Basement to Be New Home for Hermosa Museum

The Hermosa Beach Historical Society has reached an agreement with the City Council to lease space for its museum in the basement of the Hermosa Beach Community Center for $1 a year.

The City Council, in a 4-0 vote Tuesday, approved a five-year lease agreement with the society for the use of the west locker room at the Community Center, at Pier Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.

The locker room is an ideal location for the museum, said society President Rick Learned.

“There are no windows and there’s no light, which can be tough on old things,” Learned said.

Among the artifacts in the society’s collection are early surf posters, old newspapers and photographs of the Biltmore Hotel, which was torn down in 1969.

Lockers have been removed from the room, and Learned said an air-conditioning system may be installed.

For the last 2 1/2 years, the society has occupied two rooms at the community center rent free. One of the rooms was used for storage; the other served as a museum and meeting place for the society.

The council voted in August against extending the Historical Society’s lease agreement for the rooms, saying the society, like other nonprofit agencies housed in the building, should be required to pay rent.

Mayor Chuck Sheldon said at an earlier meeting that the lease subsidy provided to the Historical Society represented $1,200 a month in lost city revenue.

A staff report said leasing the locker room to the society would address the council’s concerns about potential revenue losses because the windowless area is not an attractive space for most tenants.