Bergamot

Bergamot Station continues its work providing diverse educational opportunities for the Santa Monica community, advancing the city’s cultural mission. Bergamot Station is a creative arts collective committed to facilitating educational, nonprofit and charitable events for the Santa Monica community.

History

From 1875 to 1953 the site served as a railroad station for the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, then later the Santa Monica Air Line. When the trolley cars stopped running in 1953, the site’s warehouse buildings housed a celery packing operation, then an ice-making plant, and finally a factory for the manufacture of water heaters. Thereafter, the City of Santa Monica purchased the property which then sat abandoned, with plans for it to once again serve as an eventual transit stop, this time for a proposed light rail line running from Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Plans for the light rail were eventually shelved, so the City sought to find an interesting use for the site. They approached Wayne Blank, developer and co-owner of the Shoshana Wayne Gallery and asked him to conceive of an artistic use for the property. Blank established Bergamot Station, a nearly 5-acre, campus-like complex, which officially opened on September 17, 1994. The property returned to its roots on May 20, 2016 with the opening of the Expo Line and the adjacent 26th Street/Bergamot stop situated at the North end of Bergamot Station Arts Center. In 2018, the Santa Monica City-owned property went under new management with Worthe Real Estate Group. In 2022, RedCar Properties LLC took over the Worthe Real Estate lease and oversee property management of the site.