Meda Simmons Bruce, Harvey Bruce, and Willa Bruce at Bruce’s Lodge. date unknown. Photo from the California African American Museum An American dream came to an end at Bruce’s Beach, but the memory of what happened survived Third in a series by Mark McDermott By the first years of the 1920s, Manhattan Beach was coming together. In the decade since its founding, what had been mostly a scattering of sandswept shacks emerged as an actual town. A city hall was built and residents approved bonds to construct both a waterworks and a pier with a distinctive octagonal roundhouse at its end. The city’s population had increased, albeit modestly, from 600 people to almost 900. But one particular segment of the population was growing in a way that some people in the city found concerning.