Historic Fire Station 62

The Next Phase: $$$,$$$

2011-09-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

The Fire Station 62 Ad Hoc Committee has been busily working to complete its bylaws and 501(c)3 status, and hoping to kick off the next phase of realizing the neighborhood's dream of converting the ol' fire station into a community center. A certain amount of work will need to be done to bring the building up to modern standards - upgrade the electrical, modernize the restrooms, do a little bit of roof work in one spot, tear out some glued-on carpet, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. She ain't young. 62 is turning 62 next year, and she'll have to come up with a pretty nickel (ah, inflation) for an Oprah-fitting makeover.

We have both an architect and a contractor on our committee who've been tasked with pinning down the amount we'll need to raise. We might be looking at half a mil here, chump change if you're Brad Pitt renovating a work-out gym. But in our neighborhood, we might be looking at selling 200,000 cupcakes and 300,000 glasses of horchata to raise that kind of cash.

We're a marvelously diverse neighborhood, the mirror of Los Angeles in many respects. Our households encompass a spectrum of income, from the low to the high. If you've been blessed in this economy or have helping hands and wish to assist in some way, please, join us in a meeting. We meet every third Wednesday at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, 11555 National Blvd. in Mar Vista, in the library, 7 to 9 pm. And if we come knocking at your door, soliciting funds, please give what you can. Also, be watching this blog for notice of any fund-raising events.

Fire Station With a Pedigree

2010-10-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

Mark Crawford (pictured) of the Mar Vista Historical Society has submitted another fascinating reflection on the history of the area surrounding Historic Fire Station 62. It comes from his forthcoming book, Distant Vistas: Exploring the Historic Neighborhoods of Mar Vista. You may recall that last spring Mark had given us a preview of some of his research. Crawford writes:

When the ad hoc committee to preserve the Mar Vista Fire Station 62 and convert it into a community center began referring to it as historic, not a few people scoffed at the notion that this seemingly unexceptional, unkempt edifice had a right to such a lofty designation. But an impartial assessment of the facts should convince anyone of the validity of that term.
The land on which the fire station sits was part of a 335-acre parcel owned by Samuel Cripe, an Indiana farmer who settled in the Ballona Valley in the late 1870s. Besides cultivating such crops as alfalfa, lima beans, peas, blackberries, string beans, Irish potatoes, and corn (100 bushels to the acre), Cripe operated a kiln in Santa Monica manufacturing bricks in what was one of that city’s first industries. His pressed bricks were regarded by experts as among the best made in the country and were used in the 1888 Soldiers Home in Sawtelle, today the site of the Veterans Administration. Cripe also helped raise the $300 that was used to finance the first school ever built in Mar Vista territory, the Machado Public School, erected in 1895 at the present-day corner of Walgrove Avenue and Zanja Street.
In the late 1880s Cripe’s son Jim began farming a 40-acre spread that included the fire station site. In 1905 Jim Cripe subdivided some 20 acres of his farm to create the sixth-oldest residential neighborhood in Mar Vista, Venice View Heights. Lots 1 and 2 were prime real estate, situated as they were at the southwest corner of the tract, at the junction of Ballona Road No. 2 (Centinela Avenue) and Windward Avenue. Ballona Road No. 2 was one of the few north/south throughways in early Mar Vista, and as it intersected the Pacific Electric rail line at Venice Boulevard, one of the most important in the development of the community.
On December 12, 1947, the City of Los Angeles purchased lots 1 and 2 for $6,110 to build a fire station to replace the outdated Venice Firehouse on the corner of Main Street and Rose Avenue. Construction on the 50 by 110 foot building didn’t begin until the last week of November, 1949; the $77,500 “bungalow-style” station was completed in July of 1950. Fire Station 62 was formally dedicated on August 25, 1950.
The eight-man crew that moved into the Mar Vista station – Engine Co. No. 62 – formerly worked at the old Venice Firehouse. Built in 1906 by the city of Ocean Park, the Venice firehouse was a two-story wooden structure with a bell tower and a stable for the horses that pulled its first fire wagons. The horses were originally pressed into service from the teams used by the City of Venice for street cleaning and garbage collection, the stables of which were on Rose Avenue. The original fire fighters were all volunteers; city employees cared for the horses and rang the bell when a fire broke out, which called the volunteers to the station house. Their first motorized engine, a two-cylinder Buick, was acquired in 1911. When Venice merged with Los Angeles in 1925 the station became Engine House 62. The city of L. A. replaced the old fire engines with three “modern” ones: a 1918 hose-wagon, a 1923 1000-gallon capacity American-La France engine, and a 1920 Seagreave relief pump and hose carrier. Incredibly, those three machines were used by Engine Co. No. 62 until 1949, when they were furnished with a new Triple Action Seagreave engine. Today the old Venice Fire Station is the remodeled Firehouse Restaurant.
Prior to the Windward station Mar Vista didn’t have a firehouse of its own. When a blaze broke out in the area, the community had to rely on fire crews from either Culver City or Venice. But this could be tricky, for each crew had clearly defined, inviolable boundaries, and if, say, a Culver City fire engine showed up to put out a fire that was across the street from its authorized territory, it would simply turn around and go back to the station. Fire Station 62 served the community until 2007 when it was replaced by a new station at the southeast corner of Venice and Inglewood boulevards.

