They tore down the Studio Drive-In movie theatre in Culver City ten years ago and replaced it with more than 50 homes. One of the streets in that housing tract, Machado Lane, is named for a family that lived in the area almost two centuries ago.

Jose Manuel Machado was one of the "soldado de cuera" or "leather jacket" soldiers who escorted the original settlers of Los Angeles and their mules to Southern California. Glen Howell, co-founder of the Mar Vista Historical Society, says Machado's service to the King of Spain paid off. In 1819, his two sons Augustín and Ygnacio acquired grazing rights with another family on 14,000 acres.

"Typically it was a soldier, a Spanish soldier, who was retiring from one of the presidios, and in lieu of a pension, was given the use of California land."

The Machados' first home was washed out when the Ballona Creek flooded. Augustín rebuilt on what is now Overland Avenue, not far from West L.A. College. The house is gone, but there is an Augustin Lane in Culver City. You can still visit Ygnacio's home. It's the Centinela Adobe in Inglewood. Ygnacio didn't live there long. In 1849, he swapped the Centinela Adobe for a house in Downtown L.A. To sweeten the deal, he had to throw in two barrels of brandy.

(Airdate for this story: 12/29/07)