The Short Life, Death and Rebirth of Surfridge

When your plane takes off from LAX — Los Angeles International Airport — you swing out over the Pacific Ocean before banking into the general direction of your destination. Depending on your flight and on weather conditions, you may get a good view of breaking surf, downtown L.A. and Dodger Stadium. Between the end of the runway and the surf, you may notice remnants of abandoned streets. That used to be the prosperous town of Palisades del Rey, better known as Surfridge.

Development of the three-mile stretch of dunes began in 1921. Home exteriors were required to be brick, stone or stucco. According to the development’s deed restrictions, no one “not entirely that of the Caucasian race,” was allowed in the community, “except such as are in the employ of the resident owners.”
The project nearly succumbed to the Great Depression, but by the early 1930s, the wealthy bought up lots and built large homes. An expanding upper-middle class followed.
Surfridge’s palm tree-lined streets and custom homes attracted some of the Hollywood elite. Residents included Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Bickford and Mel Blanc in the decades before Malibu would become Hollywood’s preferred beachfront town.
Directly east of the community lay Mines Field, where increasingly popular air shows attracted the likes of Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh.
Mines Field expanded over the next decades, eventually becoming LAX and bringing more noise to the residents of Surfridge. With the coming of the jet age in the 1960s the noise frequency increased as did the decibel levels. Surfridge was directly in the path of the airport’s expansion plans. LAX bought out homeowners and used eminent domain to condemn the homes of those who refused to sell. Remaining residents were evicted and everything was bulldozed by the mid 1970s.
LAX never did take over Surfridge, though. Wha the homeowners could not stop, the El Segundo Blue Butterfly did. With a population of about five-hundred, the butterfly in 1976 became the first insect to be listed as a Federal Endangered Species. LAX conceded that the dunes could never be transformed to airport use, and began the Dunes Restoration Project in 1986. Surfridge became the LAX Dunes Preserve, maintained by the airport and the City of Los Angeles. The area was fenced off, non-native plant species removed, remaining indigenous wildlife nurtured and native plants reintroduced. The coastal buckwheat plant, the favorite food of El Segundo Blue Butterflies, received special attention.

Current resident of Surfridge

Today, 150,000 butterflies call the preserve home, apparently unperturbed by jet-engine noise. Nine-hundred species of flora and fauna thrive there. The discovery of ten burrowing owls — including a breeding pair standing guard over their nest — the most seen in four decades, has recently excited scientists.
The apparently abandoned strip of flyover land is, in fact, teeming with life.

From 2012: the story of Surfridge.

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