The Culver City Historical Society will designate Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park, Culver City’s first park, as Historic Site No. 12, at noon on Saturday, May 22.
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Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park, as it looked in the 1940s when it was known as Victory Park.
The 2.66 acre park, the site of the marking, at Braddock Drive and Le Bourget Avenue, has had a colorful history, which is noted on the bronze plaque that will be unveiled that day. It reads as follows:
This land was first traversed by Native Americans, called Tongva (later known as the Gabrielinos). Under Spanish rule, it was settled as a portion of Rancho La Ballona. After Culver City was incorporated in 1917, the property became a horseracing track (1923-24), and in 1924, a reported 50,000 people attended the opening of “The Speedway,” a board racetrack.
This section was designated as “Victory Park,” the first park in Culver City in 1927. The name was changed in 1964 by the City Council to honor United States medical missionary, Dr. Paul Carlson, who was born in Culver City in 1928. Dr. Paul Carlson was killed in 1964 while serving in the Republic of the Congo, and he was survived by his wife and two children. In 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton addressed Culver City citizens in this park on health care.
Lois Carlson Bridges, the widow of Dr. Paul Carlson, will attend the ceremony as well as city dignitaries, members of the Historical Society, city staff, and neighbors in the Carlson Park area.
The public is invited.
Everyone is encouraged to bring family, friends and a picnic lunch, and share memories of the park.
A special exhibit featuring Culver City parks will be on display at the Historical Society’s Archive and Research Center, in the back of the Veterans Auditorium, 4117 Overland Ave. It is open on the first and third Saturdays of the month, from 1 to 3 p.m., and by appointment.
You may telephone the Historical Society at 310.253.6941.
