Westchester and Playa del Rey History

Updated October 18, 2026.

If you live in Westchester or Playa del Rey or are looking at a home there, the bluffs, Del Rey Lagoon, the Ballona Wetlands, the LMU campus and LAX each have a recorded past, from a 1902 electric line to the beach to a 2026 public meeting on the wetlands. This page tells those stories in order and shows where to see what remains.

Where sources differ on a date or an acreage, the story below follows one and names it. The list near the end gives every version.

What were the Ballona Wetlands before the city grew?

The Ballona Wetlands once covered about 2,000 acres of marshes, mud flats, salt pans and sand dunes from Playa del Rey to Venice and inland to the Baldwin Hills, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) says. Before 1825 the Los Angeles River flowed through the Ballona watershed, then shifted its outlet toward San Pedro. Augustin Machado began grazing cattle at Ballona around 1820 and later claimed Rancho La Ballona, according to Friends of Ballona Wetlands, a nonprofit steward group. The Friends trace the name to ballena, Spanish for whale, or to Bayona, Spain, the original home of the Talamantes family, partners of the Machados.

What was Port Ballona?

In the 1880s Moy Wix promoted “Port Ballona,” a plan to link the ocean to a new harbor, and Santa Fe passenger trains arrived in 1887 before tides and winter rains washed the wharf away, the Friends write. Once electric rail service reached the beach at the turn of the 20th century, new hotels, a fishing pier and a bridge across the lagoon entrance went up, along with a racetrack where crowds watched drivers such as Barney Oldfield. Heavy seas and rains eventually washed those attractions away too, the group says, and in the 1920s developers built Palisades del Rey on higher ground less prone to flooding. Del Rey Lagoon is now a City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks facility, with a play area finished in May 2021.

What was the Playa del Rey incline railway?

The Los Angeles Pacific built a double-track electric line from Culver City to Playa del Rey in 1902 and extended it south along the coast to Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach in 1903, according to the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. The Pacific Electric took it over in 1911 and ran it until May 12, 1940. A 1909 Electric Railway Journal article the association digests lists a brick depot and an electrical substation at Playa del Rey.

Little is known about the incline, the association’s incline page says. Two counterbalanced cars ran from a Los Angeles Pacific stop at the base of the bluffs to a hotel on the bluff, and legend has it the cars were named “Alphonse” and “Gaston.” The association suspects the incline ran from about 1901 to 1909 and that unstable soil and cliff erosion may have ended it. Our Playa del Rey page covers the neighborhood today.

When did LMU come to Westchester?

Loyola Marymount University traces its roots to St. Vincent’s College, opened by the Vincentian Fathers in Los Angeles in 1865, which the state’s Office of Historic Preservation calls the first institution of higher learning in Southern California. Jesuits opened the high school division of their new Los Angeles College in 1911, incorporated it as Loyola College of Los Angeles in 1918, moved to the present Westchester campus in 1929 and reached university status a year later, according to LMU.

The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary opened Marymount Junior College in Westwood in 1933, moved it to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1960 and brought it to Loyola’s Westchester campus in 1968. After five years of sharing faculty and facilities, Loyola University and Marymount College merged in 1973 to form Loyola Marymount University.

How did farmland become Mines Field and LAX?

Before the airport, the land was farmland. James Martin and the Los Angeles Extension Company bought a large part of the southwest Centinela Valley in 1912 and leased it to tenant farmers, and by 1922 Andrew Bennett farmed 3,000 acres of wheat, barley and lima beans where LAX would be built, according to Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). Pilots of the 1920s used part of the Bennett Rancho as a makeshift landing strip. In July 1927 real estate agent William W. Mines, acting for the Martin interests, offered 640 acres of the former rancho to the City of Los Angeles, and the site became known as Mines Field.

The City Council chose the site on July 25, 1928, and Los Angeles Municipal Airport, first known as Mines Field, began operating on October 1, 1928. Hangar No. 1, the first structure, went up in June 1929, the airport was dedicated on June 7, 1930, and commercial airline service began on December 5, 1946. The Theme Building, designed by Pereira and Luckman, was completed in 1961, and the City Council designated it a City Cultural and Historical Monument on December 18, 1992. The rest of the region’s flying story is on our aviation and aerospace history page, and our Westchester page covers the neighborhood today.

