Culver City, California

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox settlement

Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights to the east. The city was named after Harry Culver who incorporated it in 1917.

In the 1920s, Culver City became a center for film and later television production. It was best known as the home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios from 1924 to 1986. From 1932 to 1986, it was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city.

History

The site of Culver City, 1913

Early history

Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the area of present-day Culver City since at least 8000 BCE.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The region was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieliño Native Americans. For centuries, native people lived in areas currently part of and surrounding Culver City.<ref name=Culver>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>laokay: History of Rancho Los Encinos. Template:Webarchive accessed August 20, 2010</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> California's native people were massacred by waves of Spanish, Mexican and Euro-American invaders through a combination of slavery, disease, relocation, forced labor, imprisonment, broken treaties and a genocidal war of extermination, including paid bounties for dead "Indians".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Spanish and Mexican governments offered concessions and land grants from 1785 to 1846 forming the Ranchos of California. Culver City was founded on the lands of the former Rancho La Ballona and Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When Culver City was founded, native Latino people were not allowed to buy property.<ref name=Hidden>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the American Civil War, a U.S. Army post called Camp Latham was established from 1861 to 1862 on the south bank of Ballona Creek.

Ballona Road - 1874 - present-day Washington Boulevard surveyed from roughly Elenda Street (the "school lot" is La Ballona Elementary) to Hoover Street

Culver City

Culver City in 1943

Harry Culver first attempted to establish Culver City in 1913. It was officially incorporated on September 20, 1917, and named after its founder.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The area benefited from pre-existing transportation links; Culver's first ads read "All roads lead to Culver City".<ref name=Culver/> The city was explicitly founded as a whites-only sundown town, as were most of the suburbs and towns outside the downtown and Central Avenue districts of Los Angeles.<ref name="Loewen2005">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Culver ran ads promoting "this model little white city", while his close associate, Guy M. Rush, promoted lot sales "restricted to Caucasian race".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city also at times excluded people of non-Christian religious faiths.<ref name=Hidden/>

The weekly Culver City Call was the first newspaper in the community. The paper was founded in 1915.

The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918 for The Triangle Motion Picture Company. Silent film comedy producer Hal Roach built his studios there in 1919, and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) took over the Triangle studio complex in 1924.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard.

Culver Center, one of Southern California's first shopping malls, was completed in 1950<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on Venice Boulevard near the Overland Avenue intersection.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hughes Aircraft Company

Hughes Aircraft opened its Culver City plant in July 1941. There the company built the H-4 Hercules transport (commonly called the "Spruce Goose"). Hughes was also an active subcontractor during World War II. It developed and patented a flexible feed chute for faster loading of machine guns on B-17 bombers, and manufactured electric booster drives for machine guns. Hughes produced more ammunition belts than any other American manufacturer, and built 5,576 wings and 6,370 rear fuselage sections for Vultee BT-13 trainers.<ref>Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, pp. 277–81, Random House, New York, NY, 2012. Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 49–58, Cypress, CA, 2013. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Hughes grew after the war, and in 1953 Howard Hughes donated all his stock in the company to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. After he died in 1976, the institute sold the company, which made it the second-best-endowed medical research foundation in the world.<ref name="Parker, Dana T. p. 49">Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, p. 49, Cypress, CA, 2013. Template:ISBN.</ref>

The studios (1960s, 1970s and 1980s)

Bicycles parked in front of the Culver Theater in Culver City for a 1977 showing of King Kong

The Hal Roach Studios were demolished in 1963. In the late 1960s, much of the MGM backlot acreage (lot 3 and other property on Jefferson Boulevard), and the nearby Template:Convert known as RKO Forty Acres, once owned by RKO Pictures and later Desilu Productions, were sold by their owners. In 1976 the sets were razed to make way for redevelopment. Today, the RKO site is the southern expansion of the Hayden Industrial Tract, while the MGM property has been converted into a subdivision and a shopping center known as Raintree Plaza.

In October 1975, Fox Hills Mall opened in the place of a golf course.Template:Citation needed

Rebirth of downtown (1990s and 2000s)

In the early 1990s, Culver City launched a successful revitalization program in which it renovated its downtown as well as several shopping centers in the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor near Westfield Culver City. Around the same time, Sony's motion picture subsidiaries, Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, moved into the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot which was renamed Columbia Studios in 1990 and took on its current name, Sony Pictures Studios, a year later.

