Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp.
Printed by Santa Monica Printers; Calligraphy, design by Franz L. Wambaugh who also designed the Centennial Medal.
Sources:
John B. Danielli The Bay Area Pageant, The Santa Monica Evening Outllook supplement, c. 1950
Dr. D.D. Hatfield Los Angeles Aeronautics 1920-1929,
Luther A. Ingersoll Century History of the Santa Monica Bay Cities, 1908
Crosby Maynard Flight Plan for Tomorrow, McDonnell-Dougls Corp.
The Santa Monica Evening Outllook supplement, c. 1908
Associated People:
Aubrey E. Austin, Sr., Pres., Santa Monica Bank
Dorothy Jones Boden, granddaughter of Sen. John P. Jones
Kenneth O. Grubb,* Santa Monica City Clerk
Dr. D.D. Hatfield
Los Angeles Aeronautics 1920-1929,
Prof., Aviation History, Northrop Institute of Technology
Sen. John P. Jones
Roy Jones, son of Sen. Jones
Lillian Judy, secretary to Roy Jones, son of Sen. Jones
Les Storrs
Charles E. Tegner
Photograpy Collections:
Robert Hutton
Melzar Lindsey
Santa Monica Public Library
Kenneth Strickfadden
Charles H. Wacker III
Les Storrs (c.1900-) 1974, 1971, 1942, 1918, 1912
"Born in CA, arrived in SM in 1912 and graduated from SAMOHI in 1918, and USC, 1923. Worked for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook as a reporter and managing editor from 1923 until 1942. He served in the Army Air Corp as a lieutenant until he retired as a Major in 1946. In 1946 he was appointed Santa Monica City Director of Planning and Zoning from which he retired in 1971. He remained a columnist for the Evening Outlook, some of which won awards from the Freedom Foundation.
"He served as presdent of the Southern California Planning Congress and of the City Planning Department of the League of California Cities; director of the California Chapter, American Institute of Planners, and is a member of the American Institute of Planners, Southern California Planning Congress, Air Force Association, Retired Officers Association and is on the board of directors of the Family Service of Santa Monica.
"He married Helen Catlin in 1926. She had been an art teacher at South Pasadena High School.
Chapter One: The Very Early Days
" . . .
"These early inhabitants lived not only in the Santa Monica Mountains, but also in what is now Santa Monica proper. In fact, it has been discovered that the present grounds of Santa Monica High School are fairly rich in Indian artifacts."
" . . .
P.2 {Photo caption: "These buildings at Ocean and Railroad (Colorado) Avenue were the ealy pride of Santa Monica. Built by Jones and Baker as the Santa Monica Hotel in 1875, they burned to the ground in 1889. Sign "Santa Monica Hotel".}
" . . .
"The first real record dating to the time of the Spanish rule occurred when Jose Antonio Carrillo, alcade of Los Angeles in 1828 and brother of the great grandfather of Leo and Otie Carrillo, receeived an order to grant provisionally the land then known as San Vicente to Don Francisco Sepulveda. This grant was confirmed by Governor Juan Batista Alvarado, who unfortunately did not say anything about the boundaries of the land, thus laying the foundations for a dispute which did not end until 1881, when a United States court decreed that the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica included 30,239 acres against the 58,400 originally claimed.
" . . .
Chapter Two: Men o f Vision
" . . .
"Col. Robert S. Baker . . . [came] to California from Rhode Island in 1849, but instead of joining the gold rush, he sold supplies to the miners, as a member of the firm of Cook and Baker, San Francisco. He prospered, and later became active in growing cattle and sheep in Northern California.
" . . . in 1872, when Colonel Baker purchased the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, 38,409 acres from Don Jose del Carmen Sepulveda and other members of the Sepulveda family.
"The price was reported by Ingersoll to have been $53,000.
"Already a major land owner, Colonel Baker in 1874 married Dona Arcadia Bandini de Stearns, widow of Don Abel Steans, an American who had come to California as one of the very earliest American settlers.
"She was also the daughter of Don Juan Bandini, one of the wealthiest and most distinguished of the pioneer citizens of Los Angeles county, and the progenitor of a family very well known to this day . . .
"Then cam Sen. John Percival Jones, universially regarded as the founder of Santa Monica. Senator Jones, who had made a fortune in mining operations in Nevada, having been one of the developers of the Comstock lode, first visited the area in 1874 . . . there was a small resort at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon.
"There was also a very small commercial port operating from a wooden pier just west of the present site of the Santa Monica municipal pier. Small coastal vessels put in, when weather permitted, and loaded asphalt mined from the La Brea pits which then were part of the Rancho La Brea which had been acquired by the Hancock family.
"Senator Jones was impressed with the potential of Sant Monica even though Los Angeles at that time was a small town. Santa Monica, he believed, needed a railroad in order to achieve its destiny.
"He set about organinzing one, and the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad sprang into existence in 1875. Directors were Senator Jones*, F.P.F. Temple, for whom the street in Los Angeles was named; Colonel Baker, T.N. Park, James A. Pritchard, J.S. Slauson, whose name also has been perpetuated on street signs; and Col. J.U. Crawford, an engineer who became general manager.
"Senator Jones' intent was to carry his rail lines from Los Angeles to Independence, where he owned the Panamint mines, but this never occurred.
"Meanwhile, Senator Jones had joined forces with Colonel Baker on another project: the establishment of the town of Santa Monica.
"Accordingly, they laid out the area from Colorado Avenue to Montana Avenue, and from the top of the bluff to Twenty-Sixth Street in blocks 320 by 600 feet in dimensions.
"With few exceptions, each block consisted of 24, 50 by 150 foot lots, a pattern which remains today. The developers set aside the present Palisades Park and Lincoln Park for that use.
"They also reserved entire blocks for such purposes as two hotels, public buildings, a university, "a young ladies' seminary." Only the parks became facts.
" . . . the first lots wer sold at public auction July 15, 1875 . . .
"Ingersol says that the steamer Senator put in at Shoo Fly Landing for the first visit to the new town, and that a large crowd of Los Angeles residents gathered under the hot July sun. No trees had been planted, no buildings erected except for one board shack and a number of tents.
" . . . Tom Fitch, known as "the silver-tongued orator," [is reported to have said, "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; we will sell a frostless, bracing, warm, yet languid 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 250.' The title to the land will be guaranteed by the present owner The title to the ocean and the sunset, the breath of the life-giving ozone and the song of the birds, is guaranteed by the beneficient 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."
" . . .
" . . . it is recorded that the first lot went to one E.R. Zamoyski for $500. It was at the corner of Utah and Ocean Avenue, now Ocean and Broadway. Other first day buyers included such names as Hancock, O'Melveny, Hellman, Vawter,* Boehm and Giroux, . . . names . . . well-known . . .
"Other lots on Ocean Avenue brought from $400 to $500; those further inland went for as little as $75. W.D. Vawter* built the first general store in Santa Monica on three lots in the 1400 block on Fourth St., bought for $125.50 each. Three weeks after the sale, Ingersoll relates, the store was open for business.
" . . . by October, population had increased to the point where a newspaper was considered neecessary, and on the 13th of the month the first edition of the Santa Monica Outlook appeared with Lemuel T. Fisher as editor. It was a [four-page] weekly. . . .
"[Quoted from the first issue of the Outlook,] "On the 15th of July, 1875, the first lot was sold in Santa Monica. As the date of this writing, October 13, 1875, six hundred and fifteen lots have been sold by the land company for $131,745; 119 houses and shops have been erected. The water of San Vicente spring as been collected in two large reservoirs, forming pretty lakes in the proposed park, and the flow of half a million gallons per day is in process of being distributed through iron mains all over the townsite."
"[The Outlook, Nov. 24, 1875] "Santa Monica continues to advance. We now have a wharf where the largest of the Panama steamers have landed; a railroad completed to Los Angeles; a telegraph station, a newspaper, post office, two hotels, one handsome clubhouse [the tennis club in the 1000 block on Third St.], several lodging houses, eight restaurants, a number of saloons, four groceries, three drygoods stores, two hardware stores, three fruit stores, one wool commission house, one news depot and bookstore, one variety store, one bakery, one jeweler and watchmaker, one boot and shoe maker, one tin shop, two livery stables, one dressmaker, several contractors and builders, three real estate agencies, one insurance agency, one coal yard, one brick yard, two lumber yards, two private schools, and in a short time we shall have two churches and a public school."
" . . . the First Methodist Church was dedicated January 2, 1876. The chapel was on Arizona Ave. between Third and Fourth Streets . . . followed by the First Presbyterian Church, . . . on Third and Arizona.
{Photos and Captions: pp. 8, 9: Early 1900s Topanga Canyon Stage Coach; First Electric Train in Santa Monica, April 1, 1896; Third St., northward from Utah Ave. (Broadway), c. 1881, with horses and buggies and plank two story shop, and with some tree growth evident]
"Transportation . . . on October 17 [1875] the first train left Santa Monica for Los Angeles . . . passengers rode on flat cars . . . made three trips that day . . .
" . . . Nov. 3, the Outlook reported . . . at the Shoo Fly Landing. On one side of the pier, the schooner John Hancock was discharging lumber; another schooner across the pier from it unloading railroad ties; the barkentine Ella was delivering coal; passengers and freight from the Senator, along with several race horses.
"By December, two trains daily . . . to Los Angeles . . .
February, 1876, [a] town meeting was called to consider the question of becoming a town. Rejected. A school district was formed with J.W. Scott*, Lemuel T. Fisher and John Freeman, Trustees. A special election was held March [1876] to vote $5000 for a public school.
" . . . The first public school in Santa Monica was ready for use in September [1876].
(Juan Carrillo, father of Leo and Oite, police judge and civic leader, and B.F. Reid were among the horseback athletic competitors . . . )
"In March of 1876, J.W. Scott* subdivided an area of 43 acres lying between Fifth St. and the present Lincoln Blvd. It was the first addition to the unincorporated town, and lots in the tract bear the legal description of "Scott's Addition" . . . Jones* and Baker'*s original townsite still carry the designation, "Town of Santa Monica."
"Scott* planted a thousand eucalyptus trees, which were very popular throughout Southern California in those days, and built a bridge across the arroyo at the bottom of which ran the railroad track. His bridge was at Sixth Street, and remained in service well into the twentieth century.
" . . . Also in 1876 a road was built to connect Santa Monica with the San Fernando Valley . . . (by) Isaac Lankershim . . .
"San Pedro . . . Southern Pacific . . . Collis P. Huntington . . . 1876
" . . . the California Coast Steamship Co., organized by Colonel Robert Baker*, E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin and others [failed]
" . . . North Beach . . . In 1876 Michael Duffy completed a bath house, and Jones* and Baker* a pavilion. Both were a short distance from the foot of Colorado Avenue, on the beach.
