Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1875, 1878
"On July 10, 1875, a map of 'Santa Monica' was recorded in the office of the County Recorder in Los Angeles. The town site fronted on the ocean and was bounded on the northwest by Montana Avenue, on the southeast by Railroad Avenue (now Colorado) and on the northeast by 26th Street . . .
[Santa Monica's first wharf, "Shoo Fly Pier, was completed in April, 1875 at the foot of Colorado Avenue. Steamers arrived from San Francisco with passengers for the first land sale. It was a loading point of tar from the La Brea pits and was condemned in 1878 by the Southern Pacific Railroad.]