Los Angeles County CA Archives History - Books

Los Angeles County CA Archives History - Books .....Laying The Foundations 1908

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Joy Fisher December 11, 2005, 1:19 am

Book Title: Ingersoll's Century History, Santa Monica Bay Cities

CHAPTER II.

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS. 1870-1880.

UP TO 1870 the Santa Monica bay region had scarcely felt the stirring of the new

spirit brought into the country by the American occupation. The original ranches

were still intact and occupied chiefly as grazing land, and very few Americans

had obtained land holdings. Santa Monica Canon was the one attraction of the

entire coast at this time. Here a few American families each year camped under

the sycamores. In 1871 Mr. B. L. Peel erected a large tent "to accommodate 25 or

30 families" and over 300 visitors are reported for one Sunday in August, drawn

by a dance that "lasted all night." With 1872, Santa Monica Canon suddenly

became famous. The Express found it of enough importance to publish the

following: "Santa Monica, the Long Branch of California, or Camp Hayward.

Seventeen years ago Santa Monica was selected as a summer resort by Dr. Hayward

and until the last five years he and his family were the only ones who availed

themselves of its delights and benefits. Santa Monica proper is a farm house

located on the ridge one and a half miles from where the camp is located. At

this lone house the road descends into a deep ravine or canon, at the foot of

which, near the confluence with the ocean, is a thick growth of old sycamores.

Here is the camp. Beyond stretches the Malaga ranch, the rendezvous of

horsethieves. The beach between the camp and the point affords a magnificent

drive as does the shore in a southerly direction toward "Shoo Fly Landing", a

mile or better distant. It is at the latter place that the greater part of the

asphaltum sent to San Francisco from La Brea rancho is shipped."

In the summer of 1872 a hotel was opened at the canon and the proprietor

advertises, "Come and enjoy yourself. A week at the beach will add ten years to

your life!" Mr. John Reynolds announces in July that he will "despatch coaches

to Santa Monica every Wednesday and Saturday a.m." A small skiff was brought

around from San Pedro this summer and added to the attractions of surf bathing,

drives and picnics along the beach and up the many beantiful canons and dancing

in the "big tent." Among the diversions was the excitement of prospecting, as it

was rumored that a rich ledge of quartz rock existed on the beach, at a point

only exposed for a few moments at low tide. The belief was founded on the fact

that some of the native Californians of the district exhibited rich rock which

they claimed to have obtained from this ledge.

In September, 1872, an event took place which marks a new era in the history

of this vicinity. This was the sale of the San Vicente and Santa Monica y San

Vicente ranches by Jose del Carmen Sepulveda, and others, to Robert S. Baker.

The first sale included 38,409 acres of land and the price was reported as $54,000.

COL. ROBERT S. BAKER, who thus became an important factor in the history of

Santa Monica, was a descendant of an old and well-known family of Rhode Island.

He came to California in 1849 and engaged in business in San Francisco, being a

member of the firm of Cooke and Baker, who dealt largely in mining supplies.

Later he became associated with General Beale in the cattle and sheep business

in the northern part of the state and in the Tejon country. With his purchase of

the San Vicente, he located in Los Angeles and in 1874 married Mrs. Arcadia

Bandini de Stearns, widow of Don Abel Stearns, one of the earliest American

settlers of Southern California, and daughter of Juan Bandini, one of the

wealthiest and most distinguished of the early Californians. In 1878, he built

the Baker block in Los Angeles, at that time the finest business block in the

city. He owned, through his wife, the Puente and Laguna ranches and had other

large business interests. He was quiet in his tastes and made no effort to enter

into public life, but devoted his time to the management of his large interests.

He was most genial in character and he and his beautiful wife were noted for

their lavish entertainments of guests, and they at one time and another were

hosts to many distinguished people.

Colonel Baker died March 11th, 1894. His wife still survives him and is now

a resident of Santa Monica, passing a beautiful old age in a modest cottage on

Ocean avenue, although she is rated as one of the wealthiest women in California

and certainly none of the living daughters of California have had a more

romantic or interesting history than Senora Arcadia de Baker.

Colonel Baker at once proceeded to perfect his title to all the Sepulveda

holdings by subsequent purchases, thus obtaining possession of a magnificent

tract of land, with a mile and a half of ocean frontage and including the San

Vicente and numerous other springs, as well as several small mountain streams.

