History

The Broadway, at left, was the first major store at Del Amo Shopping Center, shown in this undated early 1960s Daily Breeze file photo. The empty lot north of it across Carson Street would become Del Amo Fashion Center. The intersection of Hawthorne and Sepulveda boulevards is visible at bottom right.

 

The saga of Del Amo Fashion Center, Torrance's massive mall complex, begins with the December 1957 groundbreaking for the $40 million Del Amo Shopping Center. The outdoor shopping area was built over the next few years on land owned by the Del Amo Estate Co. Its boundaries included Carson Street and Sepulveda Boulevard to the north and south, and Hawthorne Boulevard and Madrona Avenue to the west and east.

The Broadway became the center's first major department store when it opened in February 1959, followed by a large Sears store later that year, and J.C. Penney's in March 1961. Dozens of smaller stores were added to the mix, and the center became an immediate success.

Bullocks department store, which already had opened other Fashion Square developments in Southern California, took notice and began to develop Del Amo Fashion Square, a separate shopping center directly across Carson Street to the north of the Del Amo Shopping Center. Bullocks opened its store there in 1966. The center soon added an I. Magnin's and a Desmond's.

Del Amo Fashion Square's plans grew more ambitious with the start of construction in 1970 of an indoor, air-conditioned mall adjacent to the Bullocks complex. This $100 million section included anchor stores Ohrbach's and Montgomery Ward, and opened on Aug. 9, 1971.

 

This 1976 Daily Breeze file photo shows a sidewalk sale at Del Amo Center, which had yet to become enclosed.

 

Across the street, Del Amo Center, as it was now known, remained an open-air shopping complex until it was purchased in 1977 by The Torrance Company, which already owned Del Amo Fashion Square. The new owners began enclosing the older mall with an eye toward eventually linking the two complexes. In the early years of the two malls, rivalry and rancor existed, but by the late 1970s, the long-term plan to join the two finally began to gain traction, and "The Marriage of the Malls" started to look like it might become a reality.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, 1977, Del Amo Fashion Center and Del Amo Center held a wacky public relations event to announce the plans to join forces and become the largest shopping mall in the U.S. Two couples who won a contest sponsored by The Daily Breeze, Linda Clement and John C. Hoffman of Los Angeles, and Oshia A. Wilson and Brian Rork of Wilmington, walked down "the aisle" of Carson Street before hundreds of onlookers. They had  225 wedding attendants, one for each of the newly united mall's 225 stores. The couples were then married amid much promotional hoopla.

(By the way, should anyone from the two couples who got married during this event read this, we'd love to hear how things turned out.)

 

The two happy couples pose in front of The Magic Pan on the day of their September 1977 nuptials. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The joining of the malls took somewhat longer than the marriage ceremonies. The plan was to build an enclosed pedestrian walkway over Carson Street that would connect Del Amo Fashion Square with a newly constructed Robinson's store at Del Amo Center just south of Carson.

 

 

This August 1979 aerial view shows preliminary construction in progress on the $20 joining of the malls across Carson Street, center, with Del Amo Center to the left of Carson and Del Amo Fashion Square at right. Below, an August 1980 view of the construction from ground level. Daily Breeze file photos.

 

 

Construction on the $20 million project began in 1978, and the united malls officially opened at an invitation-only gala held on Saturday, Nov. 20, 1981. The mall's central passageway now led shoppers over Carson Street and right through the middle of the Robinson's store with exits on either end. (Robinson's has been converted into Macy's, as has the original Bullocks store on the other side of the street. The mall's main passageway still passes through the middle of the store.) Makeovers on the mall's interior included the addition of a completely remodeled International Food Court.

The resulting mall did indeed become the largest enclosed shopping center in the U.S., a title Del Amo Fashion Center would retain for the next 11 years, until the opening of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Aug. 11, 1992.

Del Amo Fashion Center underwent another major expansion with the opening of its outdoor Lifestyle Wing in Fall 2006, which added movie theaters, a retro bowling alley, several restaurants and dozens of other stores.

