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Preserving the Past, Protecting the Future

Founded in 1972, the Pacific Palisades Historical Society has concentrated on

  • - Locating and collecting local historical materials
  • - Land marking local sites of historical significance
  • - Publishing books related to the history of Pacific Palisades
  • - Providing educational programs on the historical heritage of Pacific Palisades

The Pacific Palisades Historical Society is actively involved in the collecting, documenting, and preserving of historical objects and records relating to the Pacific Palisades and the environs of the original Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. It encourages education of the history of this area as well as distribution of funds to promote the future care and perpetuation of the community’s historical legacy.

The Pacific Palisades Historical Society currently owns and maintains Founders Oak Island, the small park in the 900 block of Haverford Avenue. 

Founders Oak Island

Founders Oak Island (pictured) is considered the modern birthplace of Pacific Palisades.

A recent major achievement was the archiving and cataloguing of over 3,000 historical pictures on CD-ROM.  This collection will be housed at the Santa Monica Public Library, and will be available to the public in June 2007. 

The Pacific Palisades Historical Society Catalog of images is now available on a local workstation in the Main Library's Santa Monica Collection Room on the second floor.  This station will provide an interim access to the 3,000-image collection while it is being integrated with the SMPL Image Archives database.  Ask at the Reference Desk for information about using the PPHS Catalog and ordering higher resolution images.  

 The Palisadian-Post has donated its archives containing thousands of images to the Pacific Palisades Historical Society to be preserved, catalogued, and scanned.  To begin the long-term program, PPHS has begun sorting the negatives of 1954-1964 when the newspaper was known as the Palisades Post.  This joint venture will ensure that these marvelously clear images will be preserved and eventually made available to the public.