Manhattan Beach History

Updated October 18, 2026.

If you live in Manhattan Beach or are looking at a home here, the pier, The Strand and the greenbelt trace back to a town built on sand dunes after the Santa Fe line arrived in 1888. This page tells that story in order, through Bruce’s Beach, and shows where to see what remains.

Many of these stories are told more than one way. The story below follows one source, and the list near the end gives every version.

How did Manhattan Beach begin?

The town grew up on sand dunes after the Santa Fe finished its line to Redondo Beach in 1888, along today’s greenbelt. In 1901 John A. Merrill’s Manhattan Beach Company bought the Potencia townsite, and the Los Angeles Herald was calling the resort Manhattan Beach by September 13, 1901, the City’s History Advisory Board report found. A long-told story credits a 1902 coin toss over George H. Peck Jr.’s “Shore Acres,” and the board found no concrete evidence for it. Manhattan Beach incorporated on December 7, 1912, with about 600 residents, according to Los Angeles County.

What happened to the sand dunes?

The drifting dunes stood 50 to 70 feet high, by the County’s account, and sand buried boardwalks and streets and piled halfway up the lampposts. Local contractor N. R. Kuhn finished leveling them by selling the sand for construction, the Historical Society’s capsule history says. Los Angeles County calls Sand Dune Park a surviving remnant. The City closed its dune in August 2009 after neighborhood complaints about crowding, LA Weekly reported.

Did Manhattan Beach sand go to Waikiki?

It is a long-told local story, and the tellers disagree on when it started and whether the sand was sold or given away. In Los Angeles County’s version, Hawaii developers made a deal with Kuhn Brothers Construction in the late 1920s, and the sand went by rail to San Pedro and by sea for almost 10 years. Hawaii’s records point elsewhere: a 2008 Waikiki history by engineer Robert L. Wiegel, posted by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, says the sand placed at Kuhio Beach in 1938 and 1939 came from another part of Oahu.

How did the trolley shape The Strand?

In 1903 the Los Angeles Pacific extended its electric line from Playa del Rey through Manhattan Beach to Redondo Beach on double tracks just west of The Strand, where the bike path runs today, and the Historical Society’s trolley history credits it with the real estate boom along the beaches. Buses and cars made the line unprofitable in the 1930s, and it closed in 1940. The Strand itself began as boardwalks laid over the sand.

When was the Manhattan Beach Pier built?

The pier at the foot of Manhattan Beach Boulevard is California Historical Landmark No. 1018, and the state calls it Southern California’s oldest remaining early reinforced concrete pier. City Engineer A.L. Harris designed it with a rounded end to stand up to Pacific waves, and after three bond issues and $140,000 the 928-foot pier opened on July 5, 1920, according to the Historical Society’s pier history. The Roundhouse followed on July 4, 1922.

After storm damage and a 1984 accident in which falling concrete injured a jogger, the pier was restored from February 1991 to July 18, 1992, the Society says. The first Manhattan Beach Open was played at the pier August 27 to 28, 1960, according to the International Volleyball Hall of Fame; that story and the pier’s surf history are on our beach volleyball and surfing history pages.

What happened at Bruce’s Beach?

In 1912 Willa Bruce bought an oceanfront lot on The Strand between 26th and 27th Streets, and she and her husband Charles ran a resort for Black beachgoers that Los Angeles County says became known as Bruce’s Beach. In 1924, after a petition from white real estate agents and other residents, the City Council voted to condemn the Bruce property and the surrounding lots for a park. The County says the real motive was racial and that the resort was torn down in 1927, before the price was settled. Final judgment came on June 10, 1929, with the court granting the Bruces $14,500.

The State took the land in 1948 and transferred it to Los Angeles County in 1995, and the County runs a lifeguard facility there. Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 796, State Senator Steven Bradford’s bill removing state restrictions on the land, at Bruce’s Beach on September 30, 2021. On July 20, 2022 the County returned the land to the Bruces’ great-grandsons and leased it back, and in January 2023 the family decided to sell it to the County. The full account, with a map, is on our Manhattan Beach page.

Where can you see it today?

• Manhattan Beach Pier, California Historical Landmark No. 1018, west of Manhattan Beach Boulevard: the 1920 pier, with the Open champions’ plaques.
• Roundhouse Aquarium, 2 Manhattan Beach Blvd.: free, with suggested donations; October through March, weekdays 2 to 5 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Beach Cottage Museum, Polliwog Park, 1601 Manhattan Beach Boulevard: the Historical Society’s “Little Red House,” built for Amos and Sarah Raymer around 1905 at 205 15th Street and moved here in July 1987. It is temporarily closed as of October 18, 2026, so check the Society’s site before you go.
• Sand Dune Park, 33rd Street and Bell Avenue, per LA Weekly: check access rules with the City first.
• County plaque, 2600 The Strand: the former Bruce property, at the County lifeguard facility below the City’s Bruce’s Beach Park, whose own plaque Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office reported stolen in January 2024.
• The greenbelt, Valley Drive to Ardmore Avenue: the old Santa Fe line. The beach bike path follows the old trolley tracks, and the County’s Marvin Braude Bike Trail runs past the beach.