"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 fro 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 place 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 piilngs 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 . . .
" . . .
"By 1880, . . . in a deep depression. The 1880 census showed a population of only 417, and this included the entire township of La Ballona, now Ocean Park and Venice. The bottom fell out of property values. . . .
"Residents blamed the Southern Pacific, and the Outlook led the way . . .
"In 1875 Charles Crocker, the San Francisco magnate, wrote to Huntington: "I notice what you say of Jones*, Park, etc. I do not think they will hurt us much, at least, I would rather be in our place than in theirs."
"Collis Huntington's reply: "I shall do my best to cave him (Jones) down the bank."
" . . .
In 1884 Williamson D. Vawter*, one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church, and his sons William S. [Vawter*] and Edwin J. [Vawter*] . . . acquired 100 acres of the Lucas tract, adjoining Santa Monica to the south, for $40 per acre. By 1885 St. Monica's Catholic Church moved into its building on Third St. In 1888 St. Augustine's Episcopal Church moved into its new building on the site of the present church in the 1200 block on Fourth St,, although Episcopal services had been held in a variety of places ever since 1875.
"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 southeast 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.
" . . . 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.
" . . . in 1887, a syndicate headed by Abbott Kinney* . . . acquired 247 acres in Rustic Canyon and Huntington Palisades . . . the Santa Monica Outlook Railway was set up with Kinney* as president. . . .
"Kinney*, who was at that time secretary of the California State Board of Forestry, donated the site for a forestry experimental station. . . .This later became the Uplifters Ranch . . ."
"Also in 1887 the townsite of Palms was laid out, and later prospered. Now gone without a trace was the town of Sunset, which took form in what is now West Los Angeles, but then was part of a large area acquired by John Wolfskill, an area known until well into the twentieth century as the Wolfskill Ranch. Originallly part of theSan Jose de Buenos Aires grant.
"Also in 1887, it was learned by the enterprising developers of Santa Monica that a site was being sought for the Pacific branch of the National Home for Disabled Veterans. Senator Jones,* Colonel Baker* and the Wolfskill interests joined forces to offer 600 acres for that purpose.
"The offer was accepted and Santa Monica businessmen, being the closest source of supplies for the home, rejoiced. Thus the Soldiers Home, as it was then called, came into existence in the area between Veteran and Federal Avenues, and extending from a point not far from Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to Sunset Boulevard. It is now known, of course, as the Veterans Administration Facilitiy.
"Present day readers perhaps should be reminded that in those days there was no electric power in the community, nor even illuminating gas except for a small plant which supplied the Arcadia Hotel and a few private houses in the immediate vicinity. Coal was the source of this gas, natural gas did not flow in the mains of Santa Monica until 1917.
"1887 also marked the construction of Steere's Opera House, which stood at the corner of Third and Utah, now Broadway and the Santa Monica Mall. The building, two stories in height, had stores on the ground floor, an auditorium above. It stood directly across the street from a hotel, a much older building and one which still stands in 1974, although no longer in use except for ground floor stores.
"Santa Monica also began to be known as a tennis center, and the Lawn Tennis Association was incorporated in August of that year. Courts and a building known as "The Casino" had been built on land on the east side of Third Street about midway between California and Washington Avenue. The site was acquired through the generosity of Senator Jones*, whose daughter, Marian, became a national champion. Later the courts were frequently used by May Sutton Bundy, also a national champion, and her sisters Florence Sutton, Ethel Sutton Bruce and Violet Sutton Doeg.
"All were outstanding players of their day." (p. 13)
{Photo caption, p. 14: "Even in this photo, taken from the then existing pier, the Arcadia Hotel looks like the wooden fire trap that it was (undated and unburnt)"; p. 15, "Panoramic view from the Arcadia Hotel, looking almost due north toward present central business district of Santa Monica. Landscaped [note the palm trees] area in foreground was on the grounds of the hotel, Ocean Avenue frontage. About the turn of centrury.}
"By 1888 Santa Monica was beginning to feel like a city, especially so after the first bank was organized and opened for business. The First National Bank of Santa Monica had for its President G. H. Gonebrake, a Los Angeles man. Steere was vice president, E.J. Vawter*, cashier; directors included the officers named plus Nathan Bundy, founder of the family still widely known in Santa Monica, H.C. Baggs and W. S. Vawter*.
"Senator Jones* when he placed the town of Santa Monica on the market in 1875, had reserved the block bounded by Ocean Avenue, Nevada Avenue (Wilshire Boulevard), Second Street and California Avenue as a site for a future hotel.
"Thirteen years had passed, and no hotel. The Senator* decided that the block would be a suitable place for his own home, and in April [1888] the contract was let for Miramar, at a cost stated by Ingersoll to have been "between $30,000 and $40,000," a huge amount for a home in those days.
"The Senator* had a son and three daughters, plus numerous more distant relatives who could be expected to drop in from time to time, not to mention the visiting dignitaries entertained by the family.
"Thus is was that Miramar, in addtion to having large and well landscaped grounds, also had luxurious facilities, including seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, most unusual in those days.
"There was no guest house, the idea of segregating guests from family members not being consistent with the Senator*'s idea of hospitality.
"Also in 1888 the town trustees engaged in a program which many citizens branded as rank extravagance and likely to lead to bankruptcy. They appropriated $23,000 for grading streets, installing curbs, and laying gravel over the existing adobe mud. Even worse, they authorized the expenditure of $30,000 for sidewalks.
"One of the trustees in question was Juan J. Carrillo, who continued to serve in that office until 1900.
" . . .
"The Southern Pacific . . . offered four round trips a day on week days, six on Sundays, the round trip fare being 75 cents on week days, 50 cents on Sundays, but the line served only the area near the present Colorado Avenue.
" . . . in 1888 . . . the Los Angeles and Pacific . . . ran from Burbank to Santa Monica via Hollywood, the Soldiers Home, and a number of communities which long since have disappeared . . . the first train into Santa Monica January 29, 1889 . . .
" . . . it lasted until September [1889] and went into receivership . . .
" . . . [1888] the horse drawn street car line set up by W.D. Vawter*. This connected with the Southern Pacific near the depot, ran up Ocean Avenue to Utah, on Utah Avenue to Third Street, on Third to Arizona, and on Arizona to Seventh Street. In 1889 this was extended to Seventeenth Street. Popularly known as "the mule line," it now boasted that it served most of Santa Monica. In 1890, a franchise was granted to connect a new street railway with the terminus of the Vawter* line, and extend to the Soldiers Home.
"By 1889 that facility was rapidly taking form, and this gave a tremendous boost to Santa Monica's first industry, the making of common bricks and other clay products.
"Much of the brick used in the construction of the home was provided by two enterprising Santa Monicans, Sam Cripe and C.F. Geltner, whose kiln was considered to be a model of efficiency.
"[1889] The year had begun with the total loss of the Santa Monica Hotel, a wood building which stood not far from the railroad station. Insufficient water supply was blamed for the fact that the fire of Janurary 15 of that year resulted in a total loss.
" . . . August 1, 1891, . . . the Southern Pacific began an oceanographic survey just west of Santa Monica Canyon . . .
"Collis P. Huntington, at the helm of the railroad, . . . By 1892 construction of the Long Wharf was well underway . . .
" . . . [briefly] the Long Wharf actually was the port of Los Angeles after its completion in 1893.
"Trains ran out on the pier, which had fairly elaborate terminal facilities at the seaward end, and as late as 1903, the San Pedro development not yet having been completed, it was recorded that 283 vessels docked at the pier with incoming traffic and 302 sailed therefrom. In the same year, 18,733 passengers landed and 15,675 sailed.
" . . .
" . . . Santa Monica had begun to accept its manifest destiny, that of a pleasant seasde residential community, and to make the most of it.
"Among those who recognized the merits of Santa Monica as a residential communtiy was Frederick H. Rindge, a New Englander who had come to California after suffering a debilitating illness. He and his wife, the former Rhoda May Knight, bought property on Ocean Avenue less than four years after their marriage, purchasing the Santa Monica land on which they made their home in January, 1891. In the same year he bought the Malibu Ranch, which was a part of the original Topanga-Malibu-Sequit grant made to Jose B. Tapia in 1804. Unlike the grants which made up present day Santa Monica, and were given by Mexico, Malibu dates to actual Spanish rule.
"For the next twelve 12 years the Rindge family divided their time between Malibu and Santa Monica, but it was in the 20 mile Malibu strip extending northwest from Las Flores Canyon, that the Rindges wrote much history."
{Photo captions: "The one and only Santa Monica public school and its pupils, September, 1894; President McKinley was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd when he spoke at the Soldiers Home. Most of the veterans in the photo saw service in the Civil War."}
Chapter Three: Nineteen Hundred Through World War I
"Around the turn of the century [1900], Santa Monica was beginning to consider itself to be a city rather than a town. . . .
" . . . still . . . [Southern Pacific was transferring cargos to Los Angeles].
"Population by 1890 had reached no less than 1,580, according to the U.S. Census of that year, and by 1900 it had risen to 3,057. This signal growth gave rise to a move for a new system of government; a number of citizens, of whom Frederick H. Rindge was a leader and strong financial backer, felt that Santa Monica had gained a reputation as a "tough" community, largely by reason of the saloons which clustered about Utah Avenue.
"Rindge became chairman of a citizen committee which proposed to outlaw saloons and reincorporate Santa Monica as a city of the fifth class under the general law.
"Of this Ingersoll had some pithy comments:
"Santa Monica," he wrote, "had always been a 'wide open' town and while its citizens were just as respectable and law-abiding as those of any other beach town, the place had undoubtedly always been the favorite resort of the sporting element of Los Angeles. The proximity of the Soldiers' Home also made it the scene of the 'old boys' license, when pension money was plentiful."
"The word 'sporting' did not mean, as far as Ingersoll was concerned great interest in outdoor sports.
"A vigorous fight ensued, but the Board of Trustees prepared an ordinance which was submitted to the electorate and which placed the town in the dry ranks, but not until Rindge offered to pay the city an amount equal to that which would be lost in saloon license fees. A man of his word he duly handed his check for $2,500 to the trustees, after the vote was counted. The tally was 305 to 218 in favor of this ordinance.
"The word 'dry' was however, a matter of relativity, for three restaurants were licensed to sell liquor by the drink but with meals only, it being required that such meals must cost at least 25 cents exclusively of the drinks; one store was authorized to sell alcoholic beverages in the original containers.