Del Amo Fashion Center currently ranks 15th among malls in America by retail square footage, and second in California behind Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza. The King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Penn., is now the nation's largest.

 

The passenger walkway across Carson Street that was built to connect the two malls in 1981. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

"Largest Shopping Malls in the United States," American Studies at Eastern Connecticut State University, April 25, 2009.

Traffic streams through the Sepulveda Tunnel under the south runway at LAX. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

 

When a set of water pumps in the Sepulveda Tunnel under LAX malfunctioned during rainstorms in mid-November 2011, a lot of drivers learned how vital this transportation link can be. The tunnel flooded, leading to massive traffic jams in the area that lasted for hours. The pumps were repaired a few days later, shortly before the busy Thanksgiving travel period.

Sepulveda Boulevard didn't always run under LAX's south runway. For years, motorists on Sepulveda had to use a bypass road 1500 feet west of Sepulveda to detour around the airstrip.

Funded by a half-and-half combination of a 1945 airport bond issue and a special federal grant, construction on the estimated $3.5 million (unadjusted for inflation) tunnel project began in October 1949.

It was an impressive engineering feat. The structure had to be strong enough to withstand airplanes landing on the runway above it. Complex lighting, ventilation and drainage systems had to be built, and the tunnel needed its own power plant to operate them.

The Sepulveda Tunnel in 1953, shortly after its completion. Photo: Flight Path Learning Center and Museum, LAX.

 

At the time of its completion in March 1953, the six-lane, 1909-foot-long divided tunnel was the only traffic tunnel under a large  airport runway in the United States.

The tunnel's grand opening was held on April 21, 1953. L.A. Mayor Fletcher Bowron cut the ribbon (presumably with one of those giant pairs of scissors), and the LAPD band provided entertainment during the ceremony.

After the first 100 cars traveled through the tunnel, their drivers received mementoes of the aviation industry from stewardesses (flight attendants)  who were stationed at the intersections of Sepulveda with Imperial Highway and Century Boulevard.

 
Almost immediately, complaints about dangers stemming from the dim lighting in the tunnel became commonplace, but it took until 1965 for money to be approved to overhaul the lighting system.

Lighting in the tunnel has continued to be an issue. Plans to replace the current conventional lighting with LED lights that will not burn out as quickly are scheduled to be implemented by 2012.

The current lighting in the Sepulveda Tunnel is expected to be replaced by an LED lighting system in 2012. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

 

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files, especially "Tunnel At Airport Nears Completion," by Charles Hillinger, Oct. 26, 1952, Page B1.

 

The laying of the cornerstone at the partially built El Segundo High School administration building occurred on June 18, 1927. Photo: El Segundo Historical Committee of the Friends of the El Segundo Public Library.

 

For the first few years of El Segundo's existence - the city was incorporated in 1917 - high school students attended Inglewood High.

But the growing city, which began to thrive with the arrival of the Standard Oil (now Chevron) refinery in 1911, knew that it needed a first-class high school to serve its population.

The cornerstone for El Segundo High School was laid on June 18, 1927. Los Angeles architects Alfred W. Rea and Charles E. Garstang designed the building in a neo-Romanesque style meant to evoke the classic design of buildings at East Coast Ivy League schools.

A $500,000 bond measure to finance construction of the core campus buildings passed in December 1925. Construction of the school began in February 1927, and the dedication of the new campus was held on Dec. 13, 1927, with State Superintendent of Schools John Cooper giving the keynote speech at the ceremony. El Segundo High's first 124 students began classes at the new school on Jan. 3, 1928.

The motto above the main entrance to El Segundo High's administration building reads, "Enter to Learn -- Go Forth for Service." November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

 

In addition to traditional high school educational requirements, El Segundo High also had a strong shop program. So much so, that female students petitioned for and were granted classes in millinery, dressmaking, and, in 1934, dance, to help make up the emphasis on male-oriented class offerings.

