Long time Residents John and Marie Lewis
By Marylin Krell and Nancy Jaffe
Many residents have called South Brentwood home for decades. Marie and John Lewis moved
to South Brentwood with their three children in 1959 when it had “nice little houses and
apartments,” much less traffic and no speed bumps. Their children attended neighborhood
schools and most moms stayed home with the kids.
In the early 60’s, John decided he wanted to own chickens. They bought their first chickens at
the Malibu Feed Bin at Topanga Canyon Blvd. on Pacific Coast Highway (The Potter’s Topanga
Trading Post of the 1920’s became the Malibu Feed Bin.) Later they ordered the chickens from
a catalogue and little chicks were sent out the next day from Oklahoma. They set up a children’s
plastic pool and had a chicken coop in their back yard. Friends and neighbors loved the eggs the
chickens produced. Once a chicken escaped and the Lewises received a call that their “turkey”
was found. In addition to their dozen chickens, the Lewises also had five ducks. They remember
that a neighbor who was a physician had a rooster and bees on his property. To comply with
regulations that forbade a noisy rooster in a residential area, the doctor surgically removed the
rooster’s voice box!
Marie served as Vice President and then President of the South Brentwood Homeowners
Association (SBHA preceded SBRA) for several years. As President, she attended meetings of
the Brentwood Community Federation while the Brentwood-Pacific Palisades Community Plan
was taking shape. (Marie continued to remain an active member of the SBHA board for 20 years
until retiring in 2011.)
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF LIVING IN BRENTWOOD
BY LAUREL DAVIDSON
When I moved here from New York in 1961, Brentwood was a very small town. There were no chain stores. There were three markets: Vicente Foods, Pied Piper, where Fazio Cleaners is now, and Westward Ho, located in the space that is now Whole Foods.
The Country Mart was very quaint. It had its own bakery, meat market, a small grocery store, and a deli named Marjans. It was the place to spot celebrities and dine on barbecued chicken and mart fries at Redi Chick.
San Vicente Blvd. had a neighborhood pharmacy called Diebold’s, a hobby shop named Jahn’s, and Bantam Swim School. The best place of all was the Grand Variety Hardware Store, (a glorified 5 & 10 cents store.) I still own the Pilgrim and Turkey candles that I bought there for 25 cents each!
There was a wonderful Pizza Restaurant called Regular Jon’s where Coral Tree Café is today. Neighborhood kids played on a fire truck out in front. All the local schools would have fundraisers there. It was even in a scene from Ferris Buehler’s Day Off.
I have spent my entire adult life in Brentwood, where I met my late husband, Shelly, who lived across the hall from me on Darlington. After we married, we lived on Kiowa. My last move was to my home on South Bundy Drive, where I have lived for 42 years, raising our 2 daughters, Melissa and Joyce there. They attended Brentwood Presbyterian Nursery School, Brentwood Elementary School, (later, Brentwood Science Magnet School), Paul Revere Jr. High School and Palisades High School. I was very active in the PTA’s and Advisory Councils. Vicente Foods was always a great meeting location where we discussed issues while we shopped. It was like a Town Hall Meeting Place with groceries.
It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve called Brentwood my home for 50 years. The Brentwood Community has been a very nurturing place for me. The residents are wonderful and the sense of community is incredible!!
Ron Grant, director of the South Brentwood Homeowners’ Association from 1974 to 1984, discusses the history of the area and the reincorporation of the SBHA, its instrumental role in preserving the creek and the forested area still called the “Gross Property”. Mr. Grant highlights the meeting which took place circa 1973, in which developers were defeated in their attempt to rezone all of South Brentwood to R-3, thereby opening up the flood gates for high density apartment and condominium developments from Wilshire north and from west of Bundy to Carmelina and all the way up to Montana. Without this unified force from the community, South Brentwood’s single family neighborhood and environment would have been lost.
