Spring on the Peninsula : Fragrant Forests, Roaring Surf Beckon Strollers to Palos Verdes’ Malaga Cove to Celebrate Season

Inveterate spring-watchers say the Palos Verdes Peninsula is one of the best places in Los Angeles to enjoy that glorious season. And Malaga Cove, the northernmost community in Palos Verdes Estates, displays it like none other on the peninsula.

Here, where Mediterranean villas hug the hillsides and the fragrance of sweet anise and sage fills the air, gardens, topography and architecture conspire to make a spring walkers’ paradise.

What follows is a three-hour exploration of this secluded community. Choose an early morning outing or late afternoon stroll. Either way, you will stroll under Italian Renaissance porticos, through eucalyptus forests, up hidden stairpaths and, above the roar of the surf, along pathways set in fields of wildflowers. And incidentally, along the footpaths and stairways, you’ll be well served by sturdy shoes and casual clothes.

Getting to Malaga Cove

To get to Malaga Cove, take the 405 San Diego Freeway south and exit on Crenshaw Boulevard. At Palos Verdes Drive North, turn right (west). As the road meets Palos Verdes Drive West, turn left and follow it two blocks to Malaga Cove Plaza, the community’s commercial center. There’s usually ample free parking on streets around the plaza.

Begin the walk at the Neptune Fountain in the center of the Plaza. Donated by the Palos Verdes Project to Palos Verdes Estates in 1930, this marble fountain is a two-thirds scale replica of the famous “La Fontana del Naptunno” in Bologna, Italy. Trident in hand, this life-size Neptune faces the sea with his foot on a dolphin atop three successive pedestals supporting cupids, sirens, and scrollwork. This replica graced the courtyard of an old villa north of Venice for more than a century before it was given to the community.

Now stand back and observe the colonnaded commercial structures facing you. When the project’s master plan was completed in the early 1920s, each of its four principal communities (Malaga Cove, Lunada Bay, Miraleste and Valmonte) was to be built around a central plaza lined with arcaded commercial buildings. Malaga Cove Plaza, with its striking Spanish Colonial Revival strucures, was the only plaza built according to those original concepts.

Designed by Webber, Staunton and Spaulding from 1924 to 1930, the plaza buildings are accented with patterned brickwork, intricate grillwork and porticos. Curiously, even this plaza is reminiscent of the streets of Bologna, Italy, which contain 16 miles of similar covered walkways.

Together the plaza and fountain testify to the vision of the original developers of Palos Verdes Estates. In 1921 E. G. Lewis, an experienced and successful real estate promoter, formed a partnership with Frank A. Vanderlip, a wealthy New York financier, to develop 3,200 acres of the northwest corner of Palos Verdes Peninsula. A select team of city planners, architects and landscape architects was recruited to design the new community.

To enforce strict design regulations, an Art Jury was established. One needed the jury’s approval for every exterior design feature, whether the color, the lantern style, or the shrubbery.

Facing Neptune, walk ahead into the portico and turn right, enjoying the variety of archways, columns and painted ceilings. Stroll into the open air courtyard to the Sidewalk Cafe and Bakery at 57 Malaga Cove Plaza, a popular local meeting place. You may want to sit awhile with a cup of coffee or tea and sample the bakery’s goods.

Return to the portico and turn left. Follow the walkway as it turns left along the Gardner Building, Malaga Cove’s first commercial structure. At Via Corta, turn left again, walking uphill beneath the overreaching Moreton Bay fig trees.

At the top of the street, climb the stairs into Farnham Martin’s Park. The terraced stairway, paved with Palos Verdes flagstone, leads to a graceful fountain. Continue up the stairs onto the circular lawn and enjoy the sweet fragrance of the blossoming orange pittosporum. Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. designed this small park in 1928.

Next to the park is the Malaga Cove Plaza Library, a seven-level Spanish Colonial Revival structure built in 1929 and designed by Myron Hunt. Inside, a collection of 35,000 books is set off by beamed ceilings, antique furniture and sweeping views of Santa Monica Bay.

Continue walking uphill alongside the library to Via Pinale and turn left. California sycamore trees, budding new leaves, overshadow quaint Spanish cottages. Peacocks can often be seen perched atop the roofs and trees in this neighborhood. Originally brought to the Peninsula by Frank Vanderlip for his estate in Portuguese Bend, the birds have proliferated. Residents either love the brilliantly feathered birds or hate them as screeching, messy pests.

Turn left on Via Campesina. Mature eucalyptus trees, their branches weeping with fragrant leaves, tower above. This section of Malaga Cove is one of the few which allows apartment buildings. At 2508-2512 stands a four-story, terraced structure, Schindler-esque with its International Style. The most delightful complex is found at 2433 Via Campesina. Surrounding a central courtyard and reflecting pool, the building resembles an Italian Renaissance villa with its stone-patterned walkways, ornate planters, decorative iron gates and terra cotta statues. A tiled conical tower adds romantic whimsy.

At Via Chico, walk downhill, appreciating the variegated brick patterns of the arched portal ahead. Cross Via Tejon and turn right onto the path paralleling Palos Verdes Drive West. Through the conifers note the Italian-styled commercial buildings to the right.

