Palisades del Rey, California

Palisades del Rey (Spanish for "Palisades of the King") was a 1921 neighborhood land development by Dickinson & Gillespie Co. that later came to be called the Playa del Rey district of Los Angeles County, California. It sits at an elevation of 135 feet (41 m). All of the houses in this area were custom built, many as beach homes owned by Hollywood actors and producers, including Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Bickford, and others.

A southern portion of Playa del Rey became known as Surfridge. It was south of the current remaining area of Playa del Rey and north of El Segundo and immediately west of the perimeter of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The area is bounded on the east by LAX, on the north by Waterview and Napoleon streets, on the south by Imperial Highway, and on the west by Vista del Mar. The beach to the west of the area is Dockweiler State Beach.

Development

Surfridge was developed in the 1920s and 1930s as "an isolated playground for the wealthy." In 1925 the developer held a contest to name the neighborhood and awarded the $1,000 prize to an Angeleno who submitted "Surfridge." The Los Angeles Times wrote that Surfridge was chosen "due to its brevity, euphony, ease of pronunciation ... but above all because it tells the story of this new wonder city."

Salesmen pitched tents on the sand dunes and sold lots for $50 down and 36 monthly payments of $20. House exteriors could only be made of stucco, brick or stone; frame structures were prohibited. Development was slowed by the onset of the Great Depression, but in the early 1930s the wealthy began to buy lots to build large homes. By the 1950s, the area was completely filled in with houses and apartment complexes.