A Brief History of Mar Vista

When Venice of America, the amusement park intended to be the "Coney Island of the Pacific", opened in 1905, Abbot Kinney’s development was in the City of Ocean Park. The area to the east, now known as Mar Vista, was then called Ocean Park Heights. The community was named Mar Vista in 1924, and was considered to be the "back country" east of the City of Ocean Park.

Soon after changing the name from Ocean Park Heights to Mar Vista, the community decided to incorporate as a city. A major concern of most Southern California cities in those days was water. Since 1913, Los Angeles had been importing water from the Owens Valley, but that water was available only to citizens of Los Angeles. Therfore Mar Vista joined many other communities by voting to be annexed. According to Mar Vista historian Glen Howell, on September 23, 1926, Mar Vistans voted 2 to 1 to merge with Los Angeles. Mar Vista was formally annexed as part of the sixth District by the City Council of Los Angeles on March 10, 1927.

The original Mar Vista annexation was 4.98 square miles. That is one quarter of Rancho La Ballona, a cattle ranch settled in the 1820's. Since the orginal Mar Vista annexation, there have been 14 more Mar Vista additions to the City of Los Angeles, most of which are south of Washington Blvd. They include Barnes City, which thereafter lost its its separate identity. Barnes City extended south to Jefferson Blvd. and west of Lincoln Blvd.

This year's celebration of the annexation began after Mr. Howell mentioned the upcoming anniversary to Mar Vista resident and Council District 11 Councilman Bill Rosendahl. Councilman Rosendahl began spreading the word and funding was collected from local organizations. The Mar Vista Community Council appropriated $10,500 to help support the day-long, mid-summer event and Council District 11 also pledged $2000 to the effort. Mar Vista's own Farmers Market will also celebrate its one-year anniverasry as part of the event.

For more information on Mar Vista's past, visit The Mar Vista Historical Society.

Got a picture or historical information you'd like to share? Send us an email:
Ken Marsh, Event Administrator
(310) 903-2173
kmarsh@ca.rr.com