"The saloon forces did not take this lying down, although the same could not be said of the customers of the package store, and it is recorded that Erminio Gamberi*, a man well remembered by the writer, was convicted and fined $175 for serving liquor without the formality of an accompanying sandwich, and in addition, his license was revoked.
Pps. 18, 19 [Photo caption: 1898 photo of the small sized Third Street Car]
"One Rudolph Hopf was also arrested, but unfortunately became insolvent before he could be brought to trial. Moved, perhaps by sympathy, the courts acquitted him.
"Meanwhile, the Trustees moved to restore Santa Monica's reputation as a fun town, and they amended the ordinance, even though it had been voted by the people.
"They eliminated the requirement that the meal should cost at least 25 cents, and merely required that food accompany the drink. It was reported that one soda cracker was considered adequate by many a saloon keeper, and that in some cases the empty cracker box alone was provided.
"Such chicanery, quite understandably, infuriated the dry forces, led by Rindge, the churches, and the W.C,T.U. An attempt was made to adopt what was known as "The Long Beach Ordinace," but it lost, 287 for, 544 against.
"'Restaurant' and 'buffet' licenses thereafter were granted with no restriction. According to Ingersoll, the total effect was that the number of bistros was considerably reduced from the previous dozen or more, but it appears that ample provision was made for the thirsty folk of the little town and their visitors.
"When results of the U.S. Census of 1900 became known, the effort was launched to reincorporate as a fifth class city, there being a requirement that to qualify, a city must have at least 3,000 popiulation.
"The Trustees held that the population had shrunk below that level; proponents of the change insisted that the law required that latest census figures be used for qualification. A Good Government League was formed, with Rindge as chairman, and pressure was directed against the trustees, who thereupon ordered their own head count. . . . they arrived at a population figure of 2,717.
"The Good Government League accused the trustees of making an inadequate count, and set about making another. They provided a figure of 3,260. The election was held, and the vote was 231 to 118 for the new regime.
"No sooner had this become known than H.X. Goetz sought an injunction to enjoin the Trustees from canvassing the vote and to declare the election illegal. The Trustees retained Fred H. Taft and the courts sustained the legality of the election, but the new government did not become effective until 1903, the court having ruled on February 10, 1902.
"In that year, the citizens elected a new Board of Trustees, consisting of Thomas H. Dudley*, H.X. Goetz, A.F. Johnston, John C. Steere and W. S. Vawter*. J.C. Hemingway was chosen as city clerk, C.S. Dales assessor, Frank W. Vogel treasurer, A.M. Guidinger recorder, Max K. Baretto, marshal, and Fred H. Taft, city attorney. All offices were filled by general election rather than appointment, except that the Trustees themselves chose their president, or mayor, and Dudley* was the man.
"A colorful figure, he [Dudley*] was to remain a major power in Santa Monica for many years to come. Handsome and charming, his influence was great in the political affairs of the city and in financial circles. He also gained a wide and probably deserved reputation as a "lady killer," as the slang of the day put it, and as a man about town.
"Apparently the people of Santa Monica felt that the state laws governing cities of the fifth class were too restrictive for a special census was ordered in a move to qualify the city for a Freeholder's charter, the law requiring a population of at least 3,500. On May 15, 1905, the census was completed . . . no less than 7,208 residents . . . counted.
"On October 18, a Board of Freeholders was duly elected, with no substantial opposition. Members were Dudley*, C.A. Stilson, George D. Snyder, R.R, Tanner, George H. Hutton, H.X. Goetz, W.I. Hull, A.M. Jamison, W.S. Vawter*, Robert, F. Jones*, D.G. Holt, B.A. Nebeker, E.J. Vawter*, Roy Jones and A.N, Archer*.
" . . . Roy Jones was the son of the Senator*, George H. Hutton the Senator's attorney. The latter became nationally known after he became a judge of the superior court, and was the trial judge in the case of The People vs. Clarence Darrow, a cause celebre which arose out of Darrow's actions as a defense counsel in the trial of the McNamara brothers for the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building. Robert F. Jones* also was related to the Senator* (a nephew) and was president and cashier of the Bank of Santa Monica.
"The charter which was prepared by the Board of Freeholders was adopted in an election held March 28, 1906, the vote being 376 for and 183 against.
"Meanwhile progress was being recorded on the physical front, but usually over considerable opposition. For example, an election was held March 21, 1893, to vote on a proposed sewer bond issue of $40,000. The vote was negative after a heated campaign, 140 [against], 84, [for].
"Some progress was recorded, however, when J.J. Davis won a franchise, at a cost to him of $25 per year, to install an electric generating plant. On September 10, [1893], no less than 12 street lights were turned on. The generators were on the beach on the northwest side of what is now the Municipal Pier.
"By 1895, . . . sewer bonds . . . were approved by an overwhelming majority. The system, however, was not built immediately, the trustees encountering much trouble in gaining rights of way. Not until 1899 wa the contract let for the outfall, which was near Pier Avenue.
"Unfortunately, this was destroyed by a storm, and many problems ensued, so that the outfall ultimately was located under the present site of the Municipal Pier, at the foot of Colorado Avenue. This was the case from 1909 until the city of Santa Monica joined the city of Los Angeles in funding the Hyperion plant, now in use [1974].
Pp. 20, 21 [Photo captions: "A mistake somehow was made here. The locomotive, derailed, went onto the grounds of the Arcadia Hotel, about 1890. On the back is printed: "Pacific Photograph Gallery at the Arcadia Pavilion, is the place to go for all kinds of fine photographs. Tintypes in bathing costumes a specialty. H.F. Riles, Artist."; "Here the members of the first graduating class of Santa Monica High School, correctly and decorously attired, gather on the beach near the foot of what is now Colorado Avenue. Six men; seven women."]
"Street car service also supplanted the steam trains which had made four round trips daily between Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Moses H. Sherman and E.P. Clark built the first electric line into Santa Monica was provided by both Pacific Electric (the big red cars) and the Los Angeles Paacific.
"Before many years had passed, the old Southern Pacific line, which followed the alignment of the present freight tracks in the industrial area and terminated near the present civic center, had become the Airline route of the Pacific Electric.
"Street car service existed on the whole length of Santa Monica Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard, along the base of the bluff to the Long Wharf after steam trains were withdrawn, along the whole length of Ocean Avenue and thence south along the present Neilson Way and Pacific Street to Venice, Playa del Rey and the south bay communitiies. Service was also provided via the Venice Shortline, which terminated at Ocean Avenue and Broadway, and local cars operated on Broadway, Third Street, Montana Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard.
" . . . population increased rapidly, both by the influx of new residents and by annexations.
"Many of the new residents were either English or of English descent, and they brought with them a keen interest in tennis, polo, and, on occasion, cricket.
"They aslo demanded, and got, an excellent school system, a system which by 1906 was considered to be one of the best in the county [Los Angeles County].
" . . .
"In 1903 the city fathers purchased the property at the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Oregon Avenue, now occupied by a parking lot and the annex to Campbell's, for $4,800, amid considerable public criticism. . . . a new City Hall opened for business on the property in 1903, and it served the city for some 35 years [1903-1938].
"Among the major annexations which took place was the absorption by Santa Monica of the once separate town of Ocean Park, which had incorporated as the result of an election February 12, 1904. The vote was 52 for, 2 against.
"Ocean Park did not, however, last long as a separate municipality, for it voted to disincorporate in 1907, and before long was annexed by Santa Monica.
"Another improtant annexation was described by Ingersoll as "the uninhabited territory known as the 'Palisades.'" This also occurred in 1906.
"The Freeholders' charter set up a system, usual in those days, whereby each ward elected a councilman, and there were seven wards, covering the various parts of the city. The first council under this form of government consisted of George D. Snyder, R.W. Armstrong, Abe S, Reel, H.L. Coffman, J. Euclid Miles, Roscoe H. Dow, and Alf Morris, president.
". . .
"By 1900, thriving congregations of Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Baptists were active in the community. . . in 1881-82 total school enrollment was 108, average daily attendence 49.
" . . . one of the first churches established in Santa Monica was the First Presbyterian . . in which the Vawter* family played a leading role. [Beginning in 1875} . . . the church building was erected at Third and Arizona in 1876. The Rev. I.M. Condit was the first minister.
" . . . the Methodist congregation, the First Methodist Church was dedicated February 3, 1876.
Pp. 22, 23 [Photo caption: "Gentlefolk of Santa Monica centered their social activities about the Casino, a building made possible by Sen. John P. Jones*. The photo shows a tea party, c. 1901."
" . . . Episcopal services were held as early as Easter, 1876, but regular services did not begin until 1885, and the first building was erected by St. Augustine's on the property it now occupies in 1887. The Rev. Henry Scott Jeffreys was missionary in charge . . .
"Roman Catholics had their first Mass in Santa Monica in 1877, . . . August 18, 1885 . . . the first St. Monica's dedicated . . . in downtown Santa Monica. Father Patrick Hawe* was pastor . . .
" . . . the Sisters of the Holy Names established the Academy of Holy Names . . . dedicated February 22, 1901 . . . at the corner of Third Street and Arizona Avenue. St. Clement's, Ocean Park, was dedicated May 8, 1904, with Father Michael Hennesy* in charge.
" . . . the Baptist faith . . . 1903, when the Rev. L.A. Gould became their first pastor.
" . . .
" . . . the charter was duly adopted, and the Councilmen elected from each of the seven wards supplanted the trustees who had served when Santa Monica was a city of the fifth class. For years, Thomas H. Dudley* thereafter was the people's choice for mayor, and G.A. Murray . . . the city clerk. . . . Roscoe Dow and George Synder[sic] were frequently on the rolls of the city council.
"Santa Monicans, then as in later years, often felt tht their local government could be improved, and soon after 1912 agitation began for charter amendment which would give the community a totally new type of government, under which three commissioners would be both council and administration.
" . . .
" . . . the council on October 5, 1914, unaminously voted . . . the appropriate ordinance . . . December 1, 1914, . . . the measure was approved, 1,021 to 782.
" . . . The new charter required what was known as a preferential ballot . . .
"[1915] . . . Samuel L. Berkley was elected commissioner of public safety, ex-officio mayor; William H. Carter, commissioner of public works; Maxwell K. Barretto, commissioner of public finance.
"Initially, the commissioner of public safely had jurisdiction over police, fire and health matters; the commissioner of public works was responsible for streets, water system, sewage disposal and public building; the commissioner of public finance was ex-officio city clerk and responsible for all fiscal matters.
"In practice, each commissioner operated his own fiefdom . . .
" . . .
"The First National Bank of Santa Monica, afterward converted into a state franchised bank and renamed the Bank of Santa Monica . . . organized in January, 1888, with G.H. Bonebrake as president. Directors included in addition to Bonebrake, John Steere, G.S. Van Avery, Nathan Bundy, H.C. Baggs, W.S. Vawter* and E.J. Vawter*, the latter being cashier.
