Modern History of Lomita

Lomita emerged from the boom and bust of the 1920s and crept slowly into the 1930s, it soon acquired a new reputation as "Celery Capital of the World" (although some claim it could just as easily have acquired the title "Strawberry Capital of the World" as well). Truck farming of vegetables, fruits, and eggs became the prevailing occupation of Lomita residents in the 1930s.

In early 1935, a vaudevillian named Frank A. Gumm of Grand Rapids, Minnesota leased the Lomita Theater, which was located on Narbonne Avenue near 243rd Street, to present his singing and dancing daughters Mary Jane, Dorothy Virginia, and Judy, who would later change her name to Judy Garland.

From a simple ranch house and a few out-buildings on the Narbonne property, a sleepy narrow gauge electric railroad stop on Western Avenue, and a handful of dirt roads named after trees and fruits, Lomita has grown into a small city and, in spite of that growth, managed to maintain its rustic, small-town flavor.