Because of a change in the state educational code allowing districts to be formed that included elementary as well as high schools, El Segundo became one of the first cities in California to form its own unified school district in 1936.

After renovations following the 1933 earthquake, the school's auditorium became an in-demand facility for all kinds of productions. South Bay History blog readers might remember it as one of the South Bay sites where the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theater Project presented the play "Help Yourself" in 1937.

In 1940, a new swimming pool was constructed. In 1973, it would be renamed the Urho Saari Swim Stadium after the Finnish swim coach who won many championships and coached U.S. Olympic teams during a decades-long successful career at the school.

El Segundo High has become one of the South Bay's most highly regarded public high schools, with a reputation for academic as well as athletic excellence. Baseball coach John Stevenson became a legend during the course of a 50-year career with the school, during which he worked with such future major leaguers as Orioles pitcher Scott MacGregor and Hall of Famer George Brett.

Because of its picturesque location and classic architecture, El Segundo High has been used extensively over the years as a film location. The list of films that used the location is extensive, from "A Yank at Eton" (1942) to "Blackboard Jungle" (1955) and "Rock 'n' Roll High School" (1979). The school recently got extensive exposure in "90210," the revival of the popular 1980s television series "Beverly Hills 90210."

The school's buildings are employed so often by Hollywood that restrictions on the number of days when filming could take place were imposed in 2009, though the ordinance was modified later to help make up for revenue losses caused by the restrictions.

 

  The picturesque El Segundo High School campus has been a favorite location for films and television. November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

El Segundo: Seventy-Five Years: A Pictorial History of El Segundo, California, by Eileen Curry Hunter, H2 Limited Publishers, 1991.

The El Ja Arms, "The Perfect Hotel," near the corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue in 1924. Daily Breeze file photo. Note the Red Car coming down the middle of Diamond Street.

 

The El Ja Arms Hotel was the second hotel to be built in Redondo Beach, though it was nowhere near as large as the city's first, the Hotel Redondo. Located on the southeast corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue, The El Ja Arms had 24 apartments and 20 sleeping rooms.

Built by Louis J. Baumbeck for $50,000, the three-story structure opened on July 4, 1915.

From the first, the El Ja Arms carved out a niche as a luxury destination. Its rooms overlooked the El Paseo area of seaside Redondo, with its pier, saltwater plunge and the Pavilion with its dance hall. The lobby of the El Ja had a Victorian elegance, with murals, mirrors and a large crystal chandelier that was still there in 1970.

 

The crystal chandelier still stands in the lobby of the El Ja Arms in this Jan. 8, 1970 Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The hotel also had a dance hall upstairs that was converted into suites  in the early 1940s, as well as its own restaurant, The Sea Gull Inn, which had sailing motifs throughout. All this and an elevator, too!

The El Ja became a favorite among movie stars and celebrities. Its guests during its heyday included Charlie Chaplin, Ramon Navarro, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Roy Rogers and many others.

Baumbeck operated the hotel until his death in 1938, when it was inherited by Mrs. Barbara Fitzgerald and her husband, who operated it for the next three decades.

Its grandeur faded somewhat over the years, and in the late 1960s, it fell victim to the redevelopment of the area, in which Pacific Avenue and environs were bulldozed to make way for King Harbor and associated developments.

 

The exterior of the El Ja Arms in January 1970, shortly before it was demolished. Sign in window says, "Furniture for Sale." Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The Redondo Beach Redevelopment Agency gained title to the property in June 1969. The hotel was vacated by March 1970.

The El Ja Arms was torn down in May 1970 to make way for the Redondo Plaza Project, a $52 million project that included the massive The Village at Redondo Beach condominium complex, which stands on the site today.

Diamond Avenue now ends at Catalina Avenue. Eventually, Pacific Avenue, which also was the home of the Daily Breeze before its move to Torrance Boulevard in the 1960s, ceased to exist, and the seaside glamour of the El Ja Arms became just a memory.

