived – and vice versa in the morning when people were dropped off.   Mr. Dudley remembers using the P.E. car to return home to the neighborhood  from Poly High school.

Evolving from a 27,000 thousand acre Rancho to a 1400 acre Colony of farmers, and book cover cropped for blogthen to a neighborhood subdivision, Long Beach’s Los Cerritos is the story of a fiercely independent community established before William Willmore’s vision for a City of Long Beach took hold. Just published in Spring 2014, copies are available at Rancho Los Cerritos. The book has eight chapters beginning with the history of Rancho Los Cerritos and the ranches in the Los Cerritos and Bixby Knoll’s area. Early residents of the Cerritos Colony that began purchasing land in the Colony in 1878 are covered including the Teel family and those who were associated with the Methodist and Holiness Churches who were some of the first settlers in the Colony. The book introduces the family of John Louis Vignes, long thought to be a name only associated only with Los Angeles’ history but now known to be one of the first home buyers in the 1906 Los Cerritos Subdivision. Learn about the El Rodeo Bachelor club, included in a chapter that covers community activities up to the present day. The chapter on Los Cerritos Schools starts with the first class in 1881 to the current school, including a picture of Cameron Diaz acting in a school play in 1984. The discovery of oil in Signal Hill in 1921 brought dramatic changes in the neighborhood leading to the annexation by the City of Long Beach. The book concludes with the history of the Virginia Country Club and the area surrounding it of architecturally significant homes. Proceeds from sales go to supporting Rancho Los Cerritos.