Palos Verdes Peninsula History

Updated October 18, 2026.

If you live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula or are looking at a home there, this page tells the Peninsula’s story from the Japanese farmers who worked its coast in the early 1900s through Frank A. Vanderlip’s 1913 purchase, the Olmsted plan and the cities that incorporated from 1939 to 1973. It also covers Point Vicente Lighthouse, Wayfarers Chapel and the land movement at Portuguese Bend.

Near the end you will find places to visit and every version where sources disagree. For the Peninsula today, see our Palos Verdes Peninsula page; for trails, our hiking and walking paths guide.

Who farmed the Peninsula in the early 1900s?

In the early 1900s, when the Peninsula was mostly ranch land, Japanese farmers worked about 2,000 coastal acres from Malaga Cove to Western Avenue. They dry farmed, choosing crops suited to the moist coastal air, and grew vegetables for California tables and garbanzo beans for world markets. On November 24, 1923, about 40 first-generation Japanese families gathered to celebrate a new community building used for meetings, language classes, judo and social events.

A panoramic photograph of that day hung for years in the Local History Room of the Palos Verdes Library District. The library’s 40 Families Project has since identified about 120 of the 187 faces and traced where the families came from, where they were sent during World War II and whether they returned. The state added the First Japanese Farm, Palos Verdes Peninsula, in Rancho Palos Verdes, to its list of historical resources on May 11, 1992.

How did Palos Verdes Estates begin?

New York banker Frank A. Vanderlip Sr. bought about 16,000 acres of the Peninsula in 1913 and hired the Olmsted Brothers, the Brookline, Massachusetts, landscape firm, to plan it. The Friends of the Point Vicente Lighthouse put the price at $1.7 million. World War I and the 1920 death of John C. Olmsted, who first led the project, stalled the work. It restarted in 1921 under E. G. Lewis, and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. drafted the protective restrictions that the Palos Verdes Homes Association says still shape the city.

The Art Jury first met on November 21, 1922, at the Hotel Redondo, the Homes Association says. Led for 17 years by architect Myron Hunt, who also designed the Malaga Cove Library, it set the area’s light stucco and tile roof style, and planners reserved about 4,000 acres for parks and playgrounds. Malaga Cove Plaza’s first store building was finished in 1925, and a post office opened. The project incorporated as the City of Palos Verdes Estates in 1939, the year the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission gives, and H. F. B. Roessler was elected its first mayor in 1940.

When did Point Vicente Lighthouse first shine?

Point Vicente Lighthouse showed its first light on April 14, 1926. Captain George Vancouver named Point Vicente for his friend Friar Vicente of Mission Buenaventura, and years of complaints from shipmasters led to the light, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes says. Ship owners and masters petitioned for it in 1909, and in 1918 the federal government began condemnation against Frank Vanderlip for the site, with title passing in 1921.

The 67-foot tower puts the beam 185 feet above the ocean. Its five-foot Fresnel lens was hand ground in Paris in 1886 and spent 40 years in Alaska before it came here. Keepers ran it until automation in 1971, the City says. The lighthouse joined the National Register on October 31, 1980, and in 2019 the original lamp and lens moved to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. The Coast Guard still operates the light and has closed the tower to the public because of lead and asbestos.

When did Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes become cities?

Developer A. E. Hanson envisioned Rolling Hills in 1936 as one-story, ranch-style homes governed by deed restrictions through the Rolling Hills Community Association. The city incorporated on January 24, 1957. It is zoned for residential use only, with a one-acre minimum lot and about 30 miles of trails and roads kept up by the homeowners association. Because the association runs the gates and private roads, most of the city is closed to drive-through visitors. Rolling Hills Estates incorporated the same year.

Rancho Palos Verdes incorporated in 1973. Palos Verdes Historical Society president Dana Graham writes in his history of the city that it was the last of the Peninsula’s cities to incorporate and that the main driver was zoning and density after proposals for tall condominiums along Palos Verdes Drive South. Parts of it had been farmland, including the McCarrell Ranch, known for garbanzo beans. The City’s Winter 2003 newsletter refers to the bluff site where Marineland of the Pacific stood as “Long Point (formerly Marineland).”

How was Wayfarers Chapel built?

Original architect Ralph Jester stepped aside and suggested his friend Lloyd Wright, who submitted plans for Wayfarers Chapel on April 15, 1947. The Rev. Leonard Tafel dedicated the chapel on Mother’s Day, May 13, 1951, as a Swedenborgian chapel open to people of all faiths. The Hallelujah Tower followed in 1954. The chapel was listed on the National Register on July 11, 2005, and the National Park Service announced its designation as a National Historic Landmark on December 13, 2023.