 

Only one wall of the El Ja Arms still stands in this May 1970 Daily Breeze file photo taken during its demolition.

 

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files, especially "Historic Hotel Era Nears End," by Jerry Reynolds, Jan. 19, 1970.

Sheriff's deputies Lt. Jack Norris, left, and Sgt. A.J. Sully examine the abandoned mine shafts on the Great Lakes Carbon Corp. site in Torrance in this May 1964 Daily Breeze photo.

 

In the early 1900s, the Dicalite Company began mining diatomaceous earth in the South Bay.

Diatoms are single-cell organisms that settle to the bottom of the ocean, which at one point covered much of the region. After millions of years of heat and compression, diatomaceous earth is formed. The pumice-like substance can be used for everything from water filters to toothpaste, pest control, insulation and even kitty litter.

Dicalite's operations included an area of the Palos Verdes Peninsula that was turned into an open-pit mine when Great Lakes Carbon Corp. bought Dicalite and the rights to the operation in 1944. After the Crenshaw Boulevard operation shut down, part of it became the South Coast Botanic Garden and another portion remains the still-undeveloped former Palos Verdes Landfill.

As a part of the Dicalite Company's earlier operations, a series of mine shafts and tunnels were built in Torrance. At the time, Madison Street dead-ended in undeveloped land just west of what would become the Lomita Flight Strip and, eventually, Torrance Municipal airport.

A tunnel extending at least a half-mile from that point towards Palos Verdes was dug in the early 1900s. It was wide enough to accommodate mule teams that would bring out the earth, and had several side shafts and a large side branch with room for storage and supplies.

Dicalite abandoned the mine in 1933, after a worker was killed there during the Long Beach earthquake.

The Dec. 11, 1941 Torrance Herald suggested the abandoned mine could have served as an ideal civil defense shelter during wartime with the addition of lighting, ventilation and toilet facilities, though this idea never was pursued.

A mine shaft descends into the earth at the Torrance abandoned mine site in the May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.

 

Over the years, the abandoned shafts and tunnels became a favorite place for kids to explore.

After 1944, ownership of the part of the site went to Great Lakes Carbon when it acquired Dicalite, with the rest of the land belonging to Los Angeles County.
Attempts were made to close off the dangerous playplace, but the area proved irresistible to youthful explorers. When a 14-year-old doing some digging of his own was trapped in a cave-in inside the mine in the fall of 1963, efforts to close off the mine shafts became more serious.

The boy survived, but the incident "scared us to death," said W.R. Smittle, Great Lakes Carbon's chief chemist at the time.

County officials and the company debated methods to close off the shafts. The county wanted to pour cement in the holes, but Smittle had found that resourceful explorers could either break parts of the concrete off, or just dig around it. So concrete chunks were dropped into the holes, with cement poured on top of those and dirt packed in on top of that.

Kids loved exploring the abandoned Torrance mines near the Torrance Municipal Airport. Here, a ladder descends to the floor of the mine in this May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The fill-in operation began on May 12, 1964. The company had to post guards to keep trespassers away while the cement had a chance to set. A guard remained at the property afterwards to discourage future interlopers.

The problem went away permanently when that section of Madison Street was extended to Pacific Coast Highway and the entire mine shaft area was removed for projects such as the Skypark Development Project in the 1970s. But the half-mile long tunnel was never filled in, as it would have taken an estimated one million yards of earth to do so.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Torrance Herald files.

 This undated Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce postcard shows the original wooden pier built in 1904. Photo: Hermosa Beach Historical Society.

 

The first Hermosa Beach Pier was built in 1904, two years before the city officially incorporated. Constructed out of wood, the 500-foot-long pier broke up and much of it floated out to sea during a violent storm in 1913. The strength of such winter storms along the west-facing South Bay beaches was the undoing of many such structures over the years, including various incarnations of the Redondo Beach pier, and had much to do with San Pedro's victory in winning the battle to become Los Angeles' official port in 1907.

