Palisades del Rey (Surfridge Ghost Town)

USA / California / El Segundo /
 neighbourhood, draw only border, ghost town

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4UIujUMuRk
Former town of Palisades del Rey (a.k.a. Surfridge), California. This area is fenced & is off-limits to the public.

Purchased and razed by LA Airport Authority in the 1970's due to its close proximity to LAX. Several street lights still shine at night as of August 2006, some 30 years since the last building was demolished.

Surfridge became- eminent domain, on grounds of health and safety hazards and gross zoning violations-aka/ “jet noise.” Property owners were forced to move, receiving only a fraction of what their homes would be worth today, and creating one of the most expensive pieces of barren land on the planet-wiping the town off the face of the map. The price for paid for Surfridge? $60 Million dollars or about $125,000.00 an acre! Although 66% of residents voted to sell, many still feel that they were forced to sell, as the airport had already destroyed their properties. Those that did not sell saw their homes condemned, and in a few cases, were forcibly removed from their own land.

Many of the homes were custom built beach homes and cottages, owned by movie stars and luminaries of the time, including MGM Pictures mogul and Academy Award nominated director Cecil B. Demille. The streets were originally part of a 1921 Dickinson & Gillespie Co. development called “Palisades Del Rey”, billed as “The Last of the Beaches”. The sidewalks were laid in 1932, by J. L. McClain, Contractors.

See www.lakata.org/arch/surfridge/ for more details.

www.examiner.com/x-4314-South-Bay-Community-Examiner~y2...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_del_Rey,_California
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°56'34"N   118°26'18"W

Comments

  • A former part of Playa del Rey, the area is now managed by the Airport Authority, and is primarily used as a butterfly and wildlife sanctuary. Fortunately, it has been over 30 years since the smart, hardworking and civic minded leadership of the Airport Authority wisely used eminent domain to 1) pay fair market prices for the properties 2) relocated the displaced residents 3) deconstruct the vacant and hazardous buildings 4) create the wildlife sanctuary. But all of this misses the point - Having Homes BENEATH the RUNWAYS is just plain foolish! When - not "if", when - a very large, heavy, fully-fuel airplane crashes, it is a very bad idea to your home located in the area where the plane is likely to crash.
  • crazy street lights still shine at night? i've driven through that area a few times and never saw it. anyone know?
  • we live there till 1971 and we rode our motorcycles in this area from 1968
  • You used to be able to watch airplanes take off from up on those hills just 10 years ago. 9/11 had to due to its closure to.
  • Trying to help the rare "buckwheat type" butterflies surviving there the Authority removed most of the nasty weeds and planted it with the human-edible seed buckwheat. It seems there was a mix-up in meanings, in removing the native weeds, also known as buckwheat, the authorities nearly killed off the species.
  • The airport would still like to remove the dunes and extend the runways but the dunes are home to the endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly and can not be touched.
  • i've been researching some details about surfridge (palisades del rey) trying to get a more accurate timeline of build dates to de-construction. in the meantime, in photos from the 40s i noticed a large structure right on the beach opposite surfridge (at the time) and it was the original Westport Beach Club. right on the beach with the redcar trolly lines running right behind it. pretty cool.
  • I am currently researching Surfridge and came across your note of 4 years ago. I've been unable to find photos of the area when it was thriving....only those prior to demolition. Where did you locate the 1940 photos and did the redcar run below Vista del mar on the sand level or in front of the houses??? Mary D. reply
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This article was last modified 2 years ago