A Look at Palos Verdes through the 1930 Federal Census: Part 1

Palos Verdes in Numbers

Why is the 1930 Federal census important in the telling the story of the Palos Verdes Peninsula? It was the first Federal census after the 1923 real estate rally held by the Palos Verdes Project which essentially launched the modern Peninsula development.  The 1930 census reveals a growing, vibrant area recognized nationally and internationally for its farsighted urban planning thanks to the efforts of the Olmsted Brothers. It also reveals the beginning of a transformation from farm and ranchland to a mostly residential area.  

The first subdivision of the Palos Verdes Project is located in what is now the City of Palos Verdes Estates and also Miraleste which in part of the City of Rancho Palos Verdes.  Of the roughly 16,000 acres that make up the Peninsula, it was in this first subdivision of 3225 acres that the census taker started to visit households and collect data for three weeks in April starting on the eighth. 

There were 499 residents in the subdivision:  441 resided in the contiguous neighborhoods of Malaga Cove, Montemalaga, Lunada Bay, Margate and Valmonte, and 58 in Miraleste.  The census taker referred to this area as the “high class residential district”.  Of the residences, 95 were occupied by owners and their households, and 39 other residences were rented.

There was a total of 122 children under the age of 18 including children and grandchildren of heads of households, as well as children of live-in family members and domestics.  Residents also included 36 extended family members some of whom were adult children. In all there were 24 people classified as live-in domestic help (housekeepers, maids, chauffeurs and cooks). 

The occupations of the heads of household (mostly men) were varied and ranged from professionals and executives to salesmen, clergy and teachers.  There were 20 professionals (doctors, lawyers, dentists, landscape architects, architects, and engineers, etc.), 8 executives (oil companies, and banks, etc.) and 9 salesmen.  Only seven women were employed outside the home (one was a boarder) and were primarily teachers.  Five women heads of household were described as retired, and ten were widows.

After enumerating the first subdivision, the census taker moved south to cover the "farm district" in Precinct 8.  This area was largely composed of Japanese leasehold truck farms and other farming and ranching operations on land leased from the Palos Verdes Corporation.   

The practice of leaseholds begun in 1906 when George Bixby first leased parcels of land to Japanese farm families who were barred by Federal law from land ownership.   

There were 41 Japanese truck farmers listed on the 1930 census as heads of household.  Of these heads of household, 37 of these leaseholders were enumerated as owners and four as renters. Other than one women head of household, the remaining were men. All of the heads of household were listed as married except for two who were listed as widowed.

Together these farmers employed 125 farm laborers, who were primarily born in Mexico.  Thirty of the farmers’ wives (Japanese), were also described as farm laborers.  Including children under the age of 18 (107), there were 312 individuals residing on the Japanese farms of Precinct 8.

There were three heads of household recorded as employees of the Pt. Vicente Lighthouse and renting homes there. Including their wives and children, this totaled eight people.  Aside from the Japanese leaseholders, there were five heads of household listed as renters of farm/ranch property in Precinct 8. Including wives, children and laborers, this totaled 27 people for a grand total of 35 residents outside of the Japanese community.

With the 16 members of the Harry C. Benedict family living in the Portuguese Bend area, lighthouse personnel and farming families, there were a total of 367 people in the farm district.  This is just 132 people less than in the laid out neighborhoods of the subdivision.  

"1923 November 24 San Pedro Grower's Association Community Hall Opening, Port of San Pedro [sic] California"

In a 1936 report entitled Land-Use and Water-Supply Problems in Southern California: Market Gardens of the Palos Verdes Hills, H.F. Raup details the extent of the Japanese farming activity on the Peninsula.  Geosciences professor Dr. Stacy Warren of Eastern Washington University has created an interactive map of the map included in Raup's report and what was farmed.