With characteristic enterprise he began efforts to utilize his domain for

something beside a sheep pasture. He interested his friend, General E. F. Beale,

who was one of the earliest and most successful promoters known in California

history—so successful that President Lincoln remarked of him when he was

surveyor-general of the state in 1861, that "Beale had, indeed, become monarch

of all he surveyed." The Express of December 22nd, 1873, announces, "General

Beale has arrived here with an eastern capitalist who contemplates the purchase

of the San Vicente ranch with the view to the construction of a wharf at Shoo

Fly Landing and building a narrow-gauge road from there to the city." This

eastern capitalist seems to have fallen down, however, for in 1874 it is stated

"Col. Baker has connected with himself several wealthy Englishmen and a

well-known and distinguished Californian (Beale). They contemplate constructing

a road to Los Angeles, a branch of the Southern Transcontinental line. Wharves

are to be built and Pacific Mail steamships will land here. The name of this

embryo metropolis of the southern coast is to be Truxton." The San Francisco

Post of September, 1874, contains a glowing description of the "Truxton scheme "

which ends by saying: "Why the Los Angeles people ever adopted the Wilmington

road to shoal water is one of those things no fellow can find out. At two-thirds

the distance they can reach deep water at the place called Truxton, on a bay

right north of Wilmington. Here, at a comparatively light expense, for wharves,

they can bring ship and cars together." The plans for Truxton included beside

wharf and railway, a magnificent seaside hotel and a townsite; but they never

seem to have gotten beyond the paper stage.

During the summer of 1874 Santa Monica Canon continued to be the chief

summer resort of the Angelenos. Two hotels, the Morongo House and the Seaside

Hotel, kept by Wolf and Steadman, were filled with guests. Many improvements

were made in the camping arrangements and the season was a gay one. A new

resort, known as "Will Tell's" also flourished this summer on the Ballona

lagoon, almost where the Del Rey hotel now stands. This was especially

attractive to sportsmen, as the lagoon was famous for its duck and game birds,

and a number of prominent Los Angeles men kept boats on the lagoons.

At this time a road, so narrow that the wheels touched the sides of the

bank, had been worn down through the arroyo, about at the foot of the present

Colorado street in Santa Monica, and a small landing was built on the shore.

Here Major Hancock shipped large quantities of brea, which was hauled by ox

teams from his Brea rancho, on small coast vessels to San Francisco. This was

the first "commerce" of Santa Monica bay.

In December, 1874, the Los Angeles papers chronicle the first visit of

United States Senator John P. Jones of Nevada. Glowing tributes were paid the

distinguished guest and much curiosity and enthusiasm over the possible results

of his advent into Southern California were indulged in. He was known to be

fabulously rich and to have railroad ambitions.

Southern California was a hotbed of railroad schemes. Already the iron hand

of the Central Pacific monopoly was being felt, although the little road to San

Pedro was then the only railroad in this end of the state. A transcontinental

line south of the Central Pacific was considered absolutely certain, at this

time; but who would build it and where it would reach the coast were matters of

the wildest speculation. San Diego was making frantic efforts to secure railway

connection of some sort and was looking hopefully forward to the magnificent

promises held out by Tom Scott, the brilliant promoter of the Atlantic and

Pacific railway scheme, of the early seventies.

The Southern Pacific was building its branch from Los Angeles eastward and

had decided to leave San Bernardino, the oldest and most important town east of

Los Angeles, off the line. Naturally she was bitter against the Southern Pacific

and was casting about for any relief in the way of transportation facilities.

Los Angeles was eagerly watching for any movement in her direction which gave

promise of a competing line, although the Southern Pacific was not yet fairly

built and there was no railroad connection with San Francisco, or with the east.

Consequently, when in January, 1875, it was announced that Senator Jones had

purchased a two-thirds interest in the San Vicente rancho, paying therefore

about $150,000, and that a new railroad was assured, there was rejoicing long

and loud throughout Southern California.

The Los Angeles and Independence railroad was organized in January, 1875,

with F. P. F. Temple, a banker of Los Angeles, John P. Jones, Robert S. Baker,

T. N. Park, James A. Pritchard, J. S. Slauson of Los Angeles, and Col. J. U.

Crawford, as directors.

Right of way between Los Angeles and Santa Monica was secured at once and

without difficulty, it may be added, and Col. Crawford, the engineer and general

manager of the road, at once began active operations. It was announced that the

road would be pushed through to Independence, where were located the Panamint

mines, owned by Senator Jones, and then supposed to rival the Gold Hill district

in richness. There were rumors also that the line would be carried across Nevada

to Salt Lake and the papers frequently referred to it as the beginning and ocean

terminus of a transcontinental line.

As soon as the railroad work was fairly started the construction of a wharf

was begun. This was located near the old "Shoo Fly" landing and near the present

foot of Colorado street, where a stub of the old wharf still remains. The first

pile was driven April 22nd, 1875, and the first boat landed at the wharf in

June. This wharf was 1700 feet in length and reached a depth of thirty feet at

low tide. It was substantially built, with depot, and warehouses at its terminus

and cost about $45,000.

