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In 1882, a group of United Brethren church members chartered a freight car in Le Mars, Iowa, for a cross-country journey to settle in Palms. In October 1883 they founded a church — in the home of A.V. (or A.N.) King, the first pastor. In 1885 the Palms subdividers gave the little congregation two lots and $200 in cash to help raise a building on the northwest corner of today’s Tabor Street and Vinton Avenue. It was dedicated on October 30, 1887, by Bishop Milton Wright, the father of airplane pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright.
By 1937 Palms had nine congregations. The lack of churches in neighboring Culver City was so noticeable that a rumor sprang up that Harry Culver was an atheist. The truth: The area was well served by Palms churches; there was no need at first to build elsewhere.
(Later, the United Brethren moved into Culver City, and its successor congregation, Culver Palms United Methodist Church, has a sanctuary on Sepulveda next to the YMCA.)
Thirty-five children and two teachers squeezed into a two-room schoolhouse at First Street (Overland Avenue) and Delmar Avenue (Woodbine Street), built in 1886, before a big new structure was opened in 1888. For many years afterward the little building was a residence owned by Mrs. A.E. King. It’s been torn down, and a mini-mall was built there.
In 1895, the nine-grade Palms School District reached from the Soldiers Home in Sawtelle to Baldwin Hills and from Fairfax to Centinela.
Alexander Hamilton High School was opened in 1931 and Palms Junior High in 1946.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Palms was rent with a citywide controversy over school busing. Charnock Road Elementary and Palms Junior High began to receive pupils bused from minority areas.
Said Adrienne Gunn of Charnock School: “For some reason the district is intent on breaking up the community school. The feeling is we’re going to lose our identity.”
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