By The history of Long Beach is one rooted in the discovery of oil, the subsequent construction that followed and the establishment of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The city of Long Beach was established in the 1880s, with a sprinkling of homes and schools in the area. The discovery of oil in 1921 triggered a boom in population and laid the building blocks for the city we know today.
1949 marks the founding year of Los Angeles-Orange County State College and the college’s newspaper, the Daily Forty-Niner. Both still survive today but under different names.
To commemorate 75 years of existence, the Long Beach Current takes a look back at the sights of Long Beach in 1949 from city and school archives.
Naples 1949
Photo credit: Long Beach Public Library Digital Archive.
An aerial view looking east from Bay Shore Avenue in Belmont Shore to Naples, the peninsula and Alamitos Heights oil wells.
Dollar Market
Photo Credit: Long Beach Public Library Digital Archive.
With the population of Long Beach approximately 250,767 by the end of the 1940s, according to the Los Angeles Almanac, small stores like the Dollar Market were needed. This photograph from 1949 shows the northeast corner of Orange Avenue and Carson Boulevard. Stores in this center include Van De Kamps Holland Dutch Bakery, Vermillion’s Rexall Drug Store, a barber shop, beauty shop and cleaners.
Alamitos Bay entrance jetties
Photo credit: Long Beach Public Library Digital Library.
This photo is taken from the west jetty, looking southeast toward the east jetty. Jetty construction. The 2.5 mile east Long Beach breakwater finished construction in 1949, which changed the way water flowed at the mouth of the L.A. River. Surfing was once a popular pastime at Long Beach beaches, but the construction of the breakwater prevented surfable waves from coming in.
Jacobsen Pilot Service
Photo credit: Port of Long Beach history timeline.
The Jacobsen Pilot Station, pictured here, became the first station in the Western Hemisphere to install a shore-based radar system in 1949.
Long Beach City College
Photo credit: Long Beach Public Library Digital Archive
While Long Beach State was the new school on the block, Long Beach City College was founded in 1921. The image shows an aerial view of the mission revival style buildings of early LBCC in 1949 surrounded by undeveloped land.
Heim Bridge Roadway
Photo credit: John J. Lloyd/Long Beach Fire Department from Long Beach Public Library Digital Archive.
While this photo of the Terminal Island roadway across the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge, which spans the Cerritos Channel was taken in 1957, the “Long Beach, California,” sign was installed in November 1949.
