Browse Items · Topanga Historical Society Digital Archive

Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis in "A Sailor-Made Man"

Actors Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis take a publicity photo at Las Tunas Beach for the silent film "A Sailor-Made Man" (1921).

Men inspect two beach houses by parked cars

Children swim in Topanga Lagoon, by Cooper's Camp

Clayton Rust at his Topanga Service Station, gas station

Thais Rust and Greek fisherman John Foundoukos

Thais Rust, cousin Susan Rust, and neighbor Marilyn Burns

Topanga Service Station, gas station, with Elkhorn Camp sign

Topanga Service Station, "Zerolene" truck refuels gas station

Topanga Service Station, gas station at intersection

Women at Topanga Beach by tent

Sydney Hoskins and Bill Hoskins (Thais Rust's cousins)

The Plunge, a bathhouse swimming pool at Topanga Beach

Mary Kays, Bill Hoskins, and Ina Rust

Thais Rust, mother Ina Rust, and aunt Edythe Rust

Topanga Service Station, gas station at intersection

Greek fisherman John Foundoukos with a lobster on his leg

Children swimming in Topanga Lagoon by Cooper's Camp

Topanga Beach houses, looking east

Topanga Beach houses, looking west

Topanga Beach houses and bathhouse

Lillian Fields ran Elkhorn Camp and Cooper's Camp

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Entrance to Topanga Canyon and beach houses

Aerial view of Topanga Beach, 1926

Aerial view of Topanga Beach, Cooper's Camp, and Rodeo Grounds

Elkhorn Camp advertises cider with a roadside sign

Woman in "Topango" rowboat feeds ducks in the lagoon

Ambrose Cline, H. H. West Jr., and surfers in Topanga lagoon

Ambrose Cline and H. H. West Jr. at Topanga Beach

H. H. West, Jr. sits in a canvas canoe on Topanga Beach

Ambrose Cline and H. H. West Jr. on a raft in Topanga lagoon

Ambrose Cline and H. H. West, Jr. eat pie at Cooper's Camp

Topanga Beach houses, before the 1926 storm

Cooper's Camp at Topanga Lagoon, tents and cabins

Children play on Topanga Beach

Topanga Lagoon bridge and Cooper's Camp

Elkhorn Camp brochure shows picnic tables by creek

Traveling musicians carry baggage at Topanga Beach

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Aerial view of Topanga Beach, 1924 (1/2)

Yacht Harbor proposed by LAAC

The Los Angeles Athletic Club proposed building a Yacht Clubhouse and Harbor south of Topanga Beach.

Topanga Christmas Card, 1920s

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Postcard shows a sunset over the sea, framed by California Holly (toyon berries) and California Poppies. The caption says, "Season's Greetings from Topanga, California."

Ad for Laura Way Mathiesen's Marmont Studio

Marmont Studio
Topanga Canyon, One-Half Mile From the Beach
LAURA WAY MATHIESEN
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS
Montana, Yellowstone Park, Colorado, California
For Tourists—Souvenirs that are “different.’
For Residents—Home decorations that recall…

Shell gas station at Topanga and PCH

A cross stood on the hill above Topanga Beach

A family camps in the Rodeo Grounds

A family camps in the Rodeo Grounds and holds a chicken

Topanga postcard: "Have You Forgotten...?"

Topanga postcard: "Have You Forgotten That I Am Still at Topanga? Then Why Don't You Write?"

Mr. Gretchner hikes above Rodeo Grounds and Parker Mesa

A family has a picnic at Topanga Beach

Topanga Canyon Road passes Elkhorn Camp

Elkhorn Camp's picnic tables host a family and dog

Alice "Allie" Schafer, 16, works at Elkhorn Camp

Elkhorn Camp serves sandwiches and ice cream

Elkhorn Camp offers chili at picnic tables

A dog strays onto Elkhorn Camp's open-air dance hall

A cowboy rides a bucking steer in the Rodeo Grounds

Topanga Canyon Road winds by a farm on Shady Lane

A couple sits beside Topanga Creek

Cooper's Camp by the lagoon at Topanga Beach

Topanga beach houses built on the sand in "Pirate's Cove"

