The best known of the historic Long Beach area gun clubs is the Cerritos Gun Club, sometimes referred to as the “Los Cerritos Gun Club” founded in 1890. Club member and conservationist Will J. Reid wrote and published a history of the Gun Club in 1940. When the Cerritos Gun Club, closed in 1941 to make way for the Lakewood County Club, Reid had the clubhouse and bungalows moved to land he donated to the Boy Scouts for a camp, Will J. Reid Park at 4747 Daisy Street in Long Beach. In her oral interview in the California State University Library, Virginia Reid Moore, daughter of Will J. Reid, confirmed that the small bungalows used as bunk houses at the Cerritos Gun Club were also moved to the scout camp along with the clubhouse. The small buildings had been purchased in 1909 from H. J. Brainerd, a manufacturer and builder of portable houses.
Several years ago, armed with a picture of the Brainerd buildings I went to Will J. Reid Park to see if I could find any of the original buildings. They were still some buildings then but they are now gone as the LB Area Council sold the site for development. It is now the home of the Rivergate Housing Development. According to Long Beach scout historian Paul Muehleback the late 60s and 70s was when the scout camp underwent a redevelopment. The old Cerritos Gun Club Clubhouse was torn down in 1969 to make room for the new ranger residence and part office. Once that was done, the old ranger residence which was part of a wooden warehouse complex was demolished to make room for the new training center which was dedicated in 1974. The top picture next to a sketch of a Brainerd building looks similar in shape but it was built it was new rangers residence built in 1969 on the site of the old Cerritos club house building. The photo above shows the back side of the building which was the camp office and trading post. It was of cinder block construction. So although it looks similar in style to a Brainerd building, it is not.
Paul followed up with some old scouters and learned that the small building below was built in 1986 as a Woodbadge project by adult volunteers. It was only about 8 feet by 10 feet and was primarily used by the adult volunteers who were on duty when there were events at the park. The building only housed a metal frame military style bed and possibly a small desk. While there were Brainerd buildings at the Gun Club originally, no photos to date have been found of Cerritos Gun Club site with its buildings.
I currently live in one of the houses directly behind this pictured little bungalow. I was always curious about the history of the buildings on the property of 4747 Daisy. Can anyone give details about the plantings of all the trees at the old Will J Reid Boy Scout camp. Someone once shared that their Dad had gifted some of the hundreds of trees that were there. I miss the canopy of Eucalyptus that circled the perimeter of the property & wonder if they were there before 1940
I enjoy reading these old historical accounts of LB. Thanks for posting.
JM
The photo of a supposed Brainerd building from 2011 at Will J. Reid Scout Camp is not as advertised. That building–the Campmaster Building–was constructed by volunteers in the early 2000s (or possibly the late 1990s) by adult Scout volunteers. It was indeed demolished in the late 2020s, along with everything else at the old Scout camp, when the current housing project was developed. I am not aware of any “small houses” at the Scout park ever. I have photos of the park from 1941, 1949 and in the 1950s. As a Scout I went to that park many times in the 1960s. And as an adult volunteer ever since I attended meetings, trainings and many other events at the park over the years. As historian of the Long Beach Area Council of the Boy Scouts, I believe that Mrs. Moore’s memory of the small houses moving to the park may be in error. Either that, or they existed for a short time and were removed. I do remember the larger clubhouse at Will J. Reid Park in the 1960s and I have a few photos of it. It was indeed demolished to make way for improvements in 1974.
Paul- thanks for your comment. What originally tipped me off to the Brainerd building connection was an article in the Sept. 19, 1909 Herald Examiner which mentions the purchase of a 3 room building by Walter M. Clark for the Cerritos Gun Club from Brainerd. According to the article Brainerd had a version of his building specifically for gun and fishing clubs. As an aside, Clark was lost when the Titanic went down. The paper Virginia Reid Moore was written when she was a UCLA student and it was pretty clear she had her Dad’s input. And of course it sounds like Will to make sure the old gun club buildings were donated. In Will’s book on the gun club, he mentioned them being moved other times, they were kept on cinder blocks. I matched a picture of a Brainerd building advertisement with the building that I found there. But you are right, I had not way of knowing this was one of the buildings that got moved. I would however love to see your photo of the larger building that was moved from the gun club.
This is wonderful information, too bad our City did not preserve this property for future generations to enjoy as a park or nature preserve, https://www.lbreport.com/news/oct13/reidsold.htm. Now some of us are attempting to save last vacant parcels of land that are in no way as pristine as the old Will J. Reid Boy Scout Camp once was, https://www.riverparkcoalition.org/ .