Crowds gather on the new concrete Hermosa Beach pier for its dedication in 1914. Photo: Hermosa Beach Historical Society.

 

The city rebuilt its pier almost immediately, opening a new 1000-foot-long concrete version in

1914. Built at a cost of about $60,000, its design, featuring shaded alcoves (see postcard at right), proved especially attractive to fishermen as well as tourists. During its heyday, the buildings at the base of the pier contained the county lifeguard headquarters, offices of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce, a Los Angeles County library branch and a local live theater group, Playhouse on the Pier.
Weakened by earlier storms, the pier required frequent repairs to its pilings. Two powerful storms in 1940 and 1945 knocked the seaward portion of the pier out of commission for good. It was condemned and closed to the public in 1944, and the 1945 storm  was its death knell, knocking out whole sections of the structure. (The offices and businesses at the base of the pier remained open.)
The battered pier would be mostly closed to foot traffic for more than a decade. Fishermen flocked there when it was opened briefly in May 1951, but by the fall of that year, city officials had deemed it too dangerous and closed it once again. After years of squabbling over   financing, liability and other issues, the city made the official decision to demolish what was left of the pier early in 1958, plnning to replace it with a newer and more durable structure. But these processes take time even once a  decision has been reached. The actual razing of the old pier didn't begin until Sept. 11, 1961, when the National House Wrecking and Salvage Co. of Gardena began the $16,500 project.
Hermosa Beach city fathers had been working on plans for a new pier for years. The price tag for the new structure: $600,000. To pay for it, the city used $300,000 of the $500,000 it had received in 1958 from oil companies in order to hold an election for an offshore drilling measure. The measure was defeated, but the city got to keep the money regardless of the outcome. When it received a matching $300,000 grant in August 1963 from the State Wildlife Conservation Board made up of the state's cut of proceeds from pari-mutuel wagering at horse tracks, funding of the new pier was complete. As former mayor William Sachau would observe at the new pier's dedication on June 5, 1965, the structure was "the product of horse racing and oil drilling."

 

This June 5, 1965 Daily Breeze photo shows an aerial view of the new pier at its dedication. Crowds of people take a walk on the new pier after the ceremony, below.

 

 

Despite overcast skies, the new 1,140-foot long pier's dedication ceremony was a success, attracting large crowds and the usual bevy of local politicians and dignitaries. The newly unveiled structure featured a concrete block building at its end that contained a snack bar, bait and tackle shop and rest rooms. It also had three sinks for fish cleaning at its outer end.

 

High surf lashes the pier in February 2001. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The current pier has not been impervious to the ocean's movements. A three-phase, $9 million renovation project begun in 1998 was completed in 2005. As a part of that renovation, the building housing a bait shop, snack bar and restrooms at the end of the pier was removed.

The remodeling also included structural strengthening of the pier and its pilings, improvements to the decks, lighting and railings and the construction of Schumacher Plaza at the head of the pier. The plaza, which includes a sculpture of surfing pioneer Tim Kelly, is named after the deceased twin brother of longtime Hermosa Beach resident David Schumacher, who donated $1 million to the pier renovation project.

The pier has been closed for repairs periodically in more recent times, most notably in December 2009 and during parts of 2010, to repair cracked pilings and other structural issues.

A curious crowd gathers at the Hermosa Beach pier in March 2011 to look for signs of a tsunami that failed to materialize. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The pier also has remained central to Hermosa Beach's surf culture over the years. On March 29, 2003, the city dedicated its Surfers Walk of Fame. Plaques were installed on the pier honoring its first seven inductees, Greg Noll, Hap Jacobs, Dewey Weber, Mike Purpus, Dale Velzy, Bing Copeland and Mike Stoner. Induction ceremonies are held annually for past and present surfing luminaries.