Houses and tents line Topanga Beach

Cooper's Camp and the Topanga Lagoon

Picnic grounds behind Cooper's Camp (Topanga Lane)

Man plays ukulele for cross-dressing man on Topanga Beach

Cooper's Camp and Topanga Lagoon

Topanga Beach bathhouse and the Rustle Inn restaurant

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A bridge crosses the Topanga Lagoon

A bridge crosses the Topanga Lagoon, near Cooper's Camp and De Long Cafe. Plans were afoot to replace the bridge, which happened in 1933. This photo comes from a 1930 report submitted to the Citizens' Committee on Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches, by…

Spero Anemo catches a Basking shark at Topanga Beach

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Topanga Beach is nearly empty towards Paxson's Cafe

Aerial view of Lower Topanga, 1928

Aerial photo of Lower Topanga, 1928, showing Cooper's Camp (motel) and the Rodeo Grounds.

Frank Hudson with son Charles Hudson

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Frank Hudson with son Charles Hudson, who tried to canoe from Topanga Beach to Catalina Island.

Charles Hudson leaves Topanga Beach in a canoe

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A cartoon shows Charles Hudson leaving Topanga Beach in a canoe after boasting that he could reach Catalina Island.

Storm causes beach houses to collapse

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Aerial view of Lower Topanga, 1927

Aerial photo of Lower Topanga, 1927, showing Cooper's Camp (motel) and the Rodeo Grounds.

Aerial view of Lower Topanga, 1926

Aerial photo of Lower Topanga, 1926, showing Cooper's Camp (motel) and the Rodeo Grounds.

10 houses burned to the ground at Topanga Beach

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Topanga Creek, near the Lagoon

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Aerial view of Topanga Beach, 1925

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Aerial view of Topanga Beach, which is called "the probable future site of the finest Pacific coast estates."

Topanga Beach map, 1925

Topanga Beach map, 1925, shows Brookside Drive, Shady Lane, The Rodeo Grounds, Topanga Lane (Topanga Canyon Lane), Old Malibu Road, and the former site of Arch Rock (Natural Arch).

Elks ride in a wagon to the Topanga Beach rodeo

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Prominent members of the Santa Monica Elks Lodge are shown riding in a wagon pulled by reindeer to the Topanga Beach rodeo. The photographic cartoon was created by Fred Coffey

Jack Curtis and Andy Andrews break ground for the rodeo

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Jack Curtis and Andy Andrews break ground for the Elks' Rodeo at Topanga Beach. The Elks built a frontier village.

Rodeo performer "Tuck" Gibson rides his horse

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Rodeo performer "Tuck" Gibson rides his horse Steamboat in the Rodeo Grounds.

A new coast road is built through Cooper's Camp

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A new coast road is built through Cooper's Camp, and over a Native American burial mound.

Children play with inner tubes at Topanga Beach

Florence Spence gives Edna Mae Spence a bath

Florence Spence gives Edna Mae Spence a bath at their home on Topanga Lane, which would become Spence's Cabins.

Topanga Ranch Motel key

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Topanga Ranch Motel cabin #19 was the home of Jack Lester Sr. and his sons Kim and Jack Jr. They lived in multiple cabins from 1963 until it closed in 2002... about half of the motel's existence!

Program for the Elks' Round-Up at Cooper's Ranch

A program for the Elks' Round-Up at Cooper's Ranch shows a list of prizes.

On June 2-3, 1923, the Elks threw a two-day rodeo at Cooper's Ranch (behind Cooper's Camp, in the Rodeo Grounds). The stated purpose was to raise money to send their band…

Jerry Potvin's house on Topanga Lane after a flood

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World Champion Shaun Tompson surfs at Topanga Beach

A car drives under a sycamore tree in Lower Topanga

A family poses on the side of the road in Lower Topanga

Dolores Trujillo drives a wagon through Topanga Creek

Topanga pioneer Dolores Trujillo (probably in the left front seat) drives through Topanga Creek in a horse-drawn wagon, transporting the chain gang's road-building equipment back to the beach.