1886 Storrs

Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1886

     "Important politically was the incorporation of the town [Santa Monica] as the result of an electin held November 30, 1886. The vote was 97 for and 71 against. Boundaries were the ocean, Montana Avenue to Seventeenth Street, southeast on Seventeenth to the southerly property line of the old Rancho San Vicente, northwest to Compton Road (Lincoln Blvd.) southeast to the souteast line of the Lucas tract, thence to the ocean, Santa Monica has expanded greatly since that date. First town trustees were John Steere, chairman, Dr. E.C. Folsom, A.E. Ladd, W.S. Vawter and J.W, Scott. Fred McKinnie was the first town clerk, E.K. Chapin, the treasurer.

     ". . . the year 1886 also marked the building of the Arcadia Hotel, a showplace of its day and one of the many large wood frame hotel buildings which dotted the California landscape in those days. It rivaled the Coronado in San Diego and the Del Monte near Monterey.

     "The hotel stood across Ocean Avenue from the present site of the Rand Corporation.

     "The heyday of the Arcadia, named for Arcadia Bandini de Baker, seems to have been relatively short, for by 1908 the building had been taken over by a military academy, and not long after that it was demolished . . . .

     "The year 1886 also saw a land boom of sorts in Santa Monica, sparked by rumors that the Santa Fe Railroad, then known as the Atlantic and Pacific, would build a wharf in Santa Monica with docking facilitiies for the largest ships.

Pp. 44, 45 [Photo captions: "Steere's Opera House, which stood on the northeast corner of Third and Utah (now Broadway) was built in 1886 and was the pride of the young community'"]

     " . . . the Ballona Harbor Improvement Co. . . . dredged between 1886 and 1888 . . .

     " . . . in Santa Monica . . . several tracts were put on the market, including East Santa Monica, Ocean Spray, and Santa Fe, as well as several smaller subdivisions."

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 Kelyn Roberts 2017