There was an influx of art galleries and restaurants on the eastern part of the city, which was formally designated the Culver City Art District.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geography

Pedestrian bridge over Ballona Creek

The city is surrounded by the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Mar Vista and Palms to the north; Westchester to the south; Mid-City, West Adams, and Baldwin Hills to the east; the Ladera Heights unincorporated area to the southeast; and the L.A. neighborhoods of Venice and Playa Vista to the west, along with the unincorporated area of Marina del Rey.

Culver City's major geographic feature is Ballona Creek, which runs northeast to southwest through most of the city before it drains into Santa Monica Bay in Marina Del Rey.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of Template:Convert, over 99% of which is land. Over the years, it has annexed more than 40 pieces of adjoining land.

Neighborhoods

The city recognizes 15 neighborhoods within city limits:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Colbegin

  • Blair Hills
  • Blanco-Culver Crest
  • Clarkdale
  • Culver West
  • Downtown Culver City
  • Fox Hills
  • Jefferson
  • Lucerne-Higuera
  • McLaughlin
  • McManus
  • Park East (also known as Carlson Park)
  • Park West (also known as Veterans Park)
  • Studio Village
  • Sunkist Park
  • Washington Culver

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Climate

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Demographics

Template:Historical populations Template:Clear

2020

Culver City, California – Racial and ethnic composition
Template:Nobold
Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic) Pop 2000<ref name=2000CensusP004>Template:Cite web</ref> Pop 2010<ref name=2010CensusP2>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Partial<ref name=2020CensusP2>Template:Cite web</ref> % 2000 % 2010 Template:Partial
White alone (NH) 18,675 18,649 18,544 48.11% 47.96% 45.47%
Black or African American alone (NH) 4,536 3,587 3,143 11.69% 9.23% 7.71%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 111 65 47 0.29% 0.17% 0.12%
Asian alone (NH) 4,631 5,656 6,832 11.93% 14.55% 16.75%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH) 72 70 92 0.19% 0.18% 0.23%
Other race alone (NH) 142 220 379 0.37% 0.57% 0.93%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) 1,450 1,611 3,010 3.74% 4.14% 7.38%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 9,199 9,025 8,732 23.70% 23.21% 21.41%
Total 38,816 38,883 40,779 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

Ethnic groups

According to the 2020 Census, the population of Culver City was 46.5% Non-Hispanic White, 16.1% Asian, 15.2% Hispanic White, 8.24% Black or African American, and 5.57% Other Hispanic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

According to Mapping L.A., Mexican and German were the most common ancestries in 2000. Mexico and the Philippines were the most common foreign places of birth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Economy

NPR West, located in a former furniture factory, has had offices in Culver City since 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Corporations with headquarters in Culver City include Beats Audio, MedMen, NantHealth, Sweetgreen and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Largest employers

According to the city's 2020–21 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the top employers in the city were:

# Employer # of Employees
1 Sony Pictures Entertainment 3,000
2 Westfield Culver City 1,500
3 Southern California Hospital at Culver City 1,116
4 NFL Media 957
5 City of Culver City 808
6 Culver City Unified School District 800
7 West Los Angeles College 739
8 Goldrich & Kest Industries, LLC 670
9 Target 507

Movie and television production

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MGM Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios), 1922

Hundreds of movies have been produced on the lots of Culver City's studios: Sony Pictures Studios (originally MGM Studios), Culver Studios, and the former Hal Roach Studios. In 2017, Amazon MGM Studios announced plans to build a studio in Culver City.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Businesses

Arts and culture

Museums

The Wende Museum possesses a collection of Soviet and East German visual art and everyday artifacts to promote an understanding of Soviet art, history and culture between 1945 and 1991.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, founded in 1988 by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson, provides over 30 permanent exhibits displaying an eclectic mix of items that blend fact and fiction.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Library

Julian Dixon Library, County of Los Angeles Public Library

The County of Los Angeles Public Library operates the Julian Dixon Culver City Branch.

Architecture

The architecture of Culver City reflects its history as an early location for film studios and, more recently, as a site for architectural experimentation, particularly for the projects of Eric Owen Moss at the Hayden Tract. The architecture office of Morphosis headquartered here. Styles represented include Mission Revival and Colonial Revival from the city's early days, to the PWA Moderne of the 1930s, to modern, postmodern, and deconstructivist styles from the past few decades. Notable architectural landmarks include:<ref>David Gebhard and Robert Winter, An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, 6th edition, pp. 251–55.</ref>

