Manhattan Beach’s El Porto area retains its own distinctive identity
In 1911, landowner/developer George Peck first subdivided the 27 acres of oceanfront land between Manhattan Beach and El Segundo that would become El Porto. He ran a large ad about the new tract in the Los Angeles Times of Nov. 5, 1911, above, using the CooperCuller Co. in Los Angeles as his agent.
He designed the lots so that each abutted a street in front and an alley in the rear. The oiled dirt streets had no names at first, but eventually they would pick up names from Manhattan Beach to the south.
El Porto’s main north-south street, Highland Ave., extended north from then-sparsely populated Manhattan, while its east-west street picked up Manhattan’s numbering system, running from 38th to 45th St. Crest Drive, just west of the Chevron refinery property, formed the development’s eastern boundary.
A word about El Porto’s name: it doesn’t mean “the port” in Spanish, otherwise its name would be “El Puerto.” It has been theorized to be a hybrid of Spanish and Portuguese, as “porto” is Portuguese for port but the language doesn’t use the Spanish “el” article. That could be overthinking it; it could have just been the developers thinking “Porto” meant port in Spanish. In any case, its exact origin is unclear.
It seemed inevitable that the new settlement would be annexed by either Manhattan Beach or El Segundo, both incorporated cities. The first election that would have made El Porto part of Manhattan was held on Feb. 5, 1929, but its residents decisively voted down the proposal.
It wouldn’t be the last time annexation came up for discussion, but for the next 41 years, El Porto would remain a small outpost of unincorporated Los Angeles County land surrounded by two larger cities.
It was a beautiful little spot, overlooking the Pacific. Its unincorporated status gave the aura of an anything-goes beachside paradise. An offshore canyon generated larger waves than on neighboring beaches, an asset that would boost El Porto’s stature among surfers in later decades. (A Body Glove-sponsored pro surfing tournament took place there in July 1987.)
The reputation of the out-of-the-way beach enclave even drew attention from Hollywood. Actor William Haines, a movie star during the silent and early talkies, had rented a house at 221 Moonstone St. in El Porto where a major fracas took place in June 1936.
Haines, who made little secret of being gay, was accused by local 6-yearold Jimmy Walker’s mom of child molestation. The police believed Haines, who claimed innocence, and they refused to press charges due to lack of evidence. A mob of about 30 local residents, egged on by members of a Klan-like group called the White Legion, attacked Haines and his house guests, ordering them to leave the area. Haines maintained his innocence, but never returned to El Porto.
The shoreline became a Los Angeles County beach during the 1930s. In 1956, the county paved a portion of an old Pacific Electric railroad right of way just above the beach, turning it into a metered parking area that still operates between 40th and 45th streets. (An effort to turn it into a $7 daily parking lot in 1991 was shortlived.)
By 1950, the population of El Porto was estimated to be 1,491 people. Its children attended schools in the El Segundo School District, despite the area’s seemingly closer ties to Manhattan Beach. Manhattan provided many of the area’s services and public utilities.
Those ties would be reexamined during the 1960s, when talk of annexation heated up again. A committee studied the possibility in 1963, but neither Manhattan Beach nor El Segundo pursued the action.
Discussion continued throughout the 1970s, but even the passage of a state law simplifying the annexation process for areas of less than 100 acres didn’t seem to entice El Porto’s two neighboring cities. As late as March 1978, officials from both El Segundo and Manhattan Beach still publicly claimed to have no interest in annexing the island of county land.
By the end of the year, though, Manhattan Beach had come around, and began actively working to acquire the land. The city council approved moving forward on annexation in May 1979, the County Board of Supervisors okayed it in September 1980, and El Porto officially became part of Manhattan Beach that November.
The area, which had become known as the “Devil’s Triangle” during the 1970s for its lively bar scene and pervasive beach bum culture, had cleaned up considerably by the 1990s. Its residents had grown tired of having to send their children to El Segundo schools, when those in Manhattan were much closer.
In 1997, they campaigned successfully against an El Segundo bond measure which would have forced residents to give more money to El Segundo schools, even though by then the great majority of El Porto kids attended Manhattan Beach schools via special permits.
The bond measure defeat led to the severing of the area’s final tie to its northern neighbor. With the cooperation of El Segundo school officials, El Porto became a part of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District on July 1, 1998.
In a recent innovation aimed at improving the area’s look, residents voted in 2019 to underwrite having all of its power, telephone and cable television wires buried underground.
The small community continues to struggle with parking and traffic woes thanks to its high-density location, but it remains a highly desirable place to live, and not just because of the surfers who continue to flock to its popular beach.