Simply turn around and go back to the station.... Ah, the good old days.

Mar Vista Community Council Comes Through

2010-05-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Much gratitude is to be shown to the four Mar Vista Community Council members who have participated in the annual Day of Community Service by lending a hand at Historic Fire Station 62 two years in a row! From left to right above:

Marilyn Marble, Zone 6 Director;
Christopher McKinnon, Zone 5 Director;
Sharon Commins, Director At-large and Co-Chair of the Historic Fire Station 62 Ad Hoc Committee;
and Rob Kadota, Community Director.

To learn more about the Mar Vista Community Council and to get involved in its many activities, visit the Council's website. Sign up to have the Historic Fire Station 62 Ad Hoc Committee e-newsletter sent to you automatically.

One Moment in Today's Day of Community Service

2010-05-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

Click on the pic. Listen and watch. Listen to the grand acoustics of the truck bay inside Historic Fire Station 62. Receive a delightful surprise in watching one of the younger helping hands spiff up the place. (Be patient. It'll take a moment.)

For more of Roy's pics and video clips of the headway we made today on the station, click here.

Wahoo! Brighten Up Historic Fire Station 62

2010-04-30T20:23:00.001-07:00

Remember how much fun we had last year sprucing up the fire station for our Mayor's Day of Community Service? Kind of hazy? Need a reminder? Time to revisit the comraderie and the results of our hard work:

We're having a repeat of last year's fun TOMORROW, May 1 from 9 am to 1 pm at the fire station, 3631 Centinela Ave., up the hill from beautiful downtown Mar Vista. Help us out with these activities:

Weeding, mulching, and tree trimming
Painting [low VOC paint]
Picking up trash and debris
Sweeping

Coffee Connection will once again be providing yummy coffee drinks. You can also help out by bringing treats.

Come and hear about our plans to form a 501(c)3 nonprofit to support efforts to bring the station to life!

Note: Roy Persinko contributed to the photos in the above montage. He also provided our banner photo!

A Look Back in Time: Historic Fire Station 62 and Its Neighborhood

2010-04-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Mark Crawford of the Mar Vista Historical Society kindly sent in this narrative telling of the settlement and development of the area encompassing Historic Fire Station 62. This is excerpted from a book-in-progress titled Distant Vistas: Exploring the Historic Neighborhoods of Mar Vista. Betcha there's stuff here you never knew.

The neighborhood in which the historic fire station 62 is located is itself historic. The station stands almost in the dead center of the old Rancho La Ballona, the Spanish land grant bestowed to the Machado and Talamantes families in 1819. When in 1839 Agustin Machado applied to the Mexican government for clear title to the rancho, he submitted a map of Ballona Valley - the first such map known to exist. Near the center of this map is the first historic reference to Mar Vista, a region he designated "lomas muertas" - dead hills - hills on which the fire station sits.

In 1868 the California District Court broke up the rancho into 64 allotments of various sizes to the several claimants who owned acreage in Ballona. The fire station land went to the heirs of Agustin Machado. In the late 1870s they sold a 335-acre parcel to Wallace Woodworth, a man who had helped organize the first gas company in Los Angeles in 1867. This parcel was roughly bounded by Centinela (then known as Ballona Road No. 2), Palms, Beethoven, and Zanja/Washington Blvd. In 1881 Woodworth sold the land to an Indiana farmer named Samuel Cripe. Cripe sold this land piecemeal over the years, including about 40 acres to his son, Jim Cripe, who cultivated a farm near the present-day corner of Windward of Centinela avenues - the site of the fire station. Cripe and his wife sired and raised their six children on this farm. In 1905 Cripe subdivided some twenty acres of his farm and created the sixth-oldest residential neighborhood in Mar Vista. Originally called Venice View Heights, this tract's boundaries were Centinela, Windward, Frances, and, Westminster, and now forms the crown of historic Mormon Hill.

The fire station was built in 1949 on two prime Venice View Heights lots that had been sitting vacant for forty-three years. The building is a fine specimen of the late Moderne architecture that made do with simple rectangular forms of various thicknesses arranged either horizontally or vertically, the most well-known example in this area being the Sears Building on Colorado and 4th Street in Santa Monica.

That's from Distant Vistas. From the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive, one also learns that Engine Company No. 17 which came to occupy the Centinela/Windward location was originally housed at a fire station at 213 Rose Ave. in Venice. That structure, built in 1906, still stands at the intersection of Rose and Main and is home to the Firehouse Restaurant. The restaurant and the intersection it sits on were made famous in the 1994 film Speed!

Bring Your Hopes and Talents to the Monthly Meeting

2010-03-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

MVCC Ad Hoc Committee monthly meetings are scheduled for third Wednesdays, 7 - 9 pm. We meet in the library of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, 11555 National Blvd. in Mar Vista, at the northeast corner of National and Federal.