Surfer Donald Craig poses with his new plaque on the Hermosa Beach Pier Surfers Walk of Fame in 2009. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

In October 2011, the Hermosa Beach City Council passed an ordinance banning smoking in most public places, including on the pier.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

 

The newly built U.S.S. Mississippi is launched at the Newport News, Va. shipyard on Jan. 25, 1917. Photo: Library of Congress.

 

The U.S.S. Mississippi battleship was ordered for the U.S. Navy on June 30, 1914. She was launched from its construction berth at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Virginia on Jan. 25, 1917 and commissioned for service in December of that year.

The Mississippi didn't see action during World War I, but was used for training stateside and for patrolling along the East Coast.

Following the war, the Mississippi was used for training. On June 12, 1924, while stationed at the Port of Los Angeles, the Mississippi, the U.S.S. Tennessee, U.S.S. Idaho and U.S.S. California set out to participate in maneuvers being held in the naval training area near San Clemente Island south of Catalina.

The U.S.S. Mississippi off the coast of Panama in 1923, with gun turrets at front left configured as they would have been at the time of the June 1924 explosion. Photo: U.S. Naval Historical Center.

 

About 45 miles from the Port, a series of explosions ripped through the Mississippi's Gun Turret No. 2 while it was being reloaded after firing. The exploding gunpowder charges were powerful enough to seal the metal doorways and passageways shut, asphyxiating men who were trapped inside. Inside the the turret and in the surrounding area, 44 men were killed.

Rescue crews knew immediately that there were casualties, but they had to open hatches sealed by the blast with acetylene torches to reach the area where they could see the full extent of the casualties.

The bodies still were being pulled out as the ship reached the entrance to the Port. Suddenly, gunpowder remaining in Gun No. 5, one of the guns in Turret No. 2, also exploded, killing four members of the rescue squad. In all, 48 men died in the blasts, 3 officers and 45 enlisted men in what was, at that time, one of the Navy's deadliest peace-time disasters.

Five days later, a memorial service was held at Trona Field at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro. About 5,000 servicemen and thousands more spectators paid tribute to the men who had lost their lives on the Mississippi. In 1940, a memorial tablet would be placed at the spots where the caskets were placed during the 1924 ceremonies.

Military personnel line up in position on Trona Field in San Pedro on June 17, 1924, for the memorial service honoring the victims of the U.S.S. Mississippi explosion as spectators look on.

 

Though the accident had taken its toll in human lives, it did not end the Mississippi's service. The ship continued to be used for training, and received a major modernization from 1931-1933. After Pearl Harbor, she joined the Pacific Fleet and took part in many of the major battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

In a chilling reprise of the 1924 disaster, another turret explosion occurred on Nov. 29, 1943 near Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands, killing 43 men. After repairs, the Mississippi continued its wartime service, and was present in Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender to the U.S. on Sept. 2, 1945.

The ship was used for a variety of operations following World War II, including the launch of the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile. In September 1956, the Mississippi was decommissioned, and was scrapped at Portsmouth, Va., in November 1956 after nearly 40 years of service.

A reunion and dinner attended by 175 people was held at the Fleet Reserve Clubhouse in San Pedro on the the occasion of the Mississippi's decommissioning in Septemeber 1956. It was the ninth annual reunion of those who had served on the ship, and included not only those who reminisced about her wartime exploits, but also some old-timers who recalled the 1924 explosion.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files, especially "Flames and Gas Spread Death in Mississippi Gun Turret," June 13, 1924, Page 1.

Port of Los Angeles: An Illustrated History from 1850-1945, by Ernest Marquez and Veronique de Turenne, Angel City Press, 2007.

"USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956," Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb41.htm.

 

The Dutch-themed blue bakeries with the windmills grew out of a partnership that began in downtown Los Angeles in 1915.

Theodore Van de Kamp and his brother-in-law Lawrence Frank began selling potato chips, then known as Saratoga chips, in a tiny storefront at 236 1/2 Spring Street downtown. Van de Kamp's wife Marion and Frank's wife Henrietta acted as saleswomen at the store, which sold out its first batch of chips in two hours.

