Harbor Park Historical Photos
Get ready for a virtual time machine
tour of KMHRP with historical photographs.
Most of these so far have come from the
personal files of the late great Ken Malloy himself.
Clearly, he collected them over the years whenever
opportunity presented itself.
Here are some of them for all us to enjoy
as he would have had it!
Some are large aerials, so take a few moments
to download. It will be worth the wait!
Unfortunately, these black and white prints
had almost no credits or dates on them.
They can often be dated by what is present,
or not present, in the pictures.
Looking North over the dam. Boathouse on left.
Boathouse willows" behind it. Probably mid-late 1970's.
Probably a high water event.
Note lake goes to Figueroa at BOTH
north and south ends! No commercial development
on PCH and no Golf Course, yet.
Anaheim is at lower right.
Dam went in
at narrow waist in lake at center.
DWP building is right of center.
Looking Northeast from above "five-points" intersection.
Looking south over lake. North end tules and willows
at lower front center.
East side tules and willows
along
left side of lake. Boathouse willows top center -
right (west) side of lake. Probably early 1970's
The great flood of March 5, 1941!
Water surface 21.2 feet above sea level.
Current spillway/dam is 10.5 feet above sea level,
so imagine being 11' underwater standing on it!
Aerial from over refinery looking north. Note barely built college.
No Golf Course, and Wetlands extend from Figueroa
south of college, all the way around current golfcourse,
back to Figeuroa in north at the current site of Denny's,
the Hotel, Bayou Apts., all built on fill dirt, "reclaiming wetlands"
as it is/was so rudely called. No condos across
PCH either, also built on fill in the wetlands.
A remarkable photograph! Probably late '50's early '60's.
Looking south with Wilmington Drain (aka Bixby Slough) in foreground.
PCH and the park in center, BC - before condo development
north of PCH in late 60's. Vermont is the diagonal right of center.
LA Harbor waters visible in upper left
This I think is looking north up Bixby Slough (Wilm. Drain)
from the PCH area, probably taken in the 1950's?
Looking south from north end of lake
apparently during an extended dry spell.
Refinery at left edge, trees are at "5-points" intersection.
P.V. silhouette (San Pedro Hill) at upper right.
This next series is from the 1960's,
mostly after the mid-to-late- 1960's
"development and improvement" of the park.
The west side of the lake was all natural
habitat with mulefat, willows, sage scrub,
until the lawns went in the late 1960's
when it was bulldozed/scraped.
The boathouse when just built from south of dam
Note bare scraped land behind it.
The new scout camp (restroom) is front lower center,
with the DWP building behind it to right.
The "boathouse willows" are still present, as is
the shorebird mudflat (left center) in an
open area (now closed in) of tules.
This is about the same as the above
picture, but from a higher altitude.
Shows college baseball diamond.
Looking north across the lower wetland (the slough as it was known then)
from the scout camp area to the still fairly new college
The Lomita Wells DWP building
that Ken Malloy worked at.
Early 1990's flood event
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