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Hermosa Beach was originally part of the ten-mile Ocean frontage of Rancho Sausal Redondo. In the year of 1900 a tract
of fifteen hundred acres was purchased for $35.00 per acre from A. E. Pomroy, then owner of the greater part of Rancho
Sausal Redondo. Messrs. Burbank and Baker, agents, bought this land for Sherman and Clark who organized and retained the
controlling interest in the Hermosa Beach Land and Water Company.
In early days, Hermosa Beach like so many of its neighboring cities - Inglewood, Lawndale, Torrance - was one vast sweep
of rolling hills covered with fields of grain, mostly barley. During certain seasons of the year large herds of sheep were
grazed over this land, and corrals and large barns for storing the grain, as well as providing shelter for horses and farm
implements were located on the ranch between Hermosa and Inglewood. The Spanish words, Rancho Sausal Redondo, mean a large
circular ranch of pasture of grazing land, with a grove of willows on it.
Only one park has this city and it is located on the small triangular plot of ground just east of the Pier Avenue school.
It divides the boulevard, the right turn taking one into Pier Avenue, and the left into Camino Real and leading thence to
Redondo Beach. The ground was donated to the city for park purposes by Mrs. Robert Montgomery and for a number of years,
or during her residence in Hermosa, she supervised its care. If the city put up benches or planted anything that did not
meet with her approval, she would threaten to take it away from them. When they permitted Mr. Anderson of the Olympic Barge
to put up a sign at its entrance, she very nearly kept her promise of taking the ground back. The city fathers finally
pacified her, but the unsightly sign still remained, and does so to this day.
The first official survey was made in the year 1901 for the board walk on the Strand, Hermosa Avenue and Santa Fe Avenue;
work on these projects commenced soon after. In 1904 the first pier was built. It was constructed entirely of wood even to
the pilings and it extended five hundred feet out into the ocean. The pier was constructed by the Hermosa Beach Land and
Water Company. In 1913 this old pier was partly washed away and later torn down and a new one built to replace it. This
pier was built of concrete one thousand feet long, and paved with asphalt its entire length. Small tiled pavilions were
erected at intervals along the sides to afford shade for fishermen and picnic parties. A bait stand was built eventually
out on the end. Soon after, about 1914, an auditorium building was constructed; it has housed various enterprises and at
present the public rest rooms, the Los Angeles Life Guard Service, and the local branch of the Los Angeles County Library
occupy rooms in the building. This pier is municipally owned.
Hermosa Avenue was the first street to be paved. Asphalt was used for surfacing and supplied by the Barbour Asphalt Company
who built a plant on the corner of Eighth Street and Hermosa Avenue for the purpose of furnishing the paving material and
surfacing the streets of Hermosa. The asphalt used probably came from Ventura. In 1908 this plant burned down and was never rebuilt.
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