The History of the Westchester LAX area.

The Spanish Conquistadors planted the flag and wasted no time doling out land grants. (The Conquistadors didn’t pay too much heed to the indigenous Indian claims to the land.) Later, under the Mexican government, the land that now comprises Westchester changed ownership numerous times. Cattle ranches and dry farming were the main enterprises of the day.

The 1920s saw significant development in the area. To the north of present day Westchester, Mr. Abbot Kinney worked on his dreams of turning a stretch of coastal land into an American version of Venice, Italy. Perhaps Venice, CA didn’t quite work out to replicate its namesake. In any case, Venice did get canals, and Kinney was successful.

Northeast of Westchester, Harry Culver, real estate agent and promoter extraordinaire, was hard at work turning his dreams into his namesake, Culver City. In only a short time, Mr. Culver was able to beg, borrow and bamboozle his new city into being the center of the movie industry. Truth be told, more movies were made in Culver City rather than Hollywood. (To this day, this is still a sore point in CC; they dislike the undeserved fame showered on Hollywood.) From cattle ranches to the “heart of screenland” in only one generation. It also wasn’t didn’t hurt Culver’s real estate business.

Their success begat Playa del Rey, the lovechild of Fritz B. Burns.

And all of this did not go unnoticed by the famous LA Red Car. At one point, Red Car lines went through Culver City, branching north to Kinney’s Venice. Another line headed west through lower Westchester to the shoreline at Playa del Rey, then south to Long Beach.

Perhaps most important to development was the discovery of oil in lower Westchester, the flood plain at the base of the Westchester Bluffs. In between ocean-side Playa del Rey and Inglewood to the east, the oil produced a great deal of activity in the area. The “upper Westchester” area where LAX now stands was used for cattle ranching and dry farming.

Andrew Bennett owned ranchland at what is now the Lincoln and Sepulveda intersection. Daredevil aviators secretly used part of Bennett’s’ ranch as a landing field. The early aviators did a miserable job of keeping their trespassing secret. Crowds would drive out to the “wilderness” to watch the airplanes. Mr. Bennett was well aware of what was going on his land.

In 1928, Mr. Mines, a real estate agent, presented the Bennett property proposal to the City Council. Not only did the Council accept Mines’ proposal over 17 other options, they named the airfield after him. The City of Los Angeles signed a lease for 640 acres of the ranch. No longer a secret, the airfield was officially named Mines Field. The airport was renamed Los Angeles Municipal Airport in 1930.

Harry Culver donated 100 acres at the top of the Bluffs for what would evolve into Loyola Marymount University. Fritz Burns began to build homes in the Westchester area. In the 30s, the aviation industry gravitated to the areas surrounding the airport. The Cities of Hawthorn, Inglewood, El Segundo and Santa Monica all had significant aviation related businesses. Westchester, with the main airport, was the epic center of aviation development. Douglas Aircraft Co., Northrop Corp., North American, and many others located design and fabrication plants locally.

In the 1940s, Howard Hughes created a huge aviation production facility in lower Westchester, the area now known as Playa Vista. Hughes built the famed Spruce Goose here. At present, only a few hangers remain of the Hughes aviation plant.

Out of war necessity, Westchester was built out as the prototype planned community. In order to house the aviation workers, builders Fritz Burns, Fred Marlow, Silas Nowell and Bert Farrar cooperated on the planning of the neighborhoods.

The 1950s saw further development. “Downtown”, along Sepulveda between Manchester and the airport, was planned to serve the needs of workers and new homeowners. The Drollinger Co. was one of the first commercial businesses to invest in building downtown. To this day, the Drollinger Co. is active in Westchester.

In the 1990s Otis College of Art and Design moved to Westchester. With LMU, Otis, and most recently, Pepperdine, higher education has becone one of the major growth industries in the area. The Colleges and Universities directly contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy each year. The high concentration of well educated young people is of interest to business start-ups, tech companies and the entertainment industry.

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