How did the wetlands become a reserve?

To build Marina del Rey and the Ballona Creek flood control channel, roughly 3 million cubic yards of marine sediment, up to 20 feet thick in places, were dumped into the wetlands, CDFW says. Howard Hughes bought land around Ballona before World War II for an aircraft factory, the Friends write. The group challenged the Summa Corporation’s Playa Vista plan from 1984 to 1989, and in 1990 new owners Maguire Thomas Partners agreed to give up a significant portion of the 1,187 acres.

The state acquired the land in 2003, and the Fish and Game Commission designated the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in 2005; CDFW’s restoration project page gives it 577 acres. A large tidal restoration plan has been held up by litigation. After a May 2023 court ruling, CDFW decertified its environmental impact report on September 28, 2023 to revise it, and in 2026 it began work on a Land Management Plan, with a public meeting on July 9, 2026 at the Westchester Municipal Building. The reserve stays open for walks in the meantime.

Where can you see it today?

• Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve: CDFW says the Fiji Trail lot is open for self-guided walking from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and the West Culver lot behind 301 Culver Boulevard is for guided events only. No pets, bikes or horses.
• Del Rey Lagoon, 6660 Esplanade Place, Playa del Rey: the lagoon park, with its 2021 play area.
• Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles: the Westchester campus since 1929.
• St. Vincent’s Place, California Historical Landmark No. 567, St. Vincent Court, downtown Los Angeles, in the alley between Broadway and Hill and 6th and 7th Streets: the site of LMU’s forerunner from 1868 to 1887, per the state.
• Theme Building, 209 World Way, in the LAX central terminal area. LAWA says the airport is closed to the general public except passengers, people meeting or helping them, and airport staff.
• Hangar One, 5701 W. Imperial Hwy., on airport property: listed on the National Register on July 30, 1992.

Where do the sources differ?

• The incline’s years: about 1901 to 1909, says the association’s incline page; 1901 to 1908, says its index.
• The incline’s start: the association dates its incline photo, taken at a Los Angeles Pacific stop, to about 1901, a year before its own 1902 date for the Los Angeles Pacific line.
• Who ran the beach line around 1900: the Friends say the Pacific Electric Red Car; the association says the Los Angeles Pacific ran it until the Pacific Electric took over in 1911.
• The name Ballona: the Friends present one view tying it to ballena, Spanish for whale, and another tying it to Bayona, Spain, home of the Talamantes family.
• The fill: about 3 million cubic yards, up to 20 feet thick, says CDFW; 3.5 million cubic yards, raising the ground 15 feet in some areas, say the Friends.
• The reserve’s size: 577 acres, says CDFW’s restoration page; nearly 600, says its reserve page; about 600, say the Friends.
• Hangar One’s status: LAWA’s fact page says it “is accepted as a National Historic Landmark”; the National Park Service record shows the National Register listing and no landmark designation.

Questions people ask about Westchester and Playa del Rey history

What happened to the Playa del Rey incline railway?

Little is known about it. The Electric Railway Historical Association says two counterbalanced cars ran from a Los Angeles Pacific stop at the base of the bluffs to a hotel on the bluff. It suspects the incline ran from about 1901 to 1909 and that unstable soil and cliff erosion may have ended it.

Can you visit the Ballona Wetlands?

Yes. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve’s Fiji Trail lot is open for self-guided walking from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. The West Culver lot behind 301 Culver Boulevard is open for guided events only.

When did LMU move to Westchester?

Loyola moved to its present Westchester campus in 1929, according to LMU. Marymount College joined it there in 1968, and Loyola University and Marymount College merged in 1973 to form Loyola Marymount University.

When did LAX open as Mines Field?

Los Angeles World Airports says Los Angeles Municipal Airport, first known as Mines Field, began operating on October 1, 1928. It was dedicated on June 7, 1930, and commercial airline service began on December 5, 1946.

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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