Culver Hotel, built 1925
  • Helms Bakery (1930), in PWA Moderne style
  • Kirk Douglas Theatre (1946)<ref name="urlKirk Douglas Theatre Los Angeles Center Theatre Group">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • St. Augustine Catholic Church (1957), a Gothic Revival church
  • Robert Frost Auditorium, at Culver City High School, 4401 Elenda St. Constructed in 1963–64, its unique scallop shell design became an instant modern architectural landmark for the city. Its original 1,250-seat design was the inspiration of then 26-year-old Andrew Nasser, a consulting structural engineer with Johnson & Nielsen. Credit was claimed, however, by Ralph Flewelling of Flewelling & Moody, the project architects. The record was set straight 54 years later at the unveiling of a $16.3M renovation in 2018. Capacity was increased to 1,300 seats, acoustics improved, and a new 40-foot high steel proscenium arch supports catwalks, lighting, and air conditioning (Hodgetts + Fung architects).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Platform (2016)

Parks and recreation

Template:Main Template:See also The City of Culver City Parks and Recreation department operates 14 outdoor parks within city limits.<ref name="ccparks">Template:Cite web</ref>

Government

Culver City city hall

Culver City has a five-member city council.

In Los Angeles County, Culver City is in the 2nd Supervisorial District, represented by Holly Mitchell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the California State Legislature, Culver City is in Template:Representative, and in Template:Representative.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the United States House of Representatives, Culver City is split between Template:Representative,<ref>Template:Cite GovTrack</ref> and Template:Representative.<ref>Template:Cite GovTrack</ref>

Education

Primary and secondary schools

The Culver City Unified School District administers the following public schools:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Colbegin

  • Culver City High School
  • Culver City Middle School
  • Culver City Unified School District iAcademy
  • Culver Park High School
  • Culver City Adult School
  • El Marino Elementary School
  • El Rincon Elementary School
  • Farragut Elementary School
  • La Ballona Elementary School
  • Linwood E. Howe Elementary School

Template:Colend

Private schools

  • STAR Prep Academy, a middle and high school that shares its campus with an exotic wildlife rescue center.<ref name="urlstarprepacademy%org">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • The Willows Community School (elementary and middle school).
  • Turning Point School (elementary and middle school).
  • Kayne Eras Center (school for disabled).
  • Wildwood School (primary through high school).
  • Echo Horizon School (primary through middle school).

Colleges and universities

Media

Newspapers

Movies

Template:More citations needed section Movies filmed or partially filmed in Culver City include: Template:Colbegin

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Television shows

Template:Unreferenced section Television shows filmed or partially filmed in Culver City include: Template:Colbegin

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Infrastructure

Transportation

Transit

Platform, Culver City station

The Culver City station of the Los Angeles Metro E Line sits at the Culver Junction near Venice and Robertson Boulevards in Culver City. The E Line provides a light rail connection from Culver City to Downtown Los Angeles and East Los Angeles to the east and Downtown Santa Monica to the west, mostly following the right-of-way that the Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line used, also known as the Exposition Boulevard line. Culver City station was the western terminus of what was then known as the Expo Line from its opening on June 20, 2012, to the opening of Expo Line phase two on May 20, 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Culver CityBus was founded on March 4, 1928, making it the second oldest municipal bus line in California<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the oldest public transit bus system still operating in Los Angeles County.<ref name="laalmanac.com">Template:Cite web</ref> Big Blue Bus was founded on April 14, 1928.<ref name="laalmanac.com"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Culver CityBus operates seven regular bus lines as well as a short-term downtown circulator shuttle.

Culver CityBus near Wilshire and Westwood

The Culver City Transit Center in the Westfield Culver City parking serves as a bus depot for three Culver CityBus lines and two Metro bus lines. The Washington Fairfax Hub, just across the border of the City of Los Angeles under the I-10 freeway, connects residents to seven bus lines, two operated by Culver CityBus and five operated by Metro.

The Baldwin Hills Parklands Link is a shuttle service operated by Los Angeles County that stops at Stoneview Nature Center on weekends only.

Bike routes

Elenda Bikeway, bioswale and two-lane protected section

The city is served by multiple separated bike paths:

Air travel

The city is served by the Los Angeles International Airport, about Template:Convert south of the city. Smaller nearby airports include Santa Monica Airport and Hawthorne Municipal Airport.

Freeways

Culver City is served by Interstate 405 (San Diego Freeway), Interstate 10 (Santa Monica Freeway), and California State Route 90 (Marina Freeway). California State Route 187 runs along Venice Boulevard in Culver City.

Public safety

Culver City is served by the Culver City Police Department, and the Culver City Fire Department, which operates three stations and a fire training facility.<ref>"Culver City Police Department Template:Webarchive."</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cemeteries

Notable people

Sister cities

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See also

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References

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