Bruce's Beach Park

Bruce’s Beach Park is the oldest park site in Manhattan Beach, and certainly the most controversial. This three-acre park is located on a grassy hillside that overlooks the ocean. It also includes a small basketball half-court and a dog-on-leash area in the lower portion of the park. (Please download and read the Bruce's Beach On-Leash Dog Area Rules (PDF) before taking your dog to the park.)

The park is enjoyed by residents and visitors alike as a unique spot to meet, enjoy a picnic and to watch epic sunsets year-round. Often on Sunday mornings, a food truck serving crepes parks at the base of the park, creating a beautiful brunch opportunity.

Parking for Bruce’s Beach Park is available in two lots on the western most edge of the park, and on the streets surrounding the park: Manhattan Ave., 26th and 27th Streets, and HIghland Ave. Note that reservations are not accepted for this park.

The park was named in honor of Willa and Charles Bruce, who owned a beachfront resort for Black families on the waterfront in the 1920s. The property was one of the very few beaches where Black residents could go at the time, because most other Southern California beaches were off-limits to people of color.

By the end of the 1920s, with pressure from community members who did not want Black beachgoers in town, Manhattan Beach's Board of Trustees (a precursor to the modern city council) claimed the land under eminent domain and displaced the Bruce family as well as other families who had settled in the area. (The Bruce family owned two neighboring waterfront lots; a few dozen lots were all claimed by the city in the eminent domain action, most of which were not developed at all.) That land was acquired by the state of California in 1948, and was transferred to L.A. County in 1995.

It was not until 2006 that the city of Manhattan Beach publicly acknowledged this chapter of its history by naming the area east of the beachfront property Bruce's Beach Park and establishing a plaque in that location. In the summer of 2020, a movement began growing for the city to take further action to recognize the Bruces.

The City Council formed a Bruce’s Beach Task Force to deliver a history report and create a new plaque or plaques to explain the history of the site. In the meantime, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to allow the transfer of the two beachfront lots formerly owned by the Bruces (not the parcel currently called Bruce’s Beach Park) back to the descendants of the Bruce family. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors worked out details of the transfer with the descendants, voted unanimously to approve the transfer on June 28, 2022, and held a public ceremony to commemorate the transfer of the land in July 2022.

The land returned to the Bruce family consisted of Lots 8 and 9 of Peck’s Manhattan Beach Tract, an estimated 7,000-square-foot property. These lots are currently the site of the L.A. County Fire Department's lifeguard training facility.

The agreement with the Bruce family descendants authorized the county to lease back the property for $413,000 each year, and included an option for the county to purchase back the land for $20 million. In January 2023, the family formally decided to sell the land back to the county, and the sale closed January 30, 2023.

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