"In 1893 the Vawters* sold their interest in the bank to Senator Jones*, and Robert F. Jones* became president and cashier, soon after the name was changed.
"The Bank of Santa Monica stood on the southeast corner of Third Street and Santa Monica Boulevard until it was acquired by the California Bank many years later.
"Robert F. Jones*, nephew of the Senator*, established a reputation . .and the bank successfully weathered two major panics . . .
"Another nephew of the Senator* who played a leading part in the development of the bank was H.M. Gorham, who with the Senator* himself, Roy Jones, son of the Senator, N.H. Hamilton, and Judge George H. Hutton, served as Directors. Roy Jones was also vice president.
"The most colorful figure of all . . . was Henry J. Engelbrecht, cashier, a man who had been brought to Santa Monica from Nevada, the Senator* needing a good man to manage his north beach bath house. Henry Engelbrecht, who had grown up in the rugged world of Nevada mining, was such a man, and when Senator Jones acquired controlling interest in the bank, he looked to Engelbrecht as a man whose rugged honesty combined with human understanding, made him qualified for the post.
"In later years, Henry Engelbrecht became president of the bank , , ,
" . . .
"By 1908 no less than four local financial institutions were in operation. They were the Bank of Santa Monica, the Ocean Park Bank, of which Thomas H. Dudley* was president, and Percy J. Dudley,* a member of his family, cashier; the Merchants National Bank of Santa Monica, James H. Grigsby, president, and E.J. Vawter*, vice president; the Santa Monica Savings Bank, Thomas H. Dudley,* president and Martha Relyea, cashier. Two rising young men in the field were Harry Hudson in the Bank of Santa Monica, and Frank J. Townsend in the Merchants National.
"The brief period in which the Long Wharf was the port of Los Angeles had ended, and Santa Monica was moving steadily toward its manifest destiny, that of a residential community. In fact, little by little, the wharf was first shortened, then removed. Aubrey E. Austin, Sr., whose career as a contractor preceded his banking endeavors, was the contractor entrusted with the final work of removing the deteriorated structure . . .
Pps 24, 25 [Photo captions: "Miramar, then the residence of Sen. John P. Jones* and his family, undated"; "Santa Monica Canyon School, November, 1894. Nathan F. Smith was the teacher. The building still stands, but at a new location"; "Teddy Tetzlaff and the Fiat rounding the corner of Ocean and Nevada Avenues in a cloud of dust and smoke in the 1912 Santa Monica Road Race";
" . . . the public schools were advancing rapidly under the able direction of Horace M. Rebok, superintendent.
"So good was the reputation of the Santa Monica schools that by the time of World War I a simple recommendation from the principal of the high school, William F. Barnum*, plus the required prepatory courses would gain a student admission to college or university known for high scholastic standards.
"Indicative of this trend in education was the fact that the old Lincoln High School at Tenth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, was considered to be outmoded. Accordingly, land was purchased by the Board of Education on what was then known as Prospect Hill, the present site of Santa Monica High School.
"In the fall of 1913 the new school received its first classes, and the graduating class of 1917 was the first to complete all four years in the new plant.
"The old building on Tenth Street became Lincoln Intermediate School, and it housed seventh and eighth grade classes from the entire community. It was the forerunner of the present Lincoln Junior High.
"Some of the teachers who held forth in Samohi classes in those days and who were responsible for its fine academic reputation, will be remembered by old timers and not so old timers of today.
"They included in addition to William F. Barnum, the principal, who himself taught algebra and trigonometry, such people as Noah D. Knupp, William P. Fetherohf, Vincent Shutt, Nathan Shutt, Caroline Lucy Judd, Ruby Beatrice Weigle, Ethel Robinson, Laura M. Carver, Clara Macomber, Laura Liddle and "Doc" Claffin, the only holder of a Ph.D, on the faculty.
"A Harvard man whose command of English was perfect, he taught history and civics, and in addtion, coached highly successful debating teams.
" . . .
" . . . before World War I . . . the Santa Monica Road Races.
"Around 1909, when the automobile remained something of a novelty, racing was getting a real start, ever moved by sporting instincts, were interested . . .
"Thus the Santa Monica Road Races came about, and a series of these thunderous events took place, the last shortly before war diverted the attention of all to more serious matters. The first races of the series started opoosite grandstands which were erected on Ocean Avenue near Marguerita Avenue, and followed a roughly triangular course down Ocean Avenue to Nevada (Wilshire), thence to Federal Avenue, from there to San Vicente Boulevard (the southerly side), and back to Ocean Avenue. For the last of the series, the course was shortened and went down Lincoln Boulevard.
"Cars of those days were short and high, powered as a rule by huge four cylinder engines which developed a great deal of noise and severely limited horepower. Even so, some could do 100 miles an hour, aided by the slight down hill run on San Vicente.
"Makes then prominent were Fiat, Mercer, Stutz, Pope-Hartford, Lozier, Peugeot, Sunbeam, Mercedes, Isotta-Fraschini, and some less well known brands. Drivers included Barney Oldfield, Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper, Eddie Pullen, Ralph de Palma, Peter de Paolo and other greats of the day.
" . . .
"Pp. 26. 27[Photo captions: "Famous dance bands performed in the La Monica ballroom on what is now known as the Newcomb Pier. The building, long gone, attracted people from all parts of Southern California"; "Pier Avenue in 1905 boasted some rather imposing buildings"; "A dramatic production at the Women's Club. The man who is writing is the late Roy Jones and Mrs. S.J. Egleston is the actress looking over his shoulder. Mrs George H. Hutton is the one seated at the left."]
" . . .
" . . . the little town of Ocean Park had been disincorporated by its voters, part of it eventually was annexed by Santa Monica, the rest became a portion of Venice.
"Amusement piers and similiar enterprises were going full blast on both sides of the dividing line by 1912, when disaster struck.
"A.R. Fraser*'s Million Dollar Pier was only two years old when, on the afternoon of September 3, 1912, a defective flue started a fire which swept the pier, a nearby hotel, and adjoining buildings, plus a large number of homes.
"It was the first of a series of fires which struck the amusement centers, and by far the largest, due to inadequate protection.
"The writer of this history [Les Storrs*] and his cousin, Bernard Evans*, young boys at the time, ran from the 900 block on Third Street to the scene of the fire and remained there until a rumor went through the crowd to the effect that buildings would be dynamited in order to create a firebreak.
" . . .
" . . . it was reported that 250 families were left homeless and that some 800 persons required temporaty shelter. A state of emergency was declared, and the National Guard called out to protect against looting. . . .
" . . .
"During the decade prior to the Great Depression, however, changes accelerated, and the population increased rapidly. This was the period in which Southern California generally, under the leadership of the All-Year Club, embarked upon a vigorous campaign of national advertising which was designed to attract people from the eastern and miiddle western states.
"The effort proved very successful.
"The Evening Outlook, through ist editorial policy, made every effort to spur development, although during the 1920s the paper was little more than an adjunct to theLos Angeles Express, owned at that time by F.W. Kellogg. Kellogg was convinced that local news was needed in order to increase circulation of the Express in the suburbs, and he bought a number of local daily papers, including the Outlook. Subscribers received both, with the Outlook on the outside.
" . . . Robert P. Holliday . . . editor of the Outlook, which was sold to the Copley chain shortly before the Depression struck. . . . the paper was acquired by the late Samuel G. McClure and his family, the present owners [1974].
[Colonel] McClure, father of Robert E. McClure, the retired editor of the paper . . . [sought] to correct certain governmental shortcomings which were known to exist at that time, but which were difficult indeed to prove.
Pp. 28, 29 [Photo Captions: "In 1910, the Fraser* Pier, later to become Pacific Ocean Park, looked like this"; "Here Donald W. Douglas and a small group of dedicated men built the Army World Flight planes. The location was an abandoned movie studio on Wilshire Boulevard at the present location of Douglas Park"]
Irving S. Cobb; Will Rogers
" . . .
Chapter Four: Industry Arrives
"Forces which were to bring profound changes to the beach residential community of Santa Monica were released by World War I, when the world realized that the airplane was more than an engineering dream and that it would find greater and greater application not only in war, but in commerce.
"Santa Monica was destined, although this was unknown to the citizens of 1918, to occupy a position of world leadership in the nascent aviation industry.
"Fate brought Donald W. Douglas to Santa Monica.
"Douglas, a sailor at heart but an engineer by design, had entered the United States Naval Academy in 1909, but he already had a great interest in aviation, an interest not shared by the Navy at that time. Even so, he remained a midshipman until 1912, when he resigned and sought admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was told that while M.I.T. respected his scholastic achievements at Annapolis, he could not expect an engineering degree in less than another four years. He made it in two, and received an immediate appointment to the faculty, a post which he occupied for only one year. Even while teaching, he was acting as consultant to the Connecticut Aircraft Co., and he found that he was much more interested in design and construction than in teaching.
"In 1915 Glenn L. Martin summoned young Douglas, whom he had never met to Los Angeles to join his organization. . . .
Pp. 30, 31[Photo captions: "This scene in 1924, preceded the start of the U.S. Army World Flight, which originated at Clover Field, now the Santa Monica municipal airport. The wood and fabric biplanes were powered by Liberty engines left over from World War I. The flight put Santa Monica, and Douglas, "on the map."; "The Roosevelt School, then at Sixth and Montana Avenue, as it looked in 1908. Weeds grew luxuriantly.""; "This was room 4, B-8th Grade, Lincoln Intermediate School, November, 1913 and some of us are still around. Back row, l to r, John Robertson, Leonard Lytle, Leonard Austin, Robert Hutton, Donald Day, George Healy, Gustav Granstrom, Frank Harrison, Louis Benson, Les Storrs, Herbert Carter, Shirley Morphis. Front row, Adrian Head, Reuben Pollack, Mr. Hamilton (the teacher, fresh out of Stanford), Sybilla McKenzie, Arta Rogers, Mary Krause, Thelia Palmer, Mildred Schriver, Harold Carter, Ray Winterard, Ernest Schreiber."]
"Douglas' first tour of duty with the Martin Company was brief, for in 1916 he was called to Washington as chief civilian aeronautical engineer for the Aviation Section of the Arm,y Signal Corps, but after only a year Douglas and the Army agreed that his work might be more productive if he were outside the government, and he rejoined Martin, who by that time had a plant in Cleveland, Ohio.
"There Douglas designed the prototype of the Martin bomber, which far outclassed anything in the world at that time and which was suitable for mass production. First flight of this design was August 17, 1917.
