The bronze plaque at Bruce’s Beach that detailed the property’s troubled history has been stolen.
The theft, the latest in a string of metal swipings, was reported to Manhattan Beach police Jan. 29, but, according to officials, they have no suspects.
City officials released a statement saying the plaque, installed last February, “held significant historical and cultural value.” It replaced an older plaque that critics said didn’t tell the whole story of the property.
Bruce's Beach is wedged between expensive real estate in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on April 19, 2021. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Bruce’s Beach is a stretch of coast bought in 1912 by a black couple, Charles and Willa Bruce, who opened a resort catering to black beachgoers. Other black families also bought seaside cottages in the area.
But in 1924 the city of Manhattan Beach condemned the neighborhood and seized the land. City officials said they intended to build a park there.
The parcels sat mostly unused, and the park, occupying only a portion of the land, was not built until 1960.
The parcel once owned by the Bruces was transferred to the state in 1948, then to Los Angeles County in 1995. In 2022, Supervisor Janice Hahn led a drive to return the land to descendants of the Bruce family to correct the injustice.
In 2023, the Bruce descendants agreed to sell the land back to the county for $20 million.
Members of the Bruce family stand with local officials and activists during a ceremony to return ownership of Bruce's Beach to the descendants of a Black family who had the land seized from them through eminent domain a century ago, in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on July 20, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
The plaque theft comes after the Jan. 11 stealing of 100 bronze plaques from Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson. A week earlier at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Compton, thieves vandalized 300 graves and took 200 plaques from mausoleum walls.
Police are asking anyone with information on the Bruce Beach theft to call Detective Sgt. Taylor Klosowki at 310-802-5123 or CrimeStoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