A potato famine caused the pair to diversify their product line into baked goods - pretzels and macaroons - in 1916. They renamed their store Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Store, opening their first full-fledged branch in 1921. Their wives designed the trademark blue Dutch maid costumes that would be worn by a generation of Van de Kamp's workers.

By 1929, the original store had grown into a chain with 95 outlets in the L.A. area. The operation had grown large enough for the company to need a central production facility to supply its stores. They built such a plant at 2945 Fletcher Drive in Glassell Park, near San Fernando Road.

This 1940s-era postcard shows a typical free-standing Van de Kamp's retail store in Los Angeles, location not specified.

 

In addition to its free-standing bakery stores, Van de Kamp's also signed agreements in the

1930s and 1940s with markets to sell its bakery products in special areas inside the grocery stores. The grand opening of such a store was held on Friday, Oct. 21, 1935 in downtown Torrance, inside the Quality Super Market at 1325 Sartori Avenue. Children got a free windmill toy and bag of cookies at the festivities.
The bakery's products proved popular enough for the company to open a full-fledged store, complete with operating windmill, at El Prado and Cravens Avenue in downtown Torrance, on Feb. 21, 1941. (See Torrance Herald ad from Feb. 20, 1941 at left.) The blue store with the turning windmill became a local landmark.
The prosperous company changed hands in 1956, when Theodore Van de Kamp died, and Lawrence Frank began devoting more of his energies to the Lawry's Food Manufacuring business which had grown out of the Lawry's the Prime Rib restaurant the brothers had opened on La Cienega Boulevard in 1938.
The Van de Kamp's operation, which had grown to include coffee shops as well as free-standing and in-store bakeries, was sold to General Baking Co., which later became General Host Corp. (A 1950s-era menu can be seen at left, courtesy the Los Angeles Public Library menus collection.) The new owner kept bakery operations the same for several years, but diversified the company in 1959 by starting a frozen-foods line to make available some of its coffee-shop specialties to consumers, including frozen fish dishes such as its popular fish sticks.
Faced with falling revenues, General Host sold off the coffee shops to Tiny Naylors in 1973, and officially split the bakery and frozen foods divisions in 1977.  The Van de Kamp's name still is found in supermarket frozen food sections; Pillsbury Co. bought the Long Beach-based offshoot of the baking company in September 1984, building it into a national brand.
Though the free-standing bakeries began to disappear in the 1960s and 1970s, the bakery operation in Glassell Park continued to thrive under a succession of owners (General Host sold its interest in the bakery operations in 1978) until 1985, when East Coast competitor Entenmann's made  strong push into the California market. Entenmann's built a more modern plant that produced a smaller product line than Van de Kamp's and began winning the supermarket in-store war.
In September 1990, Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Glasell Park plant closed, with 500 employees losing their jobs. It would never reopen. The building was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument by the city of L.A. on May 12, 1992. It underwent a $72 million renovation in the mid-2000s by the Los Angeles Community College District, which planned to make it a satellite campus of Los Angeles City College. As of this writing, the buildings on the 4 acre site have been used only lightly, and the lack of progress in making it a full-fledged campus has rankled nearby residents.
The Van de Kamp name remains visible, and not just in supermarkets. Former L.A. District Attorney and California Attorney General John Van de Kamp is Theodore Van de Kamp's grandson.
A Denny's restaurant now occupies the only remaining Van de Kamp's windmill restaurant building in Southern California, at the corner of Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia near the Santa Anita Park racetrack.

 

The Van de Kamp's bakery location in downtown Torrance can be seen, sort of, at the far left of this parade photo from 1948. Credit: Torrance Historical Society.

 

Sources:

"Bakery Flourished After Crisis: Van de Kamp Firm Spurred by Crop Failure," by Denise Haddix-Niemiec, Los Angeles Daily News, Oct. 26, 1989, Page WG2.

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

Torrance Herald files.