"World War I ended November 11, 1918, and Douglas began to feel an urge to have his own business, and in March of 1920 he and his family moved to Southern California. His total assets amounted to $600, an amount hardly sufficient to establish a factory even in those days when the gold standard still applied and a dollar was indeed a dollar.
"He sought financial support, found it in the person of David R. Davis, and designed and built the Cloudster, first airplane capable of flying across the continent non-stop. It actually flew February 24, 1921, less than a year after Douglas came to California with $600 in his pocket.
"In April of the same year, Douglas received the first of a series of orders, orders which would tax the capacity of the plant which was established in what had been a small but by then defunct motion picture studio on Wilshire Boulevard and Chelsea Street in Santa Monica, present site of Douglas Park.
"Money was needed to fill these orders, and Douglas enlisted the aid of the late Bill Henry, at that time sports editor of the Los Angeles Times. Bill Henry knew his way around Los Angeles financial circles, and Douglas was able to borrow $15,000 on a note backed by ten signatures representing personal fortunes totalling around $150,000,000. Among them were those of Harry Chandler, then publisher of the Times, a bank vice president, a prominent attorney, and the president of a major drug company.
"Then came the event . . . the first Army contract given to the young company, a contract for the construction of four airplanes which would circumnavigate the globe.
"On St. Patrick' Day, 1924, all Douglas employees went from the Wilshire plant to Clover Field, now the Santa Monica Municipal Airport, but then the dusty station of a small Air National Guard unit, for the takeooff.
"Also among those present were civic leaders, and a young reporter for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, the writer of this narrative, himself to become an officer in the Army Air Corps many years later in World War II .
" . . . three of the original four completed the globe girdling trip, landing at Clover Field September 23, this despite the fact that actual flying time amounted to only 15 days, 11 hours and seven minutes for the 25,553 miles covered.
"The remaining five and a half months were used in mechanical overhauls, engine replacements, etc.
" . . . it was the first such flight in aviation history, and it . . . led . . . to . . . additional and larger contracts with the Armed Services, and also with the airlines which came into existence a few years later.
" . . . the U.S. Navy . . . in the earliest days of the company . . . Douglas and a handful of employees had built three torpedo bombers by hand. Douglas himself having designed them in accordance with a Navy request.
"In 1922 the Navy ordered 38 more of the bombers. This led to the establishment of the Wilshire plant. Then, in Jaunuary of 1925 an inspector for the Air Service visited the plant . . .
"The . . . next month the army ordered 75 O-2 observation planes for which the World Cruisers were the prototype.
"Then in November of the same year, Western Air Express purchased six M-2 transports with which to carry U.S. mails. It was the first order for Douglas commercial aircraft and Western, now Western Airlines, . . .
" . . . the Wilshire Boulevard plant [became] crowded. The Cloudster, first non-stop transcontinental airplane, had been put together in a loft about a planing mill, and by comparison the Wilshire plant was luxurious. . . . Clover Field was close, and, thanks to a bond issue, had become a municipal field. Douglas purchased property adjacent to the airport and in 1929 manufacturing was moved to the . . . new factory at the airport.
" . . .
"It started with the DC-1, made to, but far exceedng the specifications of an airline customer. From it developed the DC-2 and then the DC-3, which proved to be the workhorse of the airlines all over the world, and in World War II, the military.
" . . . the company . . . became one of the largest in the industry, using methods of construction which were an example to others . . .
"The DC-3 . . . flew December 17, 1935 . . . and orders poured in from all over the world.
"During those years between the wars, Douglas also built a wide variety of military aircraft under orders from both Army and Navy, including bombers, patrol craft, transports, torpedo bombers and even a flying boat. . . .the SBD Dauntless, the B-18, the A-20.
"As a result, the company was well prepared for the demands of World War II. At the peak of production in the war years, the company had a total of 160,000 employees in six plants, with close to 40,000 of them in the home plant in Santa Monica.
"As a result of this huge industrial development, Santa Monica's basic character changed from that of a quiet seaside residential community to something very different. Where previously almost all resdients had lived in single family home, apartments began to appear in some numbers, a trend which was to be greatly accelerated in years to come.
"The great Douglas plant gave rise to a host of smaller ones, generally related to the aviation industry and in many cases suppliers of components.
" . . . John K. Northrop, once an engineer with Douglas, originator of the so-called multi-cellular wing and designer of the "flying wing," a tailless airplane. He was once again enlisted by Douglas to help solve a particular design problem involved in a Navy order.
"In 1932 the Northrop Corporation was formed as a Douglas subsidary, with Northrop as president and chief engineer. Later this was merged with Douglas, and Northrop formed the Northrop Aircraft Company, a separate and independent enterprise.
"Not only did the Douglas Aircraft Co. give rise to the Northrop Corp., still a leader in the industry [1974], but former Douglas executives "Dutch" Kindelberger and Leland Atwood started North American Aviation in the late 1930s. At about the same time Harry H. Wetzel, vice president of Douglas, was largely responsible for the organization of the Garrett Corp.
" . . . a group of Douglas scientists developed into the Rand Corp., and from that later the System Development Corp., . . .
"Donald W. Douglas, himself a brilliant engineer but personally a rather shy and retiring man, who would rather spend his spare time at sea on his yacht . . .
" . . . Harry Wetzel . . . in 1924 . . . explained the controls of the World Flight . . . planes to this reporter . . .
"On another pre-war occasion, the infamous sit-down strike launched against Douglas, when strikers ocuupied the plant and were, it developed, prepared to set it afire, Harry Wetzel was the man I interviewed, first passing through a line of pickets recruited from the longshoremen at San Pedro, who were marching in lockstep in front of the door. I planted my leather heel rather firmly on the instep of a picket, and walked in, learned the Douglas position from Harry Wetzel.
"Later I interviewed Walter Reuther, the then young labor leader who was master-minding the strike, at his Ocean Park hotel room. I do not remember having been especially impressed with his logic, although his delivery was what might have been expected from a fiery redhead.
P. 33 [Photo caption: "Santa Monica High School as it looked soon after completion of the first buildings on the present site. The photograph probably was made in 1913."]
" . . .
"Confronted by the possibility of a development heartily disapproved by the populace, the city council enacted a primitive and incomplete zoning ordinance as early at 1922 and followed with one much more comprehensive in character in 1929.
"Still not satisfied that municipal growth and development had been adequately directed, the city administration retained Gordon Whitnall, an eminent city planning expert, as a consultant. As a result, a much improved zoning ordinance was submitted. . . . by the time it was enacted in 1937, it had been much diluted, in response to pressure from builders and other interests. In particular, it was grossly inadequate in the matter of off-street parking requirements.
" . . .
"The brickyards should go.
" . . . clays lying beneath the surface had been found to be excellent for the making of bricks and sewer pipe, a series of brickyards had been in operation for years, and excavating vast holes, 40 or 50 feet deep, and covering literally acres of land.
"Damage to the land was almost as great as that resulting from strip mining of coal or placeer mining of gold.
"Leading the fight to curb and ultimately eliminate the brickyards was Edmund Slama, who devoted much time and energy to this end, and who served for many years on the planning commission.
"The city . . . was confronted by a real legal problem:
"How to close down the yards without being guilty of inverse condemnation, which is the curtailment or elimination of a property right without due compensation.
" . . . it was the law of economics rather than the law of the land which did . . . eliminate the brickyards.
"Drafters of the charter amendment which set up the commission form of government [thought] $250 a month . . . would attract competent men , , , for each of the three commissioners who were charged with all legislative and admistrative responsibilities in city government.
"The amount was set by terms of the charter itself and not subject to easy change.
"For a time $250 a month did . . . attract capable men, who were required to give full time to their city position.
"The city grew, the dollar shrank in value, and the attraction of $250 per month waned. Government became a bit slipshod, if not actually venal, and the first indication of this was fairly open gambling and vice.
"Bookmakers operated rather brazenly, slot machines appeared here and there, bingo games in the amusement district paid off, ostensibly in merchandise, actually in cash.
"It is also a fact that for a brief period at least, a call house operated on La Mesa Drive, and, at about the same time, a full fledged gambling casino was set up on the Ocean Park pier.
"Then there was the case of the gambling barge, Rex, a converted windjammer anchored in the bay, a few miles out from the municipal pier. Water taxis plied regularly between pier and the barge, operated by one Tony Cornero*, a widely known figure in the gambling world.
"He claimed immunity by reason of being in international waters, beyond the three mile limit. In due course the courts held otherwise, ruling that the three mile limit was three miles beyond a line drawn from Point Dume to Point Vicente, [too far] for convenient water taxi commuting.
"The gambling barge was shut down, its paraphenalia destroyed by deputy sheriffs.
"This however, by no means ended petty gambling enterprises ashore, and a movement for governmental reform built up, not, however to be effectuated until after the end of the war.
P. 35 [Photo caption: "Ocean Park's big bath house was popular in the first quarter of the century, as this 1920 photo shows the building."]
" . . . W.W. "Tex" Milliken . . . street superintendent and later Commmissioner of Public Works . . .
" . . .
" . . . Bartlett L. Kennedy . . . city engineer and director of public works; Marcel Gentillon, retired deputy director of public works; Maurice M. King . . . city engineer and dirctor of public works . . . in the early days of the council-manager system . . .
" . . . Earl Reinbold, . . . [Santa Monicas] rookie . . . to [Police] Chief, . . . [retired 1974].
" . . .
"One of Santa Monica's major fiascos occurred during the years of the Great Depression.
"Despite the condition of the economy, interest in yachting and boating was increasing rapidly in Southern California, and a bond issue was submitted to the electorate for the construction of a breakwater. Taggart Aston, an engineer of considerable repute, was commissioned to design a breakwater, and he produced plans and specifications for one which was to have been made by casting a row of reinforced concrete caissons, each cylindrical and formed in groups of three, these to be tied together after being located in the bay.
"The contract was let, and after many delays the first of the units was towed from San Pedro, where it had been cast, and was duly filled with sand and placed on the floor of the bay at a point roughly opposite the end of the municipal pier.
"No rock or other foundation was placed under the structure . . .
"Currents washed the sand away from either end of the unit, leaving it standing on a narrow bar of sand at the middle. It cracked apart in the center, and the contractor pleaded that the design was unworkable.
"A change order was negotiated, by which the 2,000 foot breakwater was made of rock, although the new design show a grossly inadequate cross section.[ . . .] the entire wall was [to be] made of relatively light stone from Santa Catalina Island [which] would have been acceptable for the lower parts of the breakwater, but the cap rock should have been heavy granite or similar stone . . . quarried from inland mountains . . .
