Published in 2013
163 pages
Julie Lugo Cerra is a sixth-generation Californian, and a Culver City native who enjoys being called the accidental historian. She was appointed official City historian by the Culver City Council in 1996. Julie, a past president of the Culver City Historical Society, wrote hundreds of articles about her hometown’s past in the Culver City News.
What is this book about?
Culver City has rivaled Hollywood for nearly a century as the “Heart of Screenland”–a center of the movie and television trades. Here, the giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer evolved into Sony Pictures, and the Ince and Selznick movie empires became today’s Culver Studios. But the same lands along Ballona Creek had been a wilderness traversed by Native Americans and settled by hardy Spanish pioneers named Machado, Talamantes and Higuera. Union soldiers occupied the area’s Civil War-era Camp Latham. By 1910, visionary Harry H. Culver saw possibilities for these ranchlands and led Culver City to incorporate in 1917. Join official city historian Julie Lugo Cerra, a descendant of early settlers, as she relates the fascinating stories of how and why Culver City grew and prospered.
