Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1877
"In 1877, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, seeking to add attractions . . . completed a new bath house complete with steam baths and plunge [which was still operating in 1908 and had ceased by 1912] [The Crystal Plunge?]
". . . In 1877 . . . Santa Monica . . . William Spencer used Santa Monica clay with which to make 4,000 feet of pipe for an irrigation system under construction in the San Gabriel area.
"The pipe proved to be of excellent quality, and orders poured in from other developers. Work on a permanent factory was begun in the fall of that year [1877]. It was the first of a large number of plants for the manufacture of clay products to be established in Santa Monica.
"By the early twentieth century, huge excavations pockmarked the land in the general area between Utah Avenue (Broadway) and Michigan Avenue, and from Twentieth Street to the present city limits. They were, as the years passed, to become a major civic problem. Forty or fifty feet deep, they covered a total area of many acres, acres which could be utilized for other purposes only with great difficulty.
"In rainy seasons, the pits accumulated large quantities of water, provided a breeding ground for mosquitos, and presented a hazard for children.
"The year 1877 also saw the beginning of disputes over the ownership of the beach. One school of though said that it belonged to "the government"; another view was that it was the property of the land company headed by Jones and Baker; a third held that purchasers of the upland lots also owned beach rights.
"Not until 1888 was the matter at least partially settled. At tht time the courts ruled that the company did in fact own the land all the way to the mean high tide line, but that line, in turn, was not established until 1921.
[Photo of Second and Arizona, Winter, 1900, show trees two and three story tall.]
". . . in 1877 . . .
"A carpenter, one John V. Fonck, was hired by an upland propety owner to build a small bath house on the beach. C. M. Waller, employed by the land company, ordered him to quit work, and Fronck apparently refused. Waller shot him, and later pleaded that he thought his gun was loaded with bird shot. He also declared that he had acted upon orders of E.S. Parker, his superior.
"Both men were tried for the killing of Fonck, and Waller drew a sentence of one year. Parker, although there was nothing to support Waller's story that he ordered the killing of Fonck, was sentenced to 10 years in the penitentiary, but won an appeal for a new trial and was released pending that ordeal.
"While he was waiting for his second trial, his young wife died, and a week later Parker himself died.
"The Los Angeles and Independence Railway, by 1877 . . . [had cost] over a $1,000,000, and was in stiff competition with the Southern Pacific and the port of San Pedro. The Panamint mines had not proved to be as rich as anticipated . . .
"Jones offered to sell the line at cost to the people of Los Angeles County, but the offer was not taken up.
"In March [1877], a group of railway men headed by Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, together with representatives of the Southern Pacific, came to look over the communty and its railroad.
"In June, Central Pacific had acquired the Los Angeles and Independence, and immediately increased both rail and steamship passenger and freight rates. By the following year [1878], the Southern Pacific had control and removed the depot from the wharf where it had been, and placed it close to the present location of the city hall.
"The Southern Pacific engineers . . . pronounced the pier unsafe . . . and ordered its removal. The steamer Senator made its last call on September 9 and early in 1878 the pier was ordered removed. Efforts to pull the pilings failed, and they were chopped off at the water line.
"Not until 1893, when the Long Wharf was completed . . . did Santa Monica enjoy maritime trade . . ."