Officials Seek a Way to Save Hermosa’s Past

Civic leaders in Hermosa Beach, the second-oldest city in the South Bay, are trying to form a historical organization to care for city artifacts, mementos, photographs and documents that they fear are being lost.

Incorporated in 1907, Hermosa Beach is one of only three South Bay cities--along with Carson and Lawndale--that do not have a city-organized committee or commission or a private society dedicated to historical preservation. Redondo Beach, the oldest city in the South Bay, has both.

But because two previous historical groups have come and gone with the whims of former city councils, City Clerk Kathleen Midstokke is recommending the formation of a society that would be independent of council control, although it could receive city subsidies as well as private grants.

“I would hate to see us make that same mistake again. We just made it a couple of years go,” Midstokke said, referring to two previous efforts to form city-controlled historical panels.

Group Formed in ’77

A seven-member historical committee was formed by the City Council in 1977. City records are sketchy as to when, why and how it disbanded, Midstokke said.

More recently, a historical commission was at least in the formation stages as a branch of the city’s Improvement Commission when the latter was dissolved by the council in 1982.

On Tuesday, the City Council will discuss the formation of another historical commission or society. A majority on the present council supports the establishment of some kind of historical organization.

Mayor Tony DeBellis and council members June Williams and Etta Simpson cited the need to learn about the past to prevent future mistakes and said a historical group could benefit schoolchildren. Council members John Cioffi and Jim Rosenberger could not be reached for comment.

Resident Don Arwine said he has some historical mementos and photographs he wants to give to the city, but only to an organized historical commission.

‘Governments Don’t Care’

“I won’t just plain outright give it to the city. Municipal governments don’t care. They all don’t live in the city,” Arwine said.

He has threatened to dispose of the historical items in his possession unless a commission is formed in the near future. He acknowledged in an interview, however, that he plans to keep the items until a historical group is formed, regardless of how long it takes.

City officials and others involved in the effort believe that other Hermosa Beach residents may have mementos that they would be willing to donate to a historical entity, but not to the city. “I see a great need,” Midstokke said. “I see records being lost right now, and Mr. Arwine’s an example.”

Many city officials suggest that a room in the Community Center could be used to display city mementos. Rick Learned, a member of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors and vice president of Learned Lumber, said his company and several other businesses are willing to donate other things a historical group would need, such as file cabinets.

The chamber, a nonprofit organization, might be willing to donate resources such as staff time to get a historical group started, he said.

Financing Doubted

Council members Williams and Simpson said they would like a historical organization in the city, but do not think city government can afford to help finance it.

“The best way, I’m convinced, is to get the society,” Williams said. “I think the city should help in any way except financially, because we can’t afford it. . . . I think we already put funds into things we should not be.”

As an example, she cited Little League programs. Such organizations should be helped by private service organizations, she said, at least until the city is on better financial ground.

She also would like to see a Hermosa Beach society affiliated with the Conference of California Historical Societies and national groups.

Interest May Wane

Mayor DeBellis said Hermosa Beach has a need for a historical entity, but has not decided what kind would be best. Sometimes private historical societies fail because not enough people are interested in keeping them going, he said.

Alana M. Mastrian, director of the Department of Community Resources, expressed other concerns about historical societies in a report to City Council. “Based on research with other cities, a society is subject to the moods and needs of individual members,” Mastrian said. Security of items in the societies’ possession has also been a problem, she said.

A city-sponsored historical commission, however, would more than likely be the responsibility of her department and could not be managed by the current staff, she said in an interview.

Regardless of what type of organization is formed, volunteers are going to have to give a lot of time, Mastrian said. “It’s not just meeting once a month and going over an agenda and poof !” she said. They would be in charge of collecting historical materials, cataloguing them and setting up a place for the public to view them, she said.

“I don’t think it’s a question of a commission or a society,” Learned said. “I’m in favor of anything that works. . . . We’re an old city and our two neighbors have one and we don’t.”

Society a Success

Manhattan Beach Historical Society President Julia Tedesco said that city’s private society has had great success. She credited Pier Pressure, a group formed by the society, with persuading the City Council to call on the state to restore the Manhattan Beach Pier rather than replace it. The state has made no decision.

A historical society should be consulted in such matters, she said. “I don’t think (Hermosa Beach) would have lost their pier” if a society had existed there when its fate was decided, she added.

Hermosa Beach’s pier was demolished in 1961 but had been boarded up and inaccessible for several years before that, Midstokke said. Its replacement was built four years later.

A historical organization could help the city’s image, DeBellis said, because researchers might find interesting information the city could use to promote itself.