El Segundo and Hawthorne History

Updated October 18, 2026.

If you live in El Segundo or Hawthorne or are looking at a home in either city, the refinery, the Richmond Street theater and the Beach Boys monument on 119th Street each have a dated story, from Standard Oil’s choice of El Segundo in 1911 to a 2026 court order on the Hawthorne Mall. This page tells them in order and shows where to see each one.

Where the records disagree on a date, a name or a seat count, the story below follows one source and names it. The list near the end gives every version.

How did El Segundo get its name?

El Segundo is Spanish for “the second.” Standard Oil bought the Pacific Coast Oil Co. in 1900 and funded the largest refinery in California at Richmond, and El Segundo was selected in 1911 as the site of the company’s second refinery in California, according to Chevron’s refinery history. Urbanize LA reports that the city’s name derives from that refinery. El Segundo incorporated on January 18, 1917, according to the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

Standard Oil Company of California became Chevron Corporation on July 1, 1984, and the refinery marked 100 years of operation in 2011. Chevron calls it the largest producing oil refinery on the West Coast, processing more than 276,000 barrels of crude a day. It is a working plant with no casual visits, though Chevron’s El Segundo site advertises refinery tours and a community tour day.

What is Smoky Hollow?

Next to the refinery is Smoky Hollow, a district of about 120 acres that the Los Angeles Business Journal bounds by Indiana Street and Sepulveda Boulevard on the east, downtown El Segundo on the west, the refinery and El Segundo Boulevard on the south and residential neighborhoods on the north. Urbanize LA says the name refers to the refinery, which billowed smoke into the surrounding blocks in its earliest days. In 2021 Urbanize reported a late 1940s building at 212 Eucalyptus Drive giving way to offices designed ahead of a zoning ordinance that raised allowable floor area in the district. By 2024 the Business Journal called Smoky Hollow a hub for hard tech manufacturers. Our El Segundo page covers the city today.

What is the story of Old Town Music Hall?

The theater at 140 Richmond Street opened in 1921, and the Los Angeles Conservancy says it opened as the 200-seat State Theatre, a live performance venue for employees of the nearby Standard Oil refinery. It closed in the mid-1930s, reopened in 1944 as the El Segundo Theatre and later took back the State name. Engineer Edward L. Mayberry Jr. is usually credited as its architect, though John P. Krempel and Walter E. Erkes may have drawn the plans that were built.

In 1967 local musicians Bill Field and Bill Coffman, known as “The Two Bills,” rented the theater and installed a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ from the Fox West Coast Theatre in Long Beach, and they reopened the building as the Old Town Music Hall with 188 seats in 1968, per the Conservancy. The hall has been a 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 1990 and presents concerts, Golden Age Hollywood films and silent films with live organ accompaniment. Coffman died in 2001 and Field in 2020, the Los Angeles Theatres research site reports, and the hall reopened on September 19, 2021 after the pandemic closure.

How did aircraft come to El Segundo and Hawthorne?

In January 1932 Donald W. Douglas Sr. set up Northrop Corp. at El Segundo after John K. “Jack” Northrop returned to Douglas Aircraft, according to Boeing’s company chronology. Douglas bought the remaining 49 percent of the El Segundo subsidiary on September 1, 1937, and in August 1938 the plant began operating as the Douglas El Segundo Division. In 1979 a World War II Northrop floatplane recovered from Iceland came to Northrop’s Hawthorne plant, where volunteers restored it by November 1980, the Western Museum of Flight records. That story continues on our aviation and aerospace history page.

What happened at the Beach Boys’ home in Hawthorne?

Hawthorne incorporated in 1922, the Local Agency Formation Commission lists. In the city, California Historical Landmark No. 1041 marks the Site of the Childhood Home of the Beach Boys at 3701 W. 119th Street. The state’s landmark text says Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson developed their musical skills at the home, and that during Labor Day weekend 1961 the brothers, their cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine gathered there to record a tape of “Surfin’.” The state calls that the birth of the group. No house stands at the site today; a monument marks where it stood, and the Historical Marker Database’s transcription of its plaque gives 2005 as the year it was erected.

What happened to Hawthorne Plaza?