Where do the sources differ?

• The name: the County repeats Frank Daugherty’s 1902 coin-toss account; KCET says Merrill chose it in 1901; the board found it in print by September 13, 1901, and no coin-toss evidence.
• The cityhood vote: November 25, 1912, 95 to 32, says KCET; November 1912, with certification sent on December 2, says the capsule history.
• Residents at incorporation: about 600, say the County and KCET; 500 to 600, says the Society.
• Dune height: 50 to 70 feet, say the County and a Society essay; as high as 60, says KCET.
• Who leveled the dunes: C. H. Avey’s company, then N. R. Kuhn, says the capsule history; Kuhn Brothers Construction, say KCET and the County.
• Where the sand went: the Coliseum floor and Waikiki, says the capsule history; Los Angeles to Arizona, and Waikiki, says KCET.
• Sand Dune Park: a dune remnant, say the County and KCET; built over a construction-debris landfill, a neighbor told LA Weekly.
• When the Waikiki shipments began: the late 1920s, for almost 10 years, says the County; the early 1920s, said Marshall Kuhn in a 1973 Daily Breeze interview the Society reprints; the 1920s, says KCET.
• Sold or given: sold, said Kuhn, though they sometimes “had to give it to them”; donated, a friend recalled to Easy Reader in 2012; sold, says the capsule history.
• How much sand: all of Waikiki’s, wrote Rex Dalton in the 1973 article; no source gives a tonnage.
• Hawaii’s records: Hawaii Magazine cited unnamed 1920s and 1930s reports of Manhattan Beach sand in 2009; Wiegel credits Oahu; a 2023 state briefing names no California source.
• The trolley merger: 1910, says the Society; 1911, says the Electric Railway Historical Association.
• The gauge change: about 1907, per a 1955 memoir the Society quotes; 1908, per the association.
• The trolley’s last run: 1940, says the Society’s trolley page; May 1940, the capsule history; May 12, 1940, the association.
• Pier construction: 1917 to 1920, says the state; designed in 1916, approved in September 1917, opened July 5, 1920, says the Society.
• Pier length: 928 feet, says the Society; 900, says the County.
• “Oldest”: Southern California’s oldest remaining early reinforced concrete pier, says the state; the West Coast’s oldest concrete pier, says the Society.
• The Roundhouse’s date: July 4, 1922, says the Society; a year after the pier was built, says the state.
• The Roundhouse rebuild: 1989, says the state; February 1991 to July 18, 1992, says the Society; torn down in 1991 and reopened a year later, says Oceanographic Teaching Stations, which runs the aquarium.
• The Society’s start: 1970, says its home page; the early 1970s, says its About page.
• The cottage’s date: around 1905, and possibly 1904 to 1907, the Society says.
• Museum hours: Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., in Easy Reader‘s sponsored 2024 museum guide; temporarily closed, says the Society.
• The fair’s origin: started by residents in 1972 as the Old Hometown Fair, says the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair; descended from a 1952 “Fun Fair” and called the “Old Towne Fair,” says the 1975 capsule history.
• Who bought the Bruce land: Willa Bruce, Lot 8 in 1912 and Lot 9 in 1920, say the County and the board; Willa and Charles together in 1912, says Hahn’s history page.
• When the City took it: the County says the resort came down in 1927; the board dates final judgment to June 10, 1929; the offices of Hahn and Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell date the taking to 1929.
• After condemnation: empty until a 1956 park, say Hahn’s office and the County; folklore, says the board, which dates Beach Front Park’s planting to August 1933 and a volleyball court to 1938.
• The renaming: led in 2007 by Mitch Ward, the city’s first Black councilmember and mayor, says the County; voted in 2006, with the renaming and plaque in 2007, says the board.
• The heirs: great-grandsons, say the County, Hahn and Mitchell; great-great-grandsons, says a search-listing summary of Mitchell’s release.
• The price: a $21 million appraisal and a $413,000-a-year lease, says Mitchell’s office; no more than $20 million, says the County.

Questions people ask about Manhattan Beach history

Did Manhattan Beach sand go to Waikiki?

It is a long-told story, and the versions disagree. Los Angeles County says shipments began in the late 1920s and ran almost 10 years. A 2008 history posted by Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources says the 1938 to 1939 Kuhio Beach sand came from another part of Oahu.

How old is the Manhattan Beach Pier?

The Manhattan Beach Historical Society says the pier opened on July 5, 1920, and the Roundhouse followed on July 4, 1922. The pier is California Historical Landmark No. 1018.

What happened at Bruce’s Beach?

Willa Bruce bought an oceanfront lot on The Strand in 1912 and ran a resort for Black beachgoers with her husband, Charles. The City Council voted in 1924 to condemn it for a park, and Los Angeles County returned the land to the Bruces’ great-grandsons on July 20, 2022.

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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