" . . . the breakwater [was] built in 1933, and almost as soon as it was completed heavy seas began rolling the cap rock off the top, so that as this is written [c. 1974], little of the wall is visible at high tide.
"Even so, Santa Monica enjoyed a brief period of yachting activity before the harbor became a thing of the past.
Pp. 36, 37 [Photo captions; "During the brief period in which the Santa Monica breakwater was more or less intact, steamers plied between the municipal pier and Catalina Island. The trip enjoyed great popularity, but not for long."; "This was the city hall of Santa Monica until the present building was erected in 1938, but the photo shown was made much earlier by H.F. Rile*, who recorded innumerable scenes of old Santa Monica."]
"Boating activity virtually ended with World War II, and about the best that could be said of the breakwater was the fact that by interupting the natural currents which carry sand from northwest to southeast, it vastly increased the area of public beach in Santa Monica.
"For some time, dredging occurred at irregular intervals, but the sand has widened steadily over the years, and, by 1974, there had been no dredging in many years.
" . . . the Depression period . . .
" . . . the [U.S.] government [funded] various projects . . . some worthwhile . . . some boondoggling . . . welfare disguised as work.
"Truly constructive works came under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Administration, the others . . . the WPA (Works Progress Adminstration.)
"Santa Monica had its share of both, and even set up a municipal office to coordinate the activities.
"Most significant of the various federally funded projects was the construction of the city hall at its present location.
"The old building, which had stood since 1906 at the corner of Fouth and Santa Monica Boulevard, was obsolete and in need of enlargement to meet the needs of a growing community.
"The city had already acquired the necessary site from the Southern Pacific Railway Co., and the new building was completed in 1938, the Main Street elevation then being identicasl with that of 1974.
"The same was not true of the Fourth Street side.
"Fire department headquarters and Engine Co. No. 1 were housed in the south wing, the police department and jail in the north wing. The present police department offices had not been built.
"The city was . . . still operating under the commission form of government, and it was evident that the three commissioners sought some compensation for . . . their limited salaries . . .
"They set themselves up in luxurious walnut panelled offices . . .
" . . .
"And . . . the present city government is housed in a building which is ill-suited to current needs and which makes it very difficult to effect desirable change which would streamline government.
Chapter Five: World War II and its Impact
" . . . December 7, 1941
" . . . the stunned reaction of the people, the sense of outrage, the feeling of urgency which sometimes bordered upon hysteria.
"Citizens of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and shipped on to internment camps at Tule Lake; anti-aircraft guns were set up in front of city hall and elsewhere; the great Douglas Aircraft Co. plant began a program of rapid expansion to fill military orders, the payroll eventually reaching nearly 70,000 persons; the plant and the adjoining municipal airport were effectively camouflaged; young men and some young women rushed to join the armed forces; blackouts were imposed lest there be an attack from the sea; volunteers were enlisted for all manner of duties in what was called "civilian defense."
" . . .
" . . . resulted in a burden upon local government and public facilities for which they were not organized to meet and in which they faced the additional problem of unavailability of supplies.
"Ordinary citizens attempted to fill the gaps as best they could, usually by volunteering for civilian defense duties. Citizen volunteer were trained by [for] police and fire duties, as well as for the strictly wartime services such as block wardens, aircraft spotters, and radio communications personnel.
Pp. 38, 39 [Photo captions: "The Santa Monica Municipal Pier as it looked in about 1917. At that time it was built of concrete, and a roller coaster was on the site of the present [1974] Newcomb Pier. Photo courtesy of Donald Howland"; "This view from the air was made circa 1930. Taken from a point on the south side of Venice, it shows a small, long-gone pier in the foreground, then the big Venice amusement pier, only the breakwater seaward of which now remains, and the Ocean Park pier, the Crystal pier and the Santa Monica piers" [an aerial photo from the south side of Venice]"]
"The influx of thousands of defense workers created an immediate housing shortage, one which was to persist for some years after the war ended. Santa Monica officialdom did wht it had to do; it in effect suspended all zoning regulations and urged that accommodations be created for the workers, whether zoning violations resulted or not.
"Buildings intended to house one family . . . provided quarters for four. Camp trailers were parked in back yards, sometimes without adequate sanitary facilities, and used as housing.
" . . .
"The same thing was true of variances granted for wartime industries in areas not zoned for that purpose. Usually such variances purported to be "for the duration of the emergency," but even so, the end of the "emergency" was not declared for many years after the termination of the conflict.
" . . . the owners of the properties came to feel that they had a vested interest in whatever operation had been permitted, whether it was a boarding house, apartment at the rear of the house, or out-of-zone industrial operations.
"Such are the problems which arise in a genuine national emergency.
'Less dramatic . . . than [the civil defense volunteers], the[se] moves to accomodate a sudden increase in demand for housing were far more significant in the long run.
" . . . almost all supplies: gasoline, food, building materials, were rationed. Everything, including labor, was diverted to the war effort, and only the most basic of civilian needs were met.
"There was . . . no answer to the housing problem except "doubling up" in that which was available,
"New residents continued to come to Santa Monica, public services deteriorated, both because of lack of money, materials and manpower and because of the inherent inefficiency of a form of government which had three administrative heads of equal authority, authority of which each tended to be . . . jealous.
"Municipal tax rates climbed as dissatisfaction increased, and even before the war ended a Board of Freeholders had been chosen to draft a new charter.
" . . .
[Storrs uses the analogy of a corporation and its board of directors when he describes the Board of Freeholders rationale.]
" . . . the Board believed that the council-manager form of local government provides the highest degree of efficiency and virtually eliminates political log-rolling.
"Louis J. Burke, an expert in municipal law and now a California Supreme Court Justiice [1974]. [drafted the charter] with the assistance of Royal M. Sorenson, U.S. Navy in 1946.
The new charter was approved by the voters in 1946.
" . . . [It} calls for a Council of seven members, each elected at-large, each to receive only a nominal sum to cover out-of-pocket job-related expenses.
"The Council, under the charter, employs the city manager, the city clerk, and the city attorney.
"All other department heads are appointed by the city manager, they in turn choose their subordinates.
"All city employees, with the exception of the city manager and his personal office staff, and the city attorney and his staff, are appointed subject to the merit system . . . known as civil service.
"Applicants must take competitive examinations, as a result of which eligible lists are made up, and appointment may be made only from among the three individuals at the top of the list, unless . . . one or more of the three chooses not to accept a job offer.
"The Board of Education, also consisting of seven members, is totally autonomous, except that the charter obliges the city administration to conduct School Board elections.
"Council elections are held every two years, with four positions on the ballot at one time, three the next, thus insuring against a complete change of personnel every four years, that being the duration of terms of office.
"Following each election, the council elects one of its number as mayor, another as mayor pro-tem. The mayor has no authority beyond that of his colleagues, except that he acts as chairman and also represents the city on social and ceremonial occasions.
"The new charter became effective in 1947, and the newly elected council named Maurice M. King, the city engineer as acting city manager. A nationwide search for an experienced and qualified city manager followed. Randall M. Dorton, one-time city manager of Long Beach . . . was chosen . . . and served for many years.
" . . .
Ordinance after ordinance had been passed, repealed or amended, with no system by which either citizen or public employee could readily learn what was, or was not, on the books.
"Codification was ordered, and Louis J. Burke. . . . was called . Much of the actual work again was "Bill" Sorensen who became city attorney and . . . city coucilman.
" . . .
"With the end of World War II in 1945 came many other pressing problems for Santa Monica in addition to that of governmental reform.
"The war years had seen a great increase in population, largely due to the expansion of the Douglas Aircraft Co. payroll which . . . reached a peak of close to 40,000 persons in the Santa Monica plant. Many remained after the conflict.
"Another significant factor which led to post-war growth of population was the fact that the armed forces had taken over the former Breakers Beach Club as an "R and R" (rest and recreation) center which housed many combat-weary veterans, many of whom decided that they liked Santa Monica and would remain . . . after their return to civilian life.
" . . . in 1946 house trailer were parked in backyards and vacant lots, and farsighted property owners . . . set up commercial trailer parks. The trailer industry flourished and the product became more readilly available than [conventional] housing.
" . . . as . . . building materials became available . . . more permanent housing underwent construction.
" . . . Santa Monica . . . started to become a city of apartment dwellers. Builders rushed to erect "608" apartments, so named for the section of the federal act which provided for FHA financing.
" . . . buildings designed to conform to the requirements of this section were very much alike. . . . they were two stories in height, of frame and stucco construction, covered more than 72 percent of the total lot area, and barely met the hopelessly inadequate requirements . . . of off-street parklng.
"Santa Monica still suffers from the effects of this program."
Pp. 40, 41[Photo captions: "As built originally in more or less Neo-Classic style, the old Santa Monica Library at Fifth and Santa Monica Boulevard bore little resemblence to the building which emerged after several remodelings and enlargements."; "Los Angeles and Santa Monicsa were connected with reasonably rapid transit in the days before the automobile became the vehicle for most commuters. The "big red cars" of the Pacific Electric Railway, one of which is shown in this 1916 photo, did the job"; "Santa Monica's municipal pier and the structure now known as the Newcomb pier, looked like this in about 1917. Only the merry-go-round remains in it's then condition, the municipal pier at the right having been made of reinforced concrete, pilings and all, rather than wood. It was replaced with wood in 1920."]
"By 1948 the illegal trailer parks had, however, been eliminated, many having existed in violation not only of the zoning ordinance, but also of basic sanitation regulations.
"Not so easily corrected . . . were the problems caused by wartime "doubling up" and conversion of garages, servants' quarters and guest houses into rental units
" . . .
" . . . regulations had been drafted by Gordon Whitnall and adopted in 1937 . . . Whtnall, the first planning director of the city of Los Angeles . . .
"The ordinance which Whitnall had prepared was a good one, modern for its day, but its subsequent administration left much to be desired. The courts had ruled that any zoning ordinance to be constitutional, must have a certain flexibility. . . .
" . . .
"Under the 1937 ordinance, certain variances were granted by the Planning Commission, others by ordinance of the City Council. There was no professional staff.
"As a result, the legal requirements for variances were largely ignored; dispensations frequently were politically motivated or handled on a basis of expediency.
"The map of the city was dotted with uses not proper to the zones in which they were located.
"Even before the advent of the city council-manager form of government, the Planning Commission had taken two important steps:
"It had persuaded the City Council to employ Lester Brinkman and Jack Simon, two members of the Los Angeles City Planning Department, to draft a new ordinance, and to set up a budget for the employment of an administratior to handle the day-to-day work of zoning administration and enforcement.
"The new ordinance provided that variances should be the subject of public hearing and approval or disapproval by the administrator, and, in keeping with the growth of the city, the ordinance was more sophisticated than the earlier one.
