Firestone Tire Plant
In 1927, construction began on Firestone Tire’s first manufacturing facility outside of Akron, Ohio. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Plant, South Gate Facility, was designed by architects Alec Curlett and Claud Beelman in the Italianate Mediterranean Revival style. Historian Chris Nichols said of the Firestone Factory: “The tiny community southeast of Downtown was mostly agriculture at the time and [Harvey S.] Firestone found 40 acres of beanfield to house his new manufacturing plant. The town grew around Firestone, they named the main boulevard through town after Harvey, and Los Angeles became the number one tire market in the country.” As Los Angeles’s automobile and aerospace industries grew, additions to the facility were constructed in 1929, 1942, 1951, and 1955.
South Gate, Los Angeles County
Images by John Bare