Delthorne

On the eastern end of the neighborhood, you have a pretty industrial looking section of Torrance (the heart of the city, actually) where you find factories and chemical plants including some place called Polypeptide Laboratories (which synthesize amino acids for various purposes) and the Panasonic Disc factory. It is not very attractive, but every city needs to have its economic base and this is Torrance’s.

The rest of Delthorne, is fairly typical middle class neighborhood. On the northern end you get a fair number of 1980’s style condos with the garages tucked underneath. Delthorne Park, for which the neighborhood is named perhaps, stretches along the eastern end, offering a nice green space as a buffer to the more commercial eastern portion of the neighborhood. It has a great sandy play area for the kids, a basketball court and nice pathway with quaint little bridge over a tiny little artificial pond.

The homes in Delthorne are in a mix of architectural styles. The most common type of home here is the split-level home—especially Raised Ranch homes as they are called. This was a popular style in the 50’s as a variation on the typical Ranch. The neighborhood here is designed around a series of cul-de-sacs which the split level makes good use of and which give residents an added feeling of safety and enclosure. No through traffic driving by, its just you and those dozen or so neighbors who you see virtually every day. Of course, like in most neighborhoods in the area, you will also find a number of very well-kept Ranch homes. All very nice. Very Brady Bunch.

There are also some strange flat looking homes that I’m not sure how to describe. They might be a form of 50’s style model homes, prefabed somewhere else and just plopped down on the lots here. They don’t look quite right somehow. More than a little ugly in my opinion.

Hawthorne and Torrance boulevards are basically strip mall city, offering an assortment of bland entertainments, from supermarket and “ethnic” restaurants to the usual set of banks and gyms. Over all it is like a million other suburban neighborhoods with their usual set of commercial offerings. Zzzzzzzz....

I don’t mean to down play it. If you work in the area, this is a solid neighborhood that would make for the perfect place to raise a family: great schools, low crime, boring in just the right way for parenting. But nothing to write home about.