Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1880, 1850, 1843, 1833, 1820s, 1800
1. Pueblo to City
" . . .
" . . . In 1880, when the LACC was founded . . . Los Angeles (for its ninety-nine year history) had been isolated-first as a colony of Spain, then as a rough-and-tumble frontier town . . . Little remained of the pueblo . . .
"(In those days) social life and sports centered around the Plaza . . . bullfights, bearbaiting . . . cockfighting. . . . horse racing . . . and card games . . . Californios were inveterate gamblers; every game and contest carried some kind of wager.
" . . . first Yankee settlers in the 1820s . . . John Temple and Abel Stearns . . .
"(Visitors) were mainly interested in local bars and gambling. . . .
" . . . billiards-introduced by Joseph Paulding of Maryland in 1833 . . (in 1843) the first social club, the Amigos del Pais, met in an adobe building which housed a dance hall, reading room, and card tables."