Culver City Profile 1924 By C.v. Loop Mayor And President Realty Board Culver City

396

The RealtA BIue Book ol Colilornio,

uulver ulty B?/ C. V. LooP, l,resident Realty Doard, Culy€r City

fl-\ HREE years ago unclc Sam was able to disrorcr a toral populaLionof,only 500 souL^in CulvcrCir]. Today we ha\e more than I twice ihal number oI regiqteredvolers. which, at the conserve. tive estimate usually placed on this basis (3y2 times the number), would give us a population increase ill the three years of over 600 per cent. Three years ago we had only fair fire protection for. a town of 500 people, whereas today we have fire protection equal to that of any town of 5,000 to 7,000 people in the state. Three years ago we had but a spaNe settlement in what is now the center of town and but few paved streets. Today we have a thickly settled district many times that size, and many miles of paved streets, with sidewalks and curbs. Three yeA|s ago we had a school building which seemedto many, at that time, to be many times too large, yet today, after addit1ejtwo new bungalows to care for the overflow, we have recently passed a school bond issue of $100,000for additional school buildings, which at the present rate of growth, will be entirely too small by the time they are completed. Three years ago we had very little in the way of police protection. Today we have a police department that is enforcing the law more elTectivelythan that of any other city in the bay district. The bank deposits of the city have growr in the past three yeam to more than five times what they were, and bank deposits arc the surest index of the prosperity of any city. Thre€ years ago we hsd no manufacturers. Today we have a large and constantly increasing number- of prosperous facto es and other institutions giving employnent to lar.g€numbers of people. Three yeals ago there were but three two-story business'buildings in the city; Now we have a large number vhich are being added io rapidly, and with the completion of the new six-story Culver Building. are enlerjng on an pj.a of building a.li\ity such a! has spldom Deenspenan,.whereon thp coastin a lown ol lhis 6ize, Three yea$ ago there were more than two-thirds of the property on Main stleet vacant. Now ther:e are two vacant lots on the entire street. Three years ago we had a few merchants struggling for a bare existence. Now 1ve have a thriving business section that more than equals that of any town of its size in the s!ar€. Three yeals ago we were fairly well content to get along with the present water supply. Today we are about to put in a municipal $ ater systemadequalpto sunplJ a cily ol three times the presFnlsize oI uul\ er Lrrlv and ehvrrons Three yeirs ago you could count the business builalinqs on Washingion bo_ulevard on the fingers ol one hand. Today, on lhe hairs of

Tke Real,tyBl,ueBook al Cailornia

39?

Three years ago we had a fourth class post ofiice. Today we have city delivery and a post office equal to that to be found in most towns oI 10,000. _Three years ago we had numerous questionable reso*s. Today Three yea$ ago we were well content with cesspools,but todey we point'with pride to our complete system of sewers, installl€d through a bond issu€, put over by a board of trustees who have endeavor€dto keep pace with the city's phenomenal g:rowth and provide for the future. Three years ago we had no ire alarm system. Today there is being installed a completeGamewellFire Alarm system. Prior to three yeaN ago the city was in an embryoiic state; that stage has be€n passed and Culver City today has embarkealon a journey from which ther€ is no backing down. She must progress.

Bellflower ELLFLOWER, is, pmctically speaking, an all new town, having grown from a srrall haBlet of 500 people to e inoil€m city of 8,000inhabitents during the parsttwo years; the causeof this phenom€nal grow'th being the discovery of oil near the city at Signal Hill and Santa Fe Spdngs, these two fields ;beingbut a few miles distant. Besides the oil wells, many large refineries have located near the city, in all directions, furnishing emplo}.Inerltto hundrealsof men, all of whom are residentsof this eity and its environs. Daitying and poulhv raising is carried on quite extensively around Bellflower. The town was odginally laid out in acre tracts for the purpose of fumishing homes for people wlo wanted more than a to\rn lot for gardening, fruit and poultry raising, but since Lheoil discoverythe latter industrics have been neglectedto a great extent and much of the a(reagehas been subdividedinto town lols. Bellflower has one of the best water systems in the State. Bellflowerloasts of having the very best of schools,hro gr.ammar schoolbuildingsnow doing ser/ice ard bondsissuedfor a third building, the erectionof which wiu begin in the near future. Th€re are seventy-fivestores and businesshousesin Bellflower, nearly all being new and of brick construction. Two bariks have embarked in businesshere during the past three years, the Commercial snd the First National, and both arl doing a gooo Dusrneaa, Drilling for oil is in progress in several localities around Belly.illtgood prospectsof developjnganothergoodfield simjlar to l9t"I Drgruunrn ano santa ! e Sprrngs, In th€ way of transportation Bellflower is well supplied, the pacifrc Electiic Santa Ana line running East and West, comecting with Los Angele-sand all lin-esout of thal (ity. Stagesfiom Long Beachpaes through here to a.llpoints NoIth. Much of the land sunounding Bellflowerhas b€en leasedfor oil.