Back in the early 1900's, Downtown Torrance was the hub of the South Bay. Shoppers from Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa, El Segundo, and even Los Angeles could hop on the Red Car Line to shop at Levy Department Store or Woolworth's. In 1961, the Del Amo Mall opened on Hawthorne Boulevard. The earliest enclosed malls had appeared in the midwestern U.S. only a half dozen years earlier, and customers saw this new shopping experience as modern, convenient, and luxurious. Many of the shops and entertainments that had made the area so vital moved on to occupy space at Del Amo and later at the other South Bay malls that followed. That was the start of a downturn for Downtown that lasted nearly twenty years, as both business and the neighborhood slid into decline. Luckily for those of us who call Downtown home, Torrance wasn't content to be known as a mall city. In 1978 the Downtown R...
- Location
- Downtown Torrance, California
