Half Nelson

Captain Duffy owned the property on Nelson St and built a lot of houses here. Most of them were moved elsewhere so part of this land could be made into commercial property. This house was probably built in the late 1800’s.

This stretch of street is known as Frank Nelson’s half block in the ZIMAS system, Zoning Information and Map Access System of the City of LA. You can type an address into the system and it will pull up the info, like what year the house was built. I couldn’t find this house on there. Maybe it’s that old.

Union War No More

“If you need a battleship or a hunting knife…we have it or we will get it”
This year 6th street was dealt a real blow when they announced that Union War Surplus was going out of business. I went to the store a couple of times trying to find something I could buy to remember the store by. The only thing I could find was a pair of orange rubber gloves that had a radio active symbol on it, but one glove had melted into itself over the years. So I have one orange rubber glove to remember it by.

Wikipedro/Pedro Pedigree: John T. Gaffey

John T. Gaffey was born in Galway, Ireland on November 1, 1860. At the age of 7 he emmigrated to the US with his mother and 6 siblings on a sailing vessel through the Isthmus of Panama, disembarking in San Francisco. His mother bought a large cattle and sheep ranch and settled the family in Santa Cruz. He finished school in the bay area, studied a year at the University of California then returned to Santa Cruz. He became a reporter for the Santa Cruz Courier for a couple of years then established the Santa Cruz Herald. When he sold the paper 2 years later, he was appointed to Under Sheriff of the county and later served as clerk to the Supreme Court of the Southern District, which had duties that brought him to LA. He was elected to the Board of Equalization, then to the School Board of Los Angeles. He served on the school board for 10 months, then was elected to City Council. He served the council for 6 months, then left to work on Stephen White’s campaign for U.S. Senator. In 1893 he was appointed as the Collector of Customs for the Southern district by President Grover Cleveland, and in early 1894 he began an 18 month tenure as managing editor of the Los Angeles Herald. After a 4 yr term as Customs Collector, he retired from politics and focused on his mining prospects in Mexico. In 1906 he sold the mines and returned home to San Pedro. He married Arcadia Bandini in 1887, and had two children.

WHEW, talk about multi-tasker! That is why the biggest thoroughfare in San Pedro, Gaffey Street, is named after this man. The John T. Gaffey building was restored by Alan Johnson and Gary Larson. I got my information on Mr. Gaffey from a Google Book excerpt of Los Angeles, From The Mountains to The Sea by John Steven McGroarty (1921)

The 300 Block of 6th Street

I’d be typing til the bars closed down if I posted something about each business on 6th Street. But I do want to at least mention them, I’ve listed them from East to West on each side of the street, including the empty spaces. I hope you can patronize them in some way this holiday season, including the empty spaces, maybe you have an idea for a new business.

South Side of the Block
Papadakis Taverna, Soluna, Image-Men’s Clothing, EMPTY, Fragments Salon, Urban Feet, San Pedro Brewing Company, EMPTY, So. Cal. Tattoo, Crimsin, ??, Ticktocker Thrift Store, (sigh) EMPTY, New Yoga place, Norman’s, Nena’s Tamales Restaurant/EMPTY?, Gallery/EMPTY, Gallery/EMPTY, Drop-In Gifts, Dwelling, Joanne’s Closet, Offices, Niko’s Pizzeria.

North Side of the Block
Courthouse, 6th Street Bistro, Good Fella’s, EMPTY?, Boca Wear (moving to Ports O’Call, as of the new year), Muggies Chicken and Biscuits, Beach City Grill, Medical Billing office, Senfuku.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do this for the next block up, unless I have pictures of it…

Centre Street Lofts

The first of the loft boomers to open its doors downtown. Word is there are only three vacancies left in the building*, not bad at all. I wish I could say so for the store fronts on the street level. Maybe they’re filled but have yet to open. One of the businesses that is currently up and running is Behind The Scenes costume shop. Their window displays are worth the visit alone.

*via San Pedro Today (facebook)/Community Redevelopment Agency in Los Angeles

Colors

I hope we don’t have some new East-Centre St/West-Centre St. color battle brewin’ downtown. Blu is the brand new bar at the Crowne Plaza and Crimsin is the less new night clubbish cocktail lounge that took over for Tommy’s.

Northrop Grumman, San Pedro

Northrop Grumman is an aerospace and defense technology company, the 4th largest defense contractor in the world. Their San Pedro branch seems to be the location for computer programming/management and engineering services.

The Crowne Plaza, Turbo and the Pirate

The Crowne Plaza is one of three big chain hotels in San Pedro (Double Tree and Clarion being the others), formerly known as the Sheraton. The restaurant was named Juliette’s and the bar was named Romeo’s. About 5 or 6 years ago my friends and I used to frequent Romeo’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the weekly karaoke. We pretty much owned the place. That might sound sad to you, but we thought we were cool. We did musical theatre, of course we thought we were cool, right? Anyway, we were used to running into characters at karaoke, one regular being Turbo (Michael Chambers) from Breakin. You might remember Turbo for his famous dance with the broom. Legend is he was the one who taught Michael Jackson how to moonwalk. We always entertained cruise ship passengers who were staying in the hotel before sailing. One night we met a costuming PA working on a movie that was shooting in PV. His name was Toby and he said the cast and crew were staying in the hotel. When he said he was working on a movie called “Pirates of the Caribbean” we laughed in his face. “As in the ride at Disneyland?! Gawd, they’ll make anything into a movie! hahaha”. Then he told us who was in it. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. Johnny had rented a house somewhere in town rather than stay in a hotel, but Geoffrey Rush was upstairs. Had I a little more alcohol in me, I would’ve beat the room number out of him. Geoffrey Rush is a personal acting hero of mine. That is my one San Pedro/Hollywood story. Probably not my last since there’s filming going on all the time.

Keep the Change

The meters are free through the 1st of the year so get your butts downtown and do some Christmas shopping in San Pedro!!

Let’s be real. There’s no way I can cover 6th street in 5 posts. No. Way. There are way too many stores and stories. It’s the main street of San Pedro, although I think 7th was meant to have that title. Funny how things work out. OK, before I start let me say that its impossible for me to know or search for every story that 6th street has to tell. If you have one to share, by all means, put it in the comments. Here’s what I know or can find out with the limited resources available to me.