TORRANCE STREET FAIRE: DOWNTOWN TORRANCE

Downtown  ” Old Torrance ” is still one of the South Bays best kept secret places for many who live here and for those out of towners too. In the early 1900s, what is known today as Old Town Torrance was the hub of all shopping and hub for travel for the entire South Bay area. In those days when you wanted to go somewhere fast, you would hop on a “Red Car”, and take it to downtown Torrance for your shopping needs, or go on into Los Angeles or other cities for just about anything you wanted.

The “Red Car” was part of the advanced rail system that centered in L.A. and had spurs that linked with just about every major city in Southern California. That was long before the freeway system that we have today. In fact, it was the freeway system that ended the long life of the Red Car Lines and all of the fast rail connection system that Los Angeles used for years and years, and, very successfully too. Today we seem to be returning to an almost identical rail system that we had in place way back in the early 1900s.

Residents of all the beach cities would come to Torrance on the Red Car to do most of their shopping and Torrance was then the center of all of the activity in the South Bay. Today, Torrance draws thousands to it’s now famous “Torrance Antique Street Faire” which is open on the 4th Sunday of each month, drawing almost 200 street vendors to the city to sell their goods.  Vendors with antiques, collectibles, arts & crafts and/or quality used merchandise are welcome.

This Street Faire draws people from all over Southern California to Downtown Torrance each month, and  has consistently been voted ‘The Best in the South Bay’ by the Daily Breeze newspaper’s annual reader’s poll. The Street Faire opens to the public from 8 AM to 3 PM, with an appraisal booth that opens at 9AM until 1PM.  Rain or shine, the Street Faire will go on regardless of weather conditions.