The enclosed mall on Hawthorne Boulevard, commonly known as Hawthorne Plaza and called the Hawthorne Mall by the City of Hawthorne, closed in the 1990s and sat largely vacant for decades. Spectrum News 1 reported in 2021 that parts of the roughly 24-acre site were used for offices, parking and filming, and it quoted Councilmember Alex Monteiro saying the city had tried for 25 years to redevelop the mall.

On July 31, 2026, the City of Hawthorne announced a court order requiring the owners to begin demolishing the mall at 12124 Hawthorne Blvd. no later than August 14, 2026 and to file permit applications for its parking structures by August 28, 2026. The City said AMPCO Contracting Inc. would do the work in phases A through E, from the south end of the site to the north. The City’s news page is the place to check for updates on the work.

Where can you see it today?

• Old Town Music Hall, 140 Richmond Street, El Segundo: films and concerts with the Mighty Wurlitzer; check the hall’s calendar for showtimes.
• Chevron El Segundo Refinery: a working plant with no casual visits; Chevron advertises refinery tours and a community tour day.
• Smoky Hollow: the working district north of the refinery and east of downtown El Segundo.
• El Segundo Public Library History Room: a local photo archive, with reprints for private and research use.
• Beach Boys monument, California Historical Landmark No. 1041, 3701 W. 119th Street, Hawthorne: it marks the site of the Wilson family home.
• Former Hawthorne Mall, 12124 Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne: under court-ordered demolition as of the City’s July 31, 2026 announcement.
• Western Museum of Flight, 3315 Airport Drive, Red Baron #3, Torrance: the museum that grew out of the Hawthorne floatplane project, open Friday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where do the sources differ?

• The city’s name: Urbanize LA says it derives from the refinery, Standard Oil’s second such plant on the West Coast; Chevron calls the refinery the company’s second in California and does not say the city was named for it.
• The theater’s opening name: the Conservancy says it opened in 1921 as the State Theatre; Los Angeles Theatres says it opened as the El Segundo Theatre and reopened as the State in January 1928.
• The earlier building: the Conservancy says the 1920 plans converted an existing structure; Los Angeles Theatres says the theater replaced an earlier wood frame house condemned in 1920.
• The seat count: the Conservancy says 200; Los Angeles Theatres says the original count is unknown, with Mayberry’s plan calling for 500 and Boxoffice giving 350 in 1944.
• The State name’s return: the Conservancy says 1957, with the house active through the mid-1960s; Los Angeles Theatres says 1951, with the building abandoned around then and bought by the El Segundo Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1953.
• Old Town Music Hall’s opening: 1968, says the Conservancy; 1969, says Los Angeles Theatres.
• The Wurlitzer: the Conservancy says it came from the Fox West Coast Theatre in Long Beach; Los Angeles Theatres says the West Coast Theatre there, with the console and one rank of pipes from the Metropolitan, later Paramount, Theatre downtown.
• The architect: the Conservancy and Los Angeles Theatres call it unsettled; Mayberry is usually credited, but Krempel and Erkes may have drawn the plans that were built.
• The Beach Boys plaque: the plaque on site, as transcribed by the Historical Marker Database, names parents Murry and Audree Wilson and neighbor David Marks and calls Brian Wilson a producer, arranger and songwriter; the state’s list text does not include those lines.

Questions people ask about El Segundo and Hawthorne history

How did El Segundo get its name?

El Segundo is Spanish for “the second.” Chevron says El Segundo was selected in 1911 as the site of Standard Oil’s second refinery in California. Urbanize LA reports that the city’s name derives from that refinery.

Where was the Beach Boys house in Hawthorne?

No house stands today. California Historical Landmark No. 1041 marks the site of the Wilson family home at 3701 W. 119th Street, where the state says the Wilson brothers, Mike Love and Al Jardine taped “Surfin'” over Labor Day weekend 1961.

When did Old Town Music Hall open?

The building at 140 Richmond Street opened as a theater in 1921. Bill Field and Bill Coffman reopened it as the Old Town Music Hall in 1968, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, and it presents films and concerts with its Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Is Hawthorne Plaza being torn down?

Yes. On July 31, 2026, the City of Hawthorne announced a court order requiring the owners to begin demolishing the mall at 12124 Hawthorne Blvd. no later than August 14, 2026, with the work in phases from the south end of the site to the north.

We do our very best to supply facts drawn from official sources so that the information you find here is reliable and accurate. If we find conflicting information, we report on all of it. Sources were read October 18, 2026.

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