Plantings Fill Canyon

The path leads past Malaga Canyon, the largest arroyo in the community. Dense plantings including Australian tea trees, oleander and Canary Island date palms fill the canyon.

As the path ends, carefully cross Palos Verdes Drive North and walk up the footpath through the ice plant. You are now entering a eucalyptus forest planted in the 1890s. Through careful review and approval of plans for homes, the Art Jury has protected the forest since the town’s founding.

Follow Via Capay to the left. Eucalyptus trees tower above; carob trees, cactus, aloe vera and nasturtium hedge the road.

At Via Anita, turn left. In this forest the Art Jury has allowed a variety of architectural styles, including a French Norman cottage at 2424 and a country farmhouse at 2404.

Carefully cross Palos Verdes Drive West. Follow the brick path beneath the eucalyptus trees to Saint Francis Episcopal Church. In 1952 architect Walter Davis designed a small, yet lovely chapel for the tiny parish. It is reminiscent of a Medieval Italian chapel with its hand carved wooden doors, red tiled roof, and rustic wooden columns; the interior contains both a rose window with intricate tracery and stained glass windows by Wallace Studios.

The rusticated chapel stands in marked contrast to the modern church building, designed in 1967 by George Russell. Despite its tiled roof and huge arches, the structure reminds one of Brasilia with its exaggerated concrete forms.

A Clearer Vantage Point

After exploring the church complex, return to Palos Verdes Drive West, and go right on the narrow asphalt path that parallels the busy road. From the path you have a clearer vantage point of the terraced hillsides and deep canyon which opens to the Pacific.

Continue on the path and turn right on Via Corta. As this road bends in its descent to the neighborhood below (near 304 Via Corta), turn right onto the trail which leads downhill towards the back of the baseball diamond.

All around you is a celebration of Spring. Yellow flowers of wild mustard rise above the winter grasses. Wild radish, with its purple blossoms, combines with fennel, sage and wild oats.

The large Spanish Colonial house which sits at the edge of the bluff across the canyon was the home of Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. In the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, a section of the cliff-edged bluff--once in front of the house--collapsed into Malaga Cove below.

To the left near the school, a stone historical marker reminds passersby that for 8,000 years, a Chowigna Indian village existed on this flat terrace--one of 10 Indian village sites that have been identified on the Peninsula.

Haggarty’s Beach Home

Walk to the gazebo for a view of the beach below. Turn around and to the right, follow the bluffside path to 415 Paseo del Mar.

Before you is the Neighborhood Church. Built in 1928 as the beach home for J. J. Haggarty, the owner of several exclusive clothing stores, this stately Italian villa was designed by architect Armand Monaco. Anchored by a four-story observation tower, the 32-room mansion extends for 290 feet along the ocean bluff overlooking Malaga Cove. Inside, Italian muralist A. E. Disi painted Renaissance-inspired frescos among the ornate corbels and coffered ceilings.

In 1952, the Neighborhood Church, a local Church of Christ congregation, bought the estate for $60,000. Now it serves as their church and has become a popular site for weddings.

At 504 Paseo del Mar is the Moore House, designed by Lloyd Wright in 1956. With eaves suggesting Cadillac fins, the residence--even with the obligatory red tiled roof--images the future.

Walk up Via Aromitas, with its rows of gnarled, contorted carob trees bent by the force of the ocean winds. Turn left on Via Media, a quiet lane lined with elms and Monterey-styled houses.

At the corner of Via Media and Via Arroyo, Malaga Cove School’s octagonal tower rises like a pointed crown above the trees. Designed in 1926 by architects Allison and Allison, the school is the oldest in the community.

Walk up the pathway at the top of Via Arroyo to Palos Verdes Drive West. Carefully cross the street and turn left. At the first road (across from 393 Palos Verdes Drive West), turn right and walk uphill. Turn right again onto the pathway just before the first house.

Stairway of Railroad Ties

Soon the path becomes a stairway made of railroad ties. Fields of nasturtium, with their padded leaves and bright orange flowers, spill over the twisting stairway and fill the air with a musty, peppery fragrance. Climb the stairway to the unpaved road and then turn around to admire the view below: The wooded hillside opens up to a vista of red roofed cottages and the ocean.

This unpaved public road, which provides immediate access to municipal water mains buried in the hillside, also allows urban hikers and joggers a secluded route in a forested setting with magnificent views of the mountains and the ocean.

As you face the sea, turn right and follow the road, passing by flower gardens, fruit trees, a forlorn patch of artichoke plants and occasionally a peacock or two. The path soon meets a cul-de-sac which in turn leads to Malaga Cove Plaza.

On the way you will pass La Rive Gauche at 320 Tejon Place. Acclaimed for its excellent wine selection and French cuisine, you may want to conclude your walk with a late Sunday brunch (served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), a quiet lunch (Tuesday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.), or a romantic dinner (every night from 5:30 to 10 p.m.). Call (213) 378-0267 for reservations before you begin the walk.