In the meantime, Messrs. Jones and Baker had laid out a townsite which

extended from the bluff back to Twenty-sixth street and from Montana avenue on

the north to the arroyo, or Railroad street, as it was then called, on the

south. This original plat of Santa Monica was planned on a generous scale. The

blocks were 320 by 600 feet; lots 150 by 50, with twenty-foot alleys. A plaza,

the present Seventh-street park, blocks for hotels, one on the ocean front, the

persent location of Mirimar, and one on Eighth street, facing the plaza; for

public buildings, the block between Fifteenth and Sixteenth, Nevada and

California; also blocks for a university and a young ladies' seminary, were

reserved on the map. The ocean front was kept intact and Ocean avenue was made

200 feet in width, the other streets and avenues 80 and 100 feet in width. A

water system had already been planned and work begun on a large reservoir to be

filled from the San Vicente springs. The slope of the land gave ample water

pressure and provided excellent natural drainage. Much of the present

desirability of Santa Monica as a residence town is due to the liberal allotment

and unequaled natural advantages of this original townsite.

The establishment of this new "commercial center of the southwest" and the

ambitious plans of its projectors, together with much wild conjecturing by the

Los Angeles papers, had attracted wide attention. On the day announced for the

first sale of lots, July 15th, 1875, several hundred people gathered about the

stand on the bluff. Many of these were from Los Angeles and Southern California

points, although the only way to reach the spot was by a long and dusty drive.

The steamer, Senator, which is remembered by all old settlers, came in from San

Francisco that day with a number of parties who had come down especially to

attend this sale. This was the first landing of the Senator at Santa Monica. It

was also the last boat to land at the "old wharf."

A dry and barren plain rolled away from the bluff and there was no shade

from the blazing July sun. One board shack—the beginning of the Hotel Santa

Monica, and a few tents were the only "improvements" aside from the

partially-built wharf, visible. The Honorable Tom Fitch, the "silver-tongued"

orator, made the great speech of the day—a speech in. which he let his rich

imagination run riot, as may be gathered from the following extract:

"On Wednesday afternoon at one o'clock we will sell at public outcry to the

highest bidder, the Pacific ocean, draped with a western sky of scarlet and

gold; we will sell a bay filled with white-winged ships; we will sell a southern

horizon, rimmed with a choice collection of purple mountains, carved in castles

and turrets and domes; we will sell a frostless, bracing, warm, yet unlanguid

air, braided in and in with sunshine and odored with the breath of flowers. The

purchaser of this job lot of climate and scenery will be presented with a deed

to a piece of land 50 by 100 feet, known as 'lot A, in block 251.' The title to

the land will be guaranteed by the present owner. The title to the ocean and the

sunset, the hills and the clouds, the breath of the life-giving ozone and the

song of the birds, is guaranteed by the beneficent God who bestowed them in all

their beauty and affluence upon block 251, and attached them thereto by almighty

warrant as an incorruptible hereditament to run with the land forever."

Of this same effort, L. T. Fisher said in the Outlook, of July 13th, 1887:

"Under his eloquence many were led to believe that Santa Monica would at once

leap to the front as a full-fledged seaport and commercial center. In fact, so

strong was this impression that not a few prominent men of Los Angeles, who held

large possessions there, were actually afraid that the precedence of the 'city

of the Angels' would slip away from her and be transferred to the seacoast. And,

if we may be allowed the suggestion, it would have been a good thing for the

country if it had. Here would have sprung up the great commercial city of

Southern California. It had all the advantages of climate, drainage and all of

the best elements that should exist where a large population is concentrated."

Hon. Joseph Lynch, Major Ben Truman and Col. J. J. Ayers, the historic trio

of Los Angeles editors, were present and also made glowing speeches as to the

future of Santa Monica and Southern California.

The first lot sold, lot M in block 173, the northeast corner of Utah and

Ocean avenue, went to E. R. Zamoyski for $500. Other lots on Ocean avenue

brought from $400 to $500, and the prices ran down to $75.00 for lots back from

the shore. Among the first purchasers were Major Hancock, Judge O'Melveny, W. J.

Broderick, I. W. Hellman, George Boehme, W. D. Vawter and sons, H. T. Giroux and

others. The sale continued on the ground for three days and on Saturday an

auction was held in Los Angeles. Probably about $100,000 worth of lots were

disposed of during the week.

The first building in Santa Monica was a rough board shack put up in April

by J. C. Morgan, next to the Santa Monica Hotel and used as a boarding place for