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Vermont Ave / Del Amo Blvd: 1945 |
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This is an aerial view of the Synthetic Rubber Plant, east of Torrance. The camera is facing north. The name of Ray C. Seeley Company, Business and Industrial Realtors is stamped on the picture in the upper left corner. More than a decade after this photo was taken, the Harbor Freeway (now the I-110) would run just to the right of this site and the San Diego Freeway (I-405) would run to the north of this site.
From 1943 until 1972, this site was a center of large-scale industrial activities. Originally built to produce synthetic rubber during World War II and owned by the United States government, the 280-acre operation consisted of a styrene plant operated by Dow Chemical Co., a butadiene plant operated by Shell Oil Co., and a synthetic rubber plant operated by U.S. Rubber Co., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., and others. In 1955, the U.S. Government sold all three plants to Shell Oil Company and Shell continued to operate these plants until 1971.
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