What happened at Portuguese Bend and Wayfarers Chapel?

The Portuguese Bend landslide began in late 1955, Graham writes in a history of Portuguese Bend Estates, and excavation for a planned extension of Crenshaw Boulevard was judged at the time to have set it off. The extension was abandoned. The Sea View tract, first marketed as Portuguese Bend Estates and designed by architect Paul Williams, went up just south of the slide from 1956 to 1960.

Between 1974 and 1978, a dormant part of the ancient landslide above Abalone Cove began moving more than a foot a year, the City reported in 2003. The City adopted a moratorium on new development in the landslide area on September 5, 1978. After 1980, dewatering by the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District largely halted movement there.

At Wayfarers Chapel, land movement forced the removal of the first Visitors Center and part of the colonnade in 1995. On February 15, 2024, the chapel and grounds closed because of land movement, and disassembly was completed in July 2024 to save the building. In May 2025 the chapel announced a prospective new site at the former Battery Barnes military site next to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall, about a mile west, and it is raising money to rebuild there.

How did a landfill become South Coast Botanic Garden?

The 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden on the Peninsula was a diatomaceous earth mine and then a sanitary landfill. From 1958 a group of residents led by Frances Young, working through citizen groups and local garden clubs, petitioned the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to convert it. The garden was dedicated in 1961, and its first major planting put in more than 40,000 donated trees, shrubs and plants.

Where can you see it today?

• Malaga Cove Plaza, Palos Verdes Estates: on the National Register since 2021; its first store building went up in 1925.
• Palos Verdes Homes Association, 320 Palos Verdes Drive West, Palos Verdes Estates: the association and Art Jury office; its website carries the project’s history.
• La Venta Inn: a state-listed Point of Historical Interest since 1990.
• Palos Verdes Library District Local History Center, Peninsula Center Library, Rolling Hills Estates: photos, maps and oral histories, with the 40 Families collection digitized at palosverdeshistory.org.
• Point Vicente Lighthouse, Palos Verdes Drive West, Rancho Palos Verdes: the grounds open on the second Saturday of each month; the tower is closed.
• Point Vicente Interpretive Center, Rancho Palos Verdes: the lighthouse’s original lamp and Fresnel lens are on display.
• Abalone Cove Shoreline Park, Rancho Palos Verdes: Los Serenos de Point Vicente docents lead tide pool hikes.
• Rolling Hills City Hall, 2 Portuguese Bend Road, Rolling Hills: the city posts A. E. Hanson’s memoir, Rolling Hills: The Early Years, on its website.
• Wayfarers Chapel, 5755 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes: the heritage site is closed to the public; services meet for now at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 2200 Via Rosa, Palos Verdes Estates.
• South Coast Botanic Garden, on the Peninsula: the garden dedicated in 1961 on the former mine and landfill.

Where do the sources differ?

• When the Art Jury began: the Palos Verdes Homes Association says it first met on November 21, 1922, at the Hotel Redondo. The same page heads an entry “1923: Establishment of the Art Jury.”
• When Palos Verdes Estates became a city: the Homes Association says that with the 1925 post office “the Palos Verdes community becomes an officially recognized city.” The Local Agency Formation Commission and Dana Graham date its incorporation to 1939.
• When Point Vicente Lighthouse was automated: the City of Rancho Palos Verdes says keepers ran it until 1971. The Friends of the Point Vicente Lighthouse give 1973.
• When the Portuguese Bend landslide began: Dana Graham says late 1955. Many secondary accounts give 1956; no official source we read does.

Questions people ask about Palos Verdes Peninsula history

When did Palos Verdes Estates become a city?

Palos Verdes Estates incorporated in 1939, the year the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission gives. The Palos Verdes Homes Association says the community became an officially recognized city when its post office opened in 1925.

What happened to Wayfarers Chapel?

Wayfarers Chapel, designed by Lloyd Wright and dedicated on May 13, 1951, closed on February 15, 2024, because of land movement, and disassembly was completed that July to save the building. In May 2025 the chapel announced a prospective new site at the former Battery Barnes, next to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall. Sunday services are held for now at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Palos Verdes Estates.

When did the Portuguese Bend landslide start?

Dana Graham of the Palos Verdes Historical Society writes that it began in late 1955 and that excavation for a planned extension of Crenshaw Boulevard was judged at the time to have set it off; many secondary accounts give 1956. The City of Rancho Palos Verdes adopted a moratorium on new development in the landslide area on September 5, 1978.

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. The history of South Coast Botanic Garden comes from long-standing local accounts rather than a source we could link.

Buying, selling, or still deciding if the Peninsula is where you’ll settle down next?

More South Bay history