" . . . the off-street parking requirements recommended by Brinkman and Simon also were watered down , , ,
"The new ordinance . . . became effective in 1948 . . . resulted in administrative improvement . . . served well for a decade . . . was again updated.
" . . . zoning in Santa Monica . . . the pattern for the ultimate growth of the city was established by the 1929 ordinance and confirmed by those of 1937 and 1948.
" . . .
"In these documents were written provisions which later caused the development of a very large portion of the city in apartment houses, which set aside the whole area bounded by Ocean Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Lincoln Boulevard and Colorado Avenue as the central business district, and allowed strips of commercial use on 26th Street, Montana Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Broadway, Pico Boulevard, Ocean Park Boulevard, 14th Street, and Lincoln Boulevard, which designated the airport as an industrial area together with the general area which roughly parallels Colorado Avenue and the Santta Monica Freeway. [Where is Main St. in Storrs'? KR]
"The ordinances . . . made inevitable . . . that in 1974 four out of five residents of the city would be apartment dwellers. . . . they also increased . . . the average age level of the residents. Young families prefer single family residences.
"With the post-war boom under way, and with population climbing steadily in the post-war years, Santa Monica entered upon a period of unprecedented physical change.
"During the time when housing was still in very short supply, a veterans' housing project was set up on the present [1974] site of the Rand Corp. buildings on Main Street. Temporary buildings once used by the army {what had the Army used them for?] were converted into housing, and made available to ex-servicemen and their families only. George Bundy, later city manager, was in charge.
"Soon after this project was phased out, it became known that Rand, with its large payroll of scientists and other specialists, would be forced to leave Santa Monica if it could not find more adequate quarters than those it then occupied in the one-time Evening Outlook building on the southwest corner of Fourth and Broadway.
"Rand purchased its present property from the city. Proceeds were used against an area of badly deteriorated housing where the Civic Auditorium now stands.
"With dreams, largely to be fulfilled, of conventions and cultural attractions, money was voted for the construction of the auditorium, and the present site won out over a beach location by the margin of one vote in the City Council.
"The building itself was designed and then redesigned after competitive bids failed to come within the limits of the funds available.
" . . . the city got a building which has a capacity of some 2800 persons, and, thanks to a floor which can be either flat or tilted, may be made suitable for anything from basketball to Bach, from rock to Shakespeare.
Pp. 42 [ Photo captions: "Modest maidens, and one male, braved the surf in this 1895 scene"; "In 1921 Santa Monica beaches were getting a bit crowded from time to time and many bathers sought shelter from the sun."]
"Parks were expanded, new parks added; libraries including the handsome main library at Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard were built; Santa Monica High School was enlarged; Santa Monica College, once located in temporary buildings adjacent to the high school grew to its present proportions on the campus on Pico Boulevard.
"Innumerable buildings were erected by private enterprise, largely in the field of housing, but including also a number of major commercial and industrial structures.
"Not too long after the end of World War II, in 1950 to be specific, the City Council began a very tentative consideration of the possibility of redevelopment of parts of Ocean Park, a section of the city in which lots ranged from 11 to 25 feet in width, and from about 90 to 105 feet in depth, hardly adequate for substantial development without the necessity of consolidating several such properties.
"Even when that was possible, and such assembling of lots usually encounters great difficulties, street widths were inadequate indeed.
"The then City Council therefore asked for, and received a summary of the manner in which the area could be improved under the provisions of the Housing Act of 1949, but many years were to pass before anything was actually accomplished.
"As of this writng [1974], in fact, only the buildings which constitute Santa Monica Shores, on the property on Neilson Way, have been completed, in fact further development has been thrown into some doubt by reason of the provisions of Proposition 20, the initiative measure adopted by the voters of California in 1972 and which imposes strict limitations on all construction within 1,000 feet of the shoreline.
"Subsequent to the building of Santa Monica Shores, considerable criticism was voiced, not only in Santa Monica but nationwide, on the ground that redevelopment tends to oust the poor from their homes and to build housing for the affluent on the same site.
"Critics to some extent have overlooked the fact that under the law "decent safe and sanitary" housing must be found for those displaced, and that owners in all cases must receive fair market value for their holdings.
"Records in Santa Monica indicate, however, that the majority of those displaced did not look to the redevelopment agency for help in relocating, but as is usual among Americans of all economic levels, depended upon their own capabilities in the search for new homes.{???KR}
"An exception occurred in the case of a number of persons of advanced age and who were receiving public assistance. A private, non-profit corporation was formed, and some of the newer apartment buildings within the redevelopment area were moved onto city owned propety for the use of these people. The housing was considerably better than most of the buildings demolished in the redevelopment process. [???KR]
"The redevelopment area, of course, extends from Neilson Way to the beach, and from Ocean Park Boulevard to the southernly city limits.
"No discussion of this area would be complete without some mention of the defunct Ocean Park amusement zone, and the cottage area which sprang up around it early in the present century. As a matter of fact, the cottages slightly preceded the amusement zone, which began when A.R. Fraser* built his "Million Dollar Pier" in 1910, only to have it destroyed by fire in 1912, together with many of the cottages.
"It was rebuilt immediately, to be destroyed again by fire in 1924. Other leaders in the early amusement park development included G. Merritt Jones*, H.R. Gage*, and Charles Lick*.
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"; "Santa Monica had an indoor swimming pool, then known as a "plunge," on the beach until perhaps 1908. The building was gone but the empty concrete pool remained until 1912"; "The second great Ocean Park fire, an event of 1924"; "Nat Goodwin owned the cafe at the foot of Hollister Avenue. It was built on a short structure known as the Crystal Pier. The photo dates to about 1920."]
"The amusement zone prospered during the period when the Pacific Electric Railway ran three car trains to the area every few minutes during the summer season, almost as often in winter, but it began to decline when the automobile came into general use. At the same time, cottages which had been intended as vacation homes for one family became permanent housing for as many as four families, as I have noted.
"During the Thirties the entrepreneurs of individual amusement leases turned to gambling, usually labelled as bingo, keeno, or the like, as a means of separating the customer from his or her hard earned cash.
"Originally, merchandise prizes were given to winners. Soon it became possible, by going to the proper address, to exchange a carton of cigarettes or whatever for money.
"For a brief period, in fact, a full fledged Las Vegas style casino operated in what had been a dance hall.
"With the advent of the council-manager government, however, law enforcement became more strict, and a new concept was developed for Ocean Park.
"The Los Angeles Turf Club, operators of the Santa Anita track, sought diversification, already having a project at Lake Arrowhead. Together with a major broadcasting system [CBS], they launched Pacific Ocean Park, which was intended to provide family type amusement. They leased the pier, the no longer used municipal auditorium which had been built on the beach adjoing the pier, and some privately owned property along the Ocean Front Promenade.
"In setting up the project, it was evident that the operators had been encouraged by the success of Disneyland at Anaheim, and by Marineland on the Palos Verdes peninsula, and Pacific Ocean Park had some of the features of both.
"For a time, the operation appeared to be a success, but attendance began falling off, and a new organization took over, cutting the admission price and making most of the amusement devices open to all who had paid at the main gate, without further charge.
"The effort failed, and the operation went into a receivership. Almost endless litigation followed, so confused was the financial structure by that time.
"As of 1974 the whole pier and adjacent structures were in ruins, aside from a small area which was leveled by the owner. From time to time large parts of the pier had been falling into the ocean as timbers decayed, and three major and many minor fires have contributed further to the scene of desolation.
"Demolition has been determined to be the only solution, but the issue is somewhat complicated by the fact that the old amusement zone straddles the line between Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The Santa Monica City Council, however, ordered demolition within its jurisdiction.
"The fact that old-style amusement districts, such as once existed in Santa Monica, Venice and Redondo, are as outmoded as the horse and buggy, now has become quite clear. It is also obvious that Disneyland and Marineland completely meet the needs of Los Angeles county residents for the comtemporary type of amusement park.
P. 46 [Photo captions: "Santa Monica's municipal pier was, at one time, all concrete, as shown in this 1915 photo. Unfortunately, salt water penetrated the concrete pilings, rusted the reinforcing steel, and caused the concrete to shatter. Rust requires more spacce than steel. It was replaced with wood about five years later"; "At least when this photo was taken the Crystal Plunge, near Ocean Front and Navy Stree was not heavily patronized."]
Chapter Six City Managers and Their Staffs
" . . .
" . . . the new city council was organized when the council-manager charter became effective in 1947. Maurice M. King . . . acting city manager. . . . city engineer under the old government . . . the council then selected Randall M. Dorton, city manager.
""Dal" Dorton . . . served as city manager in Long Beach and Monterey.
An expert in municipal finance . . . reduced the tax rate and also city expenses, at a rate greater than the national inflationary spiral.
" . . . assessed valuation increased steadily [but not too rapidly for taxpayers] . . .
" . . . a heart attack brought his retirement.
"George Bundy, member of an old and respected Santa Monica family, had served under Dorton as assistant city manager . . . succeeded him . . . and he, too suffered a serious heart attack.
"His successor was Ernest Mobley, ex-Army officer . . . resigned shortly, followed by William A Hard, city controller and director of finance, acting city manager.
"The choice was Perry Scott who served for some eight years before being ousted by the city council following the upset election of 1973. Scott, at the time of his appointment to the job, was city manager of Sunnyvale, and had served in the same capacity in Santa Barbara prior to that.
"Scott, like Dorton, was a man gifted with special expertise in the field of city finances but, unlike Dorton, he also had a talent for putting together transactions beneficial to the general economy of Santa Monica.
" . . . his most outstanding success , , , Santa Moniica almost alone among the cities of the nation, has a healthy but old central business district.
"It is true that the Santa Monica Mall project was under way when he came to Santa Monica, it having been suggested in the general plan which the city adopted in 1956 . . . a concept which was picked up enthusiastically by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, and especially by Paul Priolo, later an Assemblyman and then leader in the mercantile community.
" . . .
"Perry Scott saw that the great remaining need was for off-street parking, and he was almost solely responsible for the program which resulted in the construction of six parking structures, two in each block on the mall, three being entered from Second Street, three from Fourth Street.
"The project was financed by an assessment district, as was the mall itself, but the mall assessment district includes only the property having frontage thereon, while the parking district extends from a point half way between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, and from Wilshire Boulevard to Broadway.
" . . .
"Like all strong administrators . . . [Perry Scott] won the enmity of a substantial bloc of city employees, notably firemen and policemen, when he opposed state legislation which would have made them eligible for retirement on 75 percent of their pay at age 55 . . .
" . . . Scott recommended, and the City Council accepted, a proposal whereby the old and deteriorated breakwater would be replaced by an island, . . .
