Alan Salazar, representing the early tribes in the area, invited participants to sprinkle tobacco on the land at Founders Oak Island on Haverford.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/PPHS
The Pacific Palisades Historical Society invited community members to attend the town’s rededication at Founders Oak Island on Sunday afternoon, January 16.
PPHS President Donna Vaccarino welcomed close to 60 people who gathered at the long, narrow “island” on Haverford Avenue, across from where the Pierson Playhouse once stood.
Although the Theatre Palisades building burned, the island that bifurcates Haverford, filled with coastal oak trees, survived and was a lovely setting for the low-key ceremony.
Alan Salazar, a storyteller in the tradition of the region’s Indigenous Tongva, Chumash, and Tataviam peoples, invited all to participate in an ancient offering of sage and tobacco plants, and invoked the symbolism of spring: “to bring back to life—that’s what we’re here for today.”
Alice Amorim is the Pacific Palisades Historical Society intern this year.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/PPHS
In the Pacific Palisades Centennial Celebration magazine, Bill Bruns wrote about the town’s founding: “Dr. Charles Holmes Scott and his associates had purchased 1,068 acres of prime land for $618 an acre to build the country’s ‘greatest Chautauqua site’ in Temescal Canyon and an adjacent residential community based on Christian ideals.” Bruns described how the “lots in Founders Tract 1 were kept small and the street narrow to create reasonably priced housing for retired missionaries and clergymen, widows and other Christian folks of modest means.
“South of Beverly Boulevard (now called Sunset Boulevard), which was Founders Tract II, the layout was more spacious, with wider streets, larger lots and less regular terrain stretching down to the Via de las Olas bluffs.”
“That morning [January 14, 1922] people had arrived at Founders Oak, and selected first, second and third choices among the lots. When the selection was finished, the Rev. Scott’s daughter Martha drew slips to announce the winners.”
At last Sunday’s rededication ceremony, PPHS curator Randy Young noted wryly that the population in the heart of town today is about what it was in 1926.
Sharon Kilbride, a direct descendant of the Rancho landowners and a sixth-generation Palisadian, spoke about her ancestors who ranched on the land grant before the town’s founding and added, “I love this place more than anywhere else in the world.”
There was a moment of silence for the late Eric Dugdale, a long-time resident, who had served as Historical Society president for many years. Young credited him with saving the organization’s archives by finding a new location to store them. The archives had been stored in the Palisades Methodist Church and would have been destroyed by the fire.
The Historical Society recently launched an initiative to finish organizing and digitizing its collection, and making arrangements for permanent storage at an institution designed for safeguarding historic items, and also enabling them to be more accessible.
Methodist interim Pastor Catie Coots revealed that after the fire, they had discovered a 1929 time capsule and the documents inside were intact. That included many Methodist-related documents such as the Book of Discipline, a list of members and donors, but it also had an intact copy of the 1929 Palisadian, the town’s newspaper.
Cameron Lovett received a scholarship from the Historical Society.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/PPHS
The Historical Society honored Cameron Lovett for her Troop 223 Eagle Scout project: revitalizing the corner of Los Liones at Tramonto. She received a scholarship in the memory of the late Babara Manaugh.
Palisades High School senior Alice Amorim, who is interning with the Historical Society, was also introduced.
Evan Hall, founder of the preservation-focused House Museum (chimneys) had attended a ceremony the day before with the Tree People and was given a coastal oak sapling. He presented it to the Historical Society, which oversees Founders Oak Island, for planting.
Long-time PPHS board member Shirley Haggstrom said, “I lost my home a year ago. I’m here to begin again. We are not alone . . .This community has survived before and will survive now. I look forward to seeing what the future generation will do.”
Coots offered a blessing: “We come here to rededicate this space and claim it as holy ground. This is for those who went before us and for those who will come after me.”
As the ceremony closed, a red-tailed hawk circled above Founders Island. In Native American culture that hawk symbolizes power, strength and resilience and is seen as a messenger of the gods who carries prayers and blessings to the people on his wings.
Long-time resident Shirley Haggstrom spoke at the event.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/PPHS