The Quarterly Newsletter of the
HERMOSA BEACH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Volume Twenty Two ............................................ Number One ....................................................... March 2009
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Presidents Message One of our founding members, Past President, and our current Vice-President, Frances Carr passed away on her own terms Thursday, February 26th. Please take comfort in knowing that Fran passed with the same courage, grace and serenity with which she lived life. While her passing saddens us all, as per her request, and in keeping with her most heart-felt wish, we do not grieve her loss but rather we celebrate the life that she so fully appreciated, enjoyed and embraced. In lieu of flowers Fran has requested donations be forwarded to the Hermosa Beach Historical Society or the ARC. I am pleased to announce that we have taken a big step in our growth process. After several months of meetings and interviews, we have hired a Curator, Anne-Marie Schaaf, who has extensive education and practical experience in museum management. Expanded hours of Operation, Collections Management, and Grant Writing are only a few of the duties that she is charged with. I look forward to you meeting her at our upcoming annual meeting to be held at St. Cross church on March 22 at 5:30pm. Keeping your membership current, Museum store sales, and donations are crucial to our ongoing success. Your help is appreciated. Sincerely, Rick Koenig St. Cross - Don’t Miss Out!! Check your mailing label now to see when you last paid your dues. You must be a current member to attend our Annual Members Meeting at historic Saint Cross Church on Sunday, March 22. You may mail in your check in the attached envelope or bring it that evening. Guests of members will be charged five dollars.
St. Cross-Episcopal Church was the first church building erected in the city of Hermosa Beach. On September 13, 1906, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles established St. Cross as a mission church to serve Hermosa and Manhattan Beach. Donations, subscriptions, and entertainment provided the finances for the lumber and carpenter work. Mr. J. W. Rodaway was the contractor and builder employed on its construction. Miss Sarah Beane was its founder, St. Cross started as a little mission Sunday school in an unused store room in the P. E. freight building and was located just back of the Post Office. Tours of the current church will be given, and there will be displays of the history of beautiful Saint Cross Church. Margaret King Koenig Our HBHS Presidents mother, Margaret King Koenig, a beloved third-generation Hermosan, passed away peacefully on February 9th, she was 87. Born Nov. 19, 1921, she graduated from North School in 1932, Pier Avenue Junior High School in 1935, Redondo High in 1939, UCLA in 1944, and The Pasadena Art Center in 1946. She was known during the 1930s as one of the first woman surfers on the California coast, and bore a keen passion for the cultural and literary arts. Bun-Board "I have watched with fascination the beginning, and growth, of the skateboarding sport. Living my whole life (80 years) in Hermosa, I had a lot of personal experience with skateboards. Beginning with the old skates we attached to a 2 by 4 and nailed to a wooden box, all the way up to selling what I believe was the first commercial skateboard in the USA - right here in Hermosa, at Guild Drug, on the northeast corner of Pier and Hermosa Avenue. Here is what happened: In 1957 a retired gentleman by the name of Alf Jensen approached me at the Guild Drug store and under his arm he was carrying a red board with skate trucks attached to it. It was very well finished and painted. On the top surface of the board he had professionally silk-screened the words "Bun-Board". It looked super, but I turned him down when he wanted to sell me 6 of them for $2 each - I knew that they would not retail for $2.88, so I passed. He was back 2 more times and said that a couple of kids had bought them from him and liked them. On his third return trip he said he would leave 6 of them, and I could pay him if they sold. "OK" was my answer, he went back to his garage on 15th street and in 20 minutes I had 6 shiny red skate boards sitting on a counter for sale. Well, a couple sold the first day and by the end of the week they were all gone." |
"Jensen then brought me 12 and they sold out fast too. Pretty soon I had kids calling from Torrance, Hawthorne, Inglewood, and other towns. Alf brought in a few of his cronies to help him, as he was a retired person, and the group of old ducks churned out as many a week as they could, but he was never able to supply all the orders on my "WANT LIST". Jensen was not suited to handle the pressure and it drove him nuts. After about 3 months of no sleep and numerous anxiety attacks, he sold the business to a fellow in North Redondo. So, why the name "Bun Board"? At that time, next to the Bank of America on Pier Avenue was a Bakery where they used a hickory board for baking their buns. The boards became a bit charred after many firings and Alf fished them out of the trash weekly, and gave them a new life. That is it, and I sure wish I had saved a couple." Many thanks to Don Guild of Hermosa Beach for this article.
Pictured is a Bun-Board “Small piece of wood with roller skates nailed to the bottom of it. Used for coasting down hills…”. T-shirt design is by Rick Griffin who was born near Palos Verdes amidst the surfing culture of southern California. After attending high school, he worked on the staff of Surfer magazine where he created his comic strip about a surfer named "Murphy". He became one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters in the 1960s. Surf Film Fest Please join us Friday April 3rd for another night of surf festivities. Along with a surf film premier, there will be food and drinks, live music, art for sale, auction items, and the Museum will be open. The following morning, two new inductees will join the Surfers Walk of Fame. Robert Hogan, a Los Angeles County Lifeguard, who in the 1940’s was a member of the Manhattan Beach Surf Club (located under the pier), and who started the Catalina Classic Paddleboard race in 1955 along with Greg Noll, Ricky Grigg, Tommy Zahn and other surf pioneers. They decided to race their paddleboards from Catalina to the mainland (the first Catalina crossing was paddled in 1932 by legendary waterman Tom Blake). 
1955 Catalina Race: Mike Bright, Bob Hogan, John McFarlane, Chip Post, and Greg Noll.The second inductee, Doug Craig, started surfing in Hermosa Beach in 1937 when he was 13. He never entered competition; it wasn't something he felt was necessary to compliment riding waves. After WWII, he was active in the San Onofre Surfing Club. Proceeds from the Surf Film Fest benefit the Hermosa Beach Historical Society, and the Surfers Walk of Fame. More Summer Museum Events Insomnia Night II – Artists of the Insomniac has been rescheduled for late April. In June we will be opening an art exhibit featuring the history of Hermosa Punk Rock, followed by live music at Saint Rocke. Along with the jazz scene that took place in and around the Lighthouse in the 50s and 60s, a Punk Rock scene in the 1970s was just as influential. As an underground scene, it took off when Greg Ginn and a few of his friends formed a band called Black Flag in 1976-77. Black Flag eventually moved into the old Baptist Church on Manhattan Avenue and began issuing albums on their own record label called SST.
Black Flag generated a strong local following and spawned a number of other bands including The Circle Jerks, Red Kross, and the Minutemen. The Descendants had several members that were Mira Costa High School graduates. Hermosa Beach was also the home of Media Arts; a studio where much of the punk rock music distributed around the country was recorded. One of the biggest punk bands in the country these days is Pennywise, a bunch of local guys who recorded their first record on a small label based in Hermosa Beach in the early 1990s. The music that started in Hermosa Beach still lives on for generations of musicians and fans. Later this summer there will be a Lifeguard exhibit opening that will highlight the important contribution to the beach community that these men and women provide. The HBHS is committed to providing fun and informative Museum events that all ages will enjoy – please join us for the celebrations! |
