Post #289806 by Aaron's Akua on Mon, Mar 5, 2007 12:05 PM

If ever there was a local area ripe with opportunities for urban archaeology, you'd think a place with a name like "Hawaiian Gardens" would be it.

From the Hawaiian Gardens City Website: “The name is said to be derived from a bamboo shack refreshment stand opened at the corner of Carson and Norwalk boulevards in 1927 by an unknown businessman. The stand was said to resemble a Hawaiian Garden.” Sounds promising!

Some of the historic photos on the city website give the sense that a Hawaiiana/Tiki theme was definitely planned:

Lots of hawaiian shirts & leis, but not a tiki in sight. In fact, most of the old photos look more like this.

Fast forward to last year's "Anniversary Day" Parade.

So where's the "Hawaiian" in "Hawaiian Gardens"? Was there ever, really? I started looking into this with some romantic notion that the town was founded with a real hawaiiana/polypop theme, but there seems to be nothing much there. At least if there ever was, it seems to be long gone now.

Does anyone have info on this enigmatic city?