Family to sell Bruce’s Beach property back to LA County for $20 million

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Bruce’s Beach, the Southern California beachfront property that was taken from its Black owners during the Jim Crow era and returned to their descendants last year, will be sold back to Los Angeles County for nearly $20 million, county officials announced Tuesday.

Bruce Beach to sell for nearly $20 million

Family members of the original landowners, Willa and Charles Bruce, have informed the county of their decision to sell Bruce’s Beach, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn said in a statement.

“The seizure of Bruce’s Beach nearly a century ago was an injustice inflicted upon not just Willa and Charles Bruce but generations of their descendants who almost certainly would have been millionaires,” Hahn said in the statement.

It wasn’t revealed when the sale will be officially completed.

Bruce’s Beach was taken from its owners

Willa and Charles Bruce purchased the Manhattan Beach land in 1912 for $1,225 and built several facilities, including a cafe and changing rooms. The resort became a popular tourist attraction that offered Black families a place to enjoy the California beach life, but the family faced harassment and racial threats from White neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1924, the city took the property through eminent domain and paid the couple a fraction of what they asked for. The Bruces left and died just five years later.

The city did nothing with the land. It was transferred to the state and then to Los Angeles County in 1995.

Bruce’s Beach is now a park with a lawn and lifeguard training facility.

Returning the land to its descendants

Hahn learned about the property’s history and launched the complex process of returning the property. Those efforts led to California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a 2021 legislation to allow for the return of the property to Bruce’s descendants.

Last year, the official deed marking the transfer of the land was given to the family. Terms of the transfer agreement called for the property to be leased back to the county for 24 months, with an annual rent of $413,000 plus all operation and maintenance costs, and a possible sale back to the county for nearly $20 million, the estimated value.

Hahn said she fought hard to return the property to the Bruce family because she “wanted to right this wrong,” and supports their decision.

“This is what reparations look like and it is a model I hope governments across the country will follow,” Hahn said in the statement.