"The Council first accepted, then reversed itself and rejected this proposal.
"Then the Council decided upon the removal of the old municipal pier and the adjoining Newcomb Pier; then, in response to a public outcry largely organized by a handful of business operators on the pier, reversed itself again.
"Conservationists opposed removal of the piers, holding that they are "historical." Structures become historical a little sooner in Santa Monica, and indeed in all of California, than in other parts of the country. The Municipal Pier, in its present format, dates to about 1920, while the Newcomb Pier, first known as the Looff pier, is about the same age, although the merry-go-round at the shoreward end of the pier is older than that.
" . . . three new faces on council led to a new city manager, James Williams . . . took over late in 1973. . . .
Pp. 48, 49 [Photo captions: "Third Street as it looked from Broadway in 1888 and below in 1973 . . ."; "Santa Monica Mall, in addition to providing a stimulus for the downtown area, is widely known as a "people place," as this photo, taken at the time of an outdoor art exhibit, plainly shows. Citizens stroll on the mall at all hours, whether stores are open or not, enjoying the absence of vehicular traffic."]
" . . .
"First city engineer and public works director under the present form of government was . . . Maurice M. King . . . succeeded by Bartlett L. Kennedy . . . his deputy was Marcel Gentillon . . . a navy officer in World War II . . . .
"Police chiefs . . . Earl Reinbold . . . assistant Gerald Constable . . . retired in 1974 and was succeeded by George Tielsch.
Two fire chiefs stand out . . . Charles Carrel and John Sturges . . .
Kenneth O. Grubb has been city clerk, responsible for licenses and records . . .
Pp. 50, 51 [Photo captions: "In the early days the Camera Obscura, now housed in a new building in Palisades Park, was on the beach adjacent to the bath house, as shown in the photo made in about 1900"; "Violet Cottage, shown in this old photo, was built by the grandfather of the late Marcellus Joslyn*, donor of recreational buildings and faciities enjoyed by present day residents."]
"Santa Monica has one of the few publically owned bus lines which does not operate at a loss . . .
" . . . the result of able management [by] William Farrell and his successor, John Hutchison . . . .
"Parks and recreation, under the direction of Donald Arnett, have helped enhance Santa Monica's reputation as a city having more than the usual number of trees, beautifully maintained parks, and recreational facilities to fit the needs of people of all ages. . . . the actual maintenance of parks was, until fairly recently, a function of the department of public works.
" . . . Ron Severeid lent the necessary expertise to the botanical side of the problem . . . .
"Administrative services . . . have been place under the supervision of Richard Aronoff. Wayne Higbee was personnel director for a number of years; the late Ashley Shaw was the purchasing agent who set up the program of central warehousing . . .
"Clyde Fitzgerald, airport director, and Jeremy Faris, manager of the Civic Auditorium . . .
"William A. Hard and later Frank Gaudio, directors of finance . . .
Chapter Seven Commercial, Economic and Social Developments
" . . .
"In the beginning, and in the first two decades of the present century, Santa Monica was basically a community of homes, served by what would be described today as "convenience" commercial facilities.
"People lived, in general, on incomes derived from other sources than local, whether the breadwinner of the family worked in downtown Los Angeles, or whether he was, in the language of the day, " a gentleman of leisure," meaning that he had a fixed income . . .
"Virtually all residents lived in single family homes.
"Today four out of five families in Santa Monica are apartment dwellers; today the community has a very substantial economic base derived from numerous industries and from commercial activities which are regional in their clientele.
" . . .
"In the early days, Santa Monica had but one commercial bank, the Bank of Santa Monica, although in 1902 the Ocean Park Bank was organized, and in 1905 the First National Bank of Ocean Park.
"Banks continued to be local institutions for many years, until the branch banking system began to develop and to absorb the smaller institutions, largely during the period of economic expansion which followed World War I and which came to a crashing halt with the bank holiday of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression.
"In contrast with those early days, Santa Monica now has one major community bank, the Santa Monica Bank, which shortly will celebrate its forty-sixth anniversary, and ranks nationally among the top 600 in the country. It has branches in West Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Marina del Rey, and two in Santa Monica in addition to the head office at Fourth Street and Arizona Avenue. Organized originally as the Santa Monica Savings Bank, chartered February 17, 1928, it received a new charter as the Santa Monica Commercial and Savings Bank in 1934 and in 1958 a third charter changed the name to its present designation as the Santa Monica Bank.
"Aubrey E. Austin, Sr., was one of the organizers, and became president early in the 1930s. He was succeeded by his son Aubrey E. Austin, Jr.
"Santa Monica's present importance as a financial center is indicated by . . . fourteen branch offices of other banks. They include: Bank of America, City National Bank, Crocker National Bank, First Western Bank, Security Paciific National Bank, Southern California First National Bank, Union Bank, United California Bank and Wells Fargo Bank.
"In addition, Santa Moonica has eight savings and loan association offices, two of which, Century Federal and First Federal of Santa Monica have headquarters in Santa Monica and branches in other communities. Others are American, California Federal, Gibraltar, Home, State Mutual and Glendale Federal.
"Pennsylvania Life Insurance Co. has its head office on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica to serve the entire Southern California area.
" . . .
" . . . the Douglas Aircraft Co., now McDonnell-Douglas, Santa Monica plant is . . . being phased out.
"The Rand Corp., which grew out of a group of scientists and engineers working for Douglas more than three decades ago, a think factory, began by doing indepth research for the armed forces, mainly the Air Force. This continues today, but research also is done for clients of all sorts, from industry to government. Staff is made up very largely of engineers and former college and university faculty members having expertise in many fields.
"Second generation outgrowth of Douglas is System Development Corp., which . . . develops . . . systems for the computerization of . . . operations. It was formed when this phase of the Rand operation grew so large . . .
"Santa Monica is looked upon with favor as a base of operation for many businesses . . . it is the headquarters of General Telephone Company of California, a subsidary of General Telephone and Electronics. . . . .
"In the industrial area, Santa Monica is the home of Papermate . . .
" . . .
" . . . the Southern Californi Rapid Transit District.
" . . . the downtown area lies very close to the Santa Monica Freeway, which places the entire westerly portion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area within 20 minutes driving time from Santa Monica. Completion of the freeway was perhaps the most significant event of its time.
"This came about largely through the efforts of Robert E. McClure, then a member of the California Highway Commission. The freeway has brought Santa Monica within 20 minutes driving time of downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay cities . . .
" . . .
" . . . Santa Monica long ago approved bonds which enabled the University of California to establish its Los Angeles campus in Westwood, a decision which has greatly influenced the community ever since.
" . . .
"So Santa Monica., surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles and on the fourth by the Pacific Ocean, a city of only 8.1 square miles of area, maintains a degree of self sufficiency, and a strong sense of communtiy identity.
" . . . the present trend toward condominium apartments rather than rentals. The family which owns its own apartment is likely to develop a greater degree of political and social responsibility . . .
" . . . continuing unabated in 1974 . . . the old Miramar Hotel, recently acquired by Fujita Corp,, USA, . . .
Chapter Eight Bits and Pieces
Judge George H. Hutton; Mrs. Heinecke, Marion Forden, Samohi sprinter, William H. Carter, Commissioner of Public Safety, ex-officio mayor Hal Clark Sanborn, Commissioner of public works, T.D. Plumer, Commissioner of public finance, Bookmaking, Evening Outlook, J.D. Funk, general manager of the Outlook, Emerson Gaze and Jim Yuill, photographers, Cap Olsen, fishing boats, Santa Monica Pier, Armando Bissiri, college prof (SMCC or USC?), Charles Lindbergh, Clover Field, Frank Finch, reporter, Outlook, later LA Times, John Greer Errett Greer, Bernard McClean, SM Police, the Pacific Electric operated the Third St. Car the dinky, Ben Hershey, Ashur Hamburger, Kenneth Strickfadden, destructive children, William Lee Greenleaf, Samohi speech and dramatics teacher, Charles J. Haines, Warehouse operator and lima beans, 1916 (18th and Colorado), William P. Fetherolf, Samohi chemistry and physics teacher,
" . . .
P. 60 [Photo caption: "Lincoln School, Santa Monica Boulevard and Tenth Street, was the first home of Santa Monica High School. After the present buildings were constructed at Sixth and Pico Boulevard, it became an "intermediate" school, housing the seventh and eighth grades, then Lincoln Junior High School,"; " Among the first to recognize the potential of Wilshire Boulevard in the area northeasterly of downtown Santa Monica was Lawrence Welk, the famous orchestra leader, who built the structure at Chelsea St. which houses the Union Bank."]
" . . .
"E. Gamberi*, after a long nd successful career as a saloon keeper, was a law-abiding man. Hence, with the coming of the prohibition era, he turned to a new endeavor. He became the operator of the trams which ran from a point not far northwesterly of the municipal pier in Santa Monica to the Ocean Park Pier.
"The trams were electric, and carried a vast array of storage batteries of Edison design beneath the bench-like seats. At each end were two vertical levers; one controlled speed, the other direction. Steering was a trifle odd, since the trams didn't turn around at either terminus, but simply reversed. That meant that in one direction the vehicle, in effect backed all the way.
"Speed was very moderate, and brakes virtually non-existent. Fare was a nickel, and there were no transfer privileges to the next line, which plied between Ocean Park and Venice.
"Operation was greatly curtailed during winter weekdays, but in the summer and on weekends drivers were for the most part, students from Santa Monica High School, over whom Mrs. Gamberi* maintained a close watch from a position on the promenade adjacent to the merry-go-round which still exists.
"On a good day each tram, and as I remember there were about half a dozen of them, took in something like $25, almost all in nickels and dimes.
"Each driver was equipped with a small nicke-plated device which hung from his belt and upon which he rang up fares, a small bell indicating the number so recorded.
"I remember very vividly, I having been a driver at the time, that late one day Mrs. Gamberi accused one of my fellow-workers of failing to ring up a fare.
"Deeply affronted, he turned all his pockets inside out, dumping the day's receipts into the middle of the promenade, and stalked away.
"Mrs. Gambieri spent the ensuing hour or so retrieving small change from the pavement, a task which she was assistd by a numer of bystanders, who probably pocketed half the loot.
"One of my moe interesting interviews as a young staffer on the Evening Outlook was with a young woman who was wearing nothing at all.
"She had . . . been picked up on the beach in Ocean Park, where she was nonchalantly sunbathing in the altogether.
"Nude bathing in the 1920s had not gained the popular acceptance of today, and the police were properly scandalized and escorted her to the pokey, there she was talen in charge by Mrs. Brown, the matron..
" . . ."