RPV 50th: Spotlight on the City’s Hidden Jewels
Written by Melani Morose Edelstein
As Rancho Palos Verdes’s 50th Anniversary Celebration gets set to launch in September, PV Magazine is looking back at some of the city’s lesser-known still impressive hidden enthrallment. Rancho Palos Verdes takes up 13.7 square miles of the Peninsula, from the city’s breathtaking coastline to deep into the canyons. Boasting locations unmatched anywhere else in the United States, it’s not a surprise that RPV is a popular location for many movies and television shows.
RPV COASTAL TRAIL
Hike the Rancho Palos Verdes Coastal Trail lined with coastal sage and cacti, and you’re walking through history. MTV used the area to film the MTV Beach House. FOX filmed scenes from The O.C in the surrounding area. Dunkirk and Disney films were photographed here.
RPV LOCKUP
A prison in RPV? It may seem hard to fathom today, especially when looking at all the development on the Peninsula. Still, local lore says there was once a prison where the Peninsula Center now stands, according to 65 year Palos Verdes resident and local realtor Dana Graham, who witnessed it in action. “I’m not sure when it opened, but there was an honor farm until about the mid-’50′s, roughly where Bristol Farms and CVS Drugs are now, and the prisoners worked on the extension of Crenshaw Blvd.”
Back before the Portuguese Bend landslide closed the roads, drivers heading up the brand new Silver Spur Road could curve all the way around and up to Crest Road and then make a left and curve down behind the gates to quickly get to Portuguese Bend.
SACRED COVE
RPV is known for hiking trails with breathtaking views of the Pacific. What some people might not know is that the city boasts incredible hidden secret caves and coves.
Abalone Cove Shoreline Park is located on a stunning scenic stretch of coast and features a state ecological preserve that protects animals and marine life. It’s also home to the Sacred Cove. This super deep-water cove is hidden between Portuguese Point and Inspiration Point and is not easy to access.
A long trail from the parking lot on the bluff provides access to Abalone Cove Beach but to get to Sacred Cove beach, you have to locate one of the two trails along Palos Verdes Drive South, between Inspiration and Portuguese Points, and walk to the end.
Visitors who don’t want to hike down the steep cliffside can stop at the top and check views of the other nearby secret coves and caves and watch migrating whales and the magical Pacific Ocean.
CITY HALL MISSILE BASE
When the city of Rancho Palos Verdes was incorporated in 1972 and officials searched for a City Hall location, the old barracks at the Nike Missile Base became the perfect choice. The two-story buildings that house the city’s offices once served as the military barracks for the surface-to-air missile launch site. The Nike Missile Base, built during the cold war, was intended to shoot down incoming bombers. Once the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM,) a missile primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery, was developed, the Nike Missile became obsolete along with the bases which once dotted the California coastline.
