The Hope Development School fire started about 9 p.m. on the evening of May 31, 1924 in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California. The fire at the Hope Development School for Deficient Girls [1] killed 24 people, primarily the mentally disabled or behaviorally challenged girls who were residents of the home, as well as the matron and her eight-year-old son. [2]
The school was home to 38 or 39 [3] girls and young women, ranging in age from four to 26 years old. [4] According to the Los Angeles Times, “Of the 39 patients, 24 came to the school from Juvenile Court. The others came from families unable to care for them.”
The school was “located on a lagoon, nearly three miles from the nearest fire station.” Originally built as a resort village in 1902, the settlement had seen a decline in fortunes. The school building (a former hotel and then brothel [3] ) was surrounded by sand dunes to the south, the Pacific to the west, and the undeveloped marshland that is now Ballona Wetlands to the north and east. The hotel operation, with its forty rooms and large dining area, had closed in 1917, reopening as the school in 1920. [3]
Access to the school was had by either the infrequent streetcars (Venice–Playa del Rey Line, Redondo Beach via Playa Del Rey) or the partially paved, partially lit roads (such as Culver Boulevard) that ran nearby. Much of the land surrounding the school was used for agriculture (celery was a major crop), or left undeveloped for the seasonal duck hunters.
The wood-frame building [2] was an acknowledged fire hazard but the director had been unable to find a new housing situation that would accept the students and so they remained at the former hotel. [2] All the doors were locked to keep the children safe inside; at least one was tied to her bed at night to keep her from falling out. [2]
The fire was first observed by a gas station attendant and a disabled veteran living on the beach. After initially trying to enter the burning building, the veteran drove 2.5 mi (4.0 km) to the fire station at Venice to sound the alarm, passing five poorly marked alarm boxes along the way. [5]
The assistant matron is credited with saving the girls who survived. [5] The fire was started intentionally by a teenage resident of the home. [3] The surviving matrons later said that the culprit had no ability to recognize the potentially disastrous consequences of her actions in lighting the match. [6]
The remains of the 24th victim were discovered a week after the fire had been extinguished. [3] Several of the victims share a mass grave at Inglewood Park Cemetery. [6] There were an additional 42 injuries, including at least 19 students who jumped or were thrown out of the burning building, six firefighters (some of whom encountered a live high-tension electrical wire), and at least 12 civilians who were involved in extinguishing the fire and assisting with the rescues. [2] [4]
Marina del Rey is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The port is North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor and is home to approximately 5,000 boats. The area is a popular tourism destination for both land and water activities such as paddle board and kayak rentals, dining cruises, and yacht charters. Land activities include bicycling on several bicycle paths, walking paths along the waterfront, and birdwatching (birding). Wildlife watching opportunities include California sea lions and harbor seals. Dolphins and whales occasionally visit the deeper waters of the harbor. This Westside locale is approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Santa Monica, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Los Angeles International Airport, and 12.5 miles (20.1 km) west-southwest of Downtown Los Angeles.
Playa del Rey is a seaside neighborhood on the westside of Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Bay region of Los Angeles County, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a population of 16,230 people.
Westchester is a neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles and the South Bay Region of Los Angeles County, California.
Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006.
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in Malibu, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Its eastern shore forms the western boundary of the Los Angeles Westside and South Bay regions. Although it was fed by the Los Angeles River until the river's catastrophic change of course in 1825, the only stream of any size now flowing into it is Ballona Creek. Smaller waterways draining into the bay include Malibu Creek, Topanga Creek, and Santa Monica Creek.
Playa Vista is a neighborhood in the Westside area of Los Angeles, California, United States. The area was the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company from 1941 to 1985 and the site of the construction of the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" aircraft. The area began development in 2002 as a planned community with residential, commercial, and retail components. The community attracted businesses in technology, media and entertainment and is part of Silicon Beach.
Venice High School (VHS) is a public school located in the Westside area of Los Angeles, California and within the Local District West area of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Del Rey is a neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles, surrounded on three sides by Culver City, California. Within it lie a police station, the largest public housing complex on the Westside, a public middle school and six public elementary schools. It is served by a neighborhood council and a residents association. Del Rey, with a 32,000+ population, has a large number of military veterans.
The Beverly Hills Speedway was a 1.25-mile (2.01 km) wooden board track for automobile racing in Beverly Hills, California. It was built in 1919 on 275 acres (1.11 km2) of land that includes the site of today's Beverly Wilshire Hotel, just outside the "Golden Triangle". The former site is bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, South Beverly Drive, Olympic Boulevard and Lasky Drive. The project was financed by a group of racers and businessmen that called itself the Beverly Hills Speedway Association. The track was the first in the United States to be designed with banked turns incorporating an engineering solution known as a spiral easement.
El Porto is a beach community that is part of northernmost Manhattan Beach, a city in the South Bay area of Greater Los Angeles in Southern California.
The Los Angeles Motordrome was a circular 1-mile (1.6 km) wood board race track. It was located in Playa del Rey, California, and opened in 1910. In addition to automobile racing, it was used for motorcycle competition and aviation activities.
Southland Publishing, Inc. was a publishing company from 1997 to 2019 based in Pasadena, California with five offices in Southern California. The company published weekly newspapers, monthly magazines, direct mail products, and operated affiliated websites throughout California and selected states throughout the U.S.
Alla is a former streetcar station and archaic place name located near Marina del Rey in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California.
Alsace is a place name designating what was originally an interurban trolley stop, and now an approximately five-block enclave of unincorporated Los Angeles County in the Westside region, surrounded by Del Rey, just north of the Playa Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Cypress Grove, California was a stop on the Redondo Beach via Playa Del Rey Line of the Los Angeles streetcar system.
Motordrome is an archaic placename in Los Angeles County, California. It designates a rail spur that existed in the 1910s on the Redondo Beach via Del Rey Line, named for the Los Angeles Motordrome race track and airfield. Motordrome station lay at an elevation of 7 feet. The coordinates for Motordrome preserved in the GNIS place it near the present-day intersections of Jefferson Boulevard and Culver Boulevard, in what is now the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.
The Airport Marina Hotel was an 800-room, first-class hotel located at the 8601 Lincoln Boulevard at the southwest corner of Manchester Avenue, in Westchester, Los Angeles, near Los Angeles International Airport. Its architect was Welton Becket; it was completed in December 1962 and opened in January 1963. At opening it had a shopping center with Joseph Magnin, a specialty department store, pharmacy, drugstore, bank and a 32-lane bowling alley. Hawaii-based Amfac bought the hotel and shopping center leasehold in 1968 for $3.7 million and a share of future profits. Amfac started operating them in January 1969 under their Fred Harvey division. The hotel was later known as the Furama Hotel, then Custom Hotel. The grounds are now the site of the Playa de Oro apartment complex, while the tower continues operating as a boutique hotel, the Hotel June.
Culver Boulevard is an east-west thoroughfare in the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, connecting Venice Boulevard to the coast roads.
The Mesmer family of California was a wealthy family of early Los Angeles settlers who contributed to the development of the city between the rancho era and the explosive growth of the post-WWII era.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)