Annie’s Stand Offers a Taste of the Past : Farming: Rancho Palos Verdes officials are seeking historic status for the Japanese family-run fruit and flower stand, one of the last of its kind on the peninsula.

As buildings go, “Annie’s Stand” in Rancho Palos Verdes isn’t much to marvel at.

A small fruit and flower stall on Palos Verdes Drive South, it looks no different from the scores of produce stands that dot the back roads of rural communities everywhere.

But to Palos Verdes Peninsula residents, the old white stand operated by Annie Ishibashi and her husband, Jim, is a local landmark, a place they have gone to for years to buy tomatoes, squash and strawberries, as well as large bouquets of poppies and sweet peas.

And to city officials it represents one of the last remaining produce stands on the peninsula run by a Japanese farming family. As such, they have launched a drive to have the stand designated a state point of historical interest, complete with a bronze plaque and directional signs for motorists.

The idea, city officials say, is not just to honor the Ishibashis, one of the first Japanese farming families on the peninsula, but other Japanese whose farms and stalls were shut during World War II or later replaced by development.

“The basic plan is to recognize the Japanese farmer on the peninsula,” said Michelle Mowery, an administrative analyst with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Mowery said the stand is “the last remaining one functioning on a daily basis on the hill.”

The Ishibashis’ produce stand, which they took over in the late 1970s from the Japanese family that opened it in the late 1940s, would not be the only produce stall designated a state point of historical significance, said Marvin Brienes, a historian with the state Office of Historic Preservation. A stand in Riverside County received the honor in February, as a tribute to its longstanding importance to that area’s date industry, he said.

Nevertheless, the effort to recognize the Ishibashi stand is unusual. Generally speaking, he said, a building must be at least 50 years old to qualify as a point of historical interest, although other criteria, such as its significance to a particular area, are considered and can override the age requirement.

“Most of the applications are for old buildings or railroad stations,” Brienes said. “A Japanese roadside stand is something more ephemeral.”

To get the historical designation, the city must win approval first from the County Board of Supervisors and then from the state Historical Resources Commission.

But there are opponents.

The Rancho de los Palos Verdes Historical Society says the honor is inappropriate.

“You don’t dedicate a flower stand,” said Mary Roderman, the society’s president.

In addition, she said, Annie’s Stand was not the first produce stand opened by a Japanese family, and these Ishibashis are not the first Japanese farming family: That honor belongs to Jim Ishibashi’s uncle, Kumekichi Ishibashi, who came to the peninsula in the early 1900s, several years before Jim Ishibashi’s father.

City officials contend that Annie’s Stand is worthy of recognition because of what it represents: It is one of two farm stands in the city still operated by a Japanese family that grows its own produce. The other, owned by Kumekichi’s son, Mas, is near Annie’s Stand, but is not open seven days a week.

“I think from a historical point of view, they clearly weren’t the first, but were among the first, and that in and of itself deserves some recognition,” said Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Douglas M. Hinchliffe.

“From Rancho Palos Verdes’ point of view, both Jim and Mas Ishibashi have been a part of the fabric of our community for an awfully long period of time.”

Like other Japanese families, Jim Ishibashi’s family leased land to farm, growing beans, peas, tomatoes, squash and other vegetables, fruits and flowers. At the same time, they set up produce stands along the coastal roadway stretching from San Pedro to Palos Verdes Estates, drawing customers from all over the Los Angeles area, according to historical records.

During World War II, Jim Ishibashi served in the Army, while the rest of the family went to Utah, where they farmed rented land. They were not interned. After the war, the family returned to the peninsula to farm.

Jim Ishibashi, who still raises crops on eight acres that he leases from the local school district, said he is honored that the city wants to recognize the Japanese farmers.

He said that before World War II about 40 Japanese families farmed in the area and belonged to an agricultural cooperative headquartered in San Pedro. “Every family had a little roadside stand on the weekend to make a little extra money,” he said.

Most of the people who come to Annie’s Stand have been doing so ever since the family took it over.

On weekends, long lines form in front of the stand and its sign, which reads “Deliciously Yours.” Even on weekdays, a steady stream of customers comes and goes.

On Tuesday, Anda Marincovich, who lives in San Pedro, was visiting--she has been buying vegetables from the Ishibashis for 10 years. She especially praised the tomatoes, although all the vegetables raised by the family and sold at the stand are delicious, she said.

“Everything tastes better,” she said. “I don’t know what they do.”