Demolition sparks nostalgia among old friends
Longtime friends, Clayton Shepherd, Rick Mirabito and Tom Shepherd, in front of Mirabito’s Advanced Painting shop, which stands on a lot that’s served different purposes for the community over the decades. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Three old friends, all Mira Costa grads and Manhattan Beach natives, gathered in a small, soon-to-be-torn-down, cottage-like structure with a sliding wooden door, and reminisced of the “glory days.” A time when a handshake represented a lease agreement and renting the 10,000-square-foot lot on which they stood – which over the years has served as a lumberyard, a community garden and a Christmas tree lot – was $100 a month. The modest wooden building behind Vons on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Valley Drive, where Advanced Painting and Rick’s Rain Gutters currently sits, is among the oldest buildings still standing in Manhattan Beach. The structure has perhaps exhausted its lifespan – with no bathroom, the business owner has rented an outhouse for 30 years. The estimated 80-year-old building will soon be removed, symbolizing the continuing development that’s changed the 100-year-old beachfront city in recent decades. “It definitely was a blue-collar…
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