An Historically Significant Tract in East R.P.V.

No, it's not the original 'Eastview' tract of homes. It is the first tract of houses built west of Western Avenue in an area that eventually became part of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

These houses marked the beginning of a building boom along the eastern side of The Hill that seems to continue today.

Pictured below the new tract is the Channel Heights Apartments area. The store in the lower left of the photo was just about where In and Out Burger now stands.

The yard I grew up in and try to tend today is outlined in yellow. My dad bought the house and lot in 1950 and paid $7,500.00 for what was the largest yard and house on the south side of the first block on Trudie.

At the top of the photo are individual houses in the Miraleste area.

An Article from The News Pilot dated May 4, 1950:

Harbor Area Project Includes 215 Houses
Two Hundred and fifteen new homes are being erected in county territory above Peck Park as the harbor area continues its residential building boom.
The dwellings, known as Western View Homes, are being constructed by Shinn-Worzburger Building Corp. of Los Angeles.
Two Hundred of the structures are two-bedroom homes with attached garages, while the other 15 are three-bedroom houses with detached two-car garages.
The Price range of the smaller structures is $7200 to $7650. The three-bedroom houses are being offered for $8950.
Forty of the dwellings have been completed and several families already have moved into the project. Pioneer families in the area include those of M.O. O'Brion, James J. Prendergast, R. A. Marcoux and F.T. Veazey.
Three new streets have been created by the project-Highmore Ave., Jaybrook Dr. and Homeworth Dr.
The Shinn-Wurzburger firm built 55 new houses in Walteria in 1948 and has also done large-scale housing construction at Hawthorne, Monrovia, Arcadia and Fontana and in the San Fernando Valley.
The Western View project was started last December. One hundred homes are expected to be completed before the end of this month.

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The streets that comprise Western View Homes are Trudie, Highmore, Homeworth, Jaybrook, and the cul-de-sac of Bayend that is barely visible on the right side of the tract.

If you are old enough to remember the area, on the corner of Trudie and Western stood a Signal service station followed by an Enco, Exxon, and then Marie Calendar's, which remains today.

The southwest corner of Trudie and Western would eventually become the Western Plaza shopping center.

The first business nearest Trudie was actually a pharmacy. When I was about 2 year's old, Hillside Liquors opened on that spot and is one of the oldest businesses still there.

The other two businesses that seem to have remained over the many decades are 31 Flavors and the Barber Shop.

In the photo you should be able to detect that MacArthur, Caddington, Enrose, and other streets were just dreams that became true by 1955-57.

I doubt there are any tracts of houses in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes that were built when Western View Homes were completed.

Sure there were lots of individual and historic houses in what would become Rancho Palos Verdes, but this first tract in what is now Eastern Rancho Palos Verdes signaled the beginnings of growth that the city hopes will continue.