Peter Adolph (Al) Larson emigrated from his native Sweden to the United States as a 16-year-old in 1890. He first began learning the boatbuilding trade in the San Francisco Bay area, and eventually moved south to Los Angeles.

He founded the Al Larson Boat Shop on the Salt Lake Wharf at the harbor in Wilmington in 1903. At that time, most of the structures in the harbor were built on stilts, and transportation from place to place could be accomplished only by boat.

The lumber industry was thriving in San Pedro at the time, and wood for potential boatmakers was plentiful. Though he offered repair services, Larson spent much of his early years crafting wooden fishing boats.

The boat repair sideline of his business eventually would become more dominant, but that came a few decades later.

Larson had arrived in the Harbor Area four years before the city of Los Angeles chose San Pedro as its official harbor. He certainly chose the right spot to establish his business, which he moved to Berth 224 on Terminal Island.

Its success, and increased defense industry work during World War I, led to its relocation in 1924 to an even larger space at Berth 258 on Terminal Island in the heart of the harbor.

The complex is still located on the site at 1046 South Seaside Ave, which also includes the Al Larson Marina with its 128 boat slips.

The Al Larson Boat Shop survived a blazing fire, possibly caused by a nearby bonfire, on Nov. 21, 1937. It caused $15,000 in damage and destroyed the lumber storage building and a nearby boat hangar. Hundreds of spectators watched the blaze, which was doused by firefighters on land and sea before more disastrous damage could be done.

The onset of World War II brought about a change in focus for the business. Shipbuilding for the war effort became a major industry in the Port of Los Angeles. California Shipbuilding (aka Calship), Bethlehem Steel and Todd Shipyards all were turning out warships.

The Al Larson Boat Shop also contributed to the effort, focusing on building smaller patrol boats and minesweepers for the U.S. Navy during the war years.

The boatbuilding business fell off drastically following the war. The company built its last ship, an 80-foot-long fishing boat, in the late 1940s. By the late 1950s, the company’s repair workload had dwindled to the point where it only had only five employees, and its physical plant had become run down.

In 1959, the family-owned business was purchased from then-owner Adolph Larson, Al’s son, by Andy Wall and his wife, Gloria. Wall was a police officer based in San Pedro who became an aviator in the U.S. Coast Guard. The couple married in 1943.

Wall had experience in the business, having worked for a time in his father-in-law’s boat shop. He invested money in fixing up and expanding the Larson Boat Shop’s facilities, and began concentrating more on repairing more large commercial ships instead of smaller yachts and pleasure craft.

The Wall family succeeded in turning the business around. It survived, and thrived, while other similar operations such as nearby Southwest Marine left the business.

The shop’s facilities sit on two acres of land and five acres of ocean at its Port of Los Angeles location. They also include an additional two acres at its Port of Long Beach location.

The firm works on barges, tugboats, barges, fireboats and the high-speed ferries that transport people between Catalina and the mainland. It also services cranes and other types of marine-based machinery.

Wall’s son Jack told Daily Breeze business reporter Muhammad el-Hasan in 2003 that the family at one point considered changing the shop’s name to reflect its new owners. They decided against it: “We kept the (Larson) name because it had a good reputation.”

As a part of Al Larson Boat Shop’s 100-year anniversary that year, the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro presented a special exhibit detailing the firm’s history.

Andy Wall died at 67 in 1984, and his wife, Gloria, passed away in 2009 at 88. Their descendants continue to run the firm, which has been family-owned and operated, albeit by two different families, since its inception.

Sources: Al Larson Boat Shop website. Al Larson Boat Shop Complex, Los Angeles Conservancy website. archives.  archives.  archives. Wikipedia.