Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182 pp.
[pp. 10-12] [Col. Robert] "Baker was eager to resolve the boundary disputes between the two ranchos and to take possession of his land, but it was 1881 before the United States patent for Rancho Boca de Santa Monica was issued and signed by President James Garfield on July 21 . . . The case for partition remained to be settled and came before the court on July 6, 1882. In the meantime, Colonel Baker had sold a three-quarters interest in his landholdings to Senator John P. Jones of Nevada for $150,000, and the remaining one-fourth to Arcadia for $50,000, but asked that the partition be continued in his name.
"On June 8, 1883, the Decree of Partition was filed giving the allotments. Robert Baker received 2,112.80 acres, including what is now the Riviera, upper Santa Monica Canyon, Rustic and Temescal canyons and the intervening mesa which would become the heart of Pacific Palisades.
"Each of the five surviving heirs of Francisco Marquez . . . received three allotments-a large parcel of agricultural land on the western mesas, several acres in lower Santa Monica Canyon for a homesite and crops, and a small parcel at the mouth of the canyon for commercial use . . . approximately 4,543 acres.
"By 1907 all of the large agricultural parcels had been sold. . . ." p. 12.
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3. Abbot Kinney and His Trees
"The land boom of the 1880s reversed the area's downward trend and saw the population of Los Angeles grow from 12,000 to 87,000. For Santa Monica the magic year was 1886, when subdivisions multiplied and work was begun on the elegant Hotel Arcadia. Southern Pacific trains made four round trips to Santa Monica on weekdays, six on Sundays, . . . In November of that year[1886], Santa Monica was incorporated . . .
"By the end of the decade, Santa Monica had become a full-fledged resort, with hotels, restaurants, and an opera house. George Grimminger had a beer garden at Third and Utah (Broadway); a gospel tent was pitched at Third and Oregon (Santa Monica Boulevard); and . . . citizens objected to people camping on the beach. . . . In July, 1888, 5,000 visitors came to Santa Monica, 500 to Long Beach, 400 to Redondo, and 100 to Catalina. . . .
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" . . . Mendel Meyer [a violinist, known from San Francisco to Tombstone] maintained salons and saloons in Santa Monica and the Canyon in the eighties and nineties . . .
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"The attention of horticulturalists was drawn to the Santa Monica area in 1887, when Abbot Kinney established the nation's first forestry station in Rustic Canyon. Kinney, an urbane eastern gentleman of distinguished lineage, a scholar and world traveler, tobacco millionaire and idealistic dreamer, came to California in 1880. Attracted by the climate, he settled in Sierra Madre, planted a large orchard, and earned renown as a horticulturist. He moved to Santa Monica in the early 1880s for the benefits of the sea air and in 1885 was appointed to the newly created state Board of Forestry.
In 1887 Kinney organized a syndicate that purchased 247 acres of land on the bluffs west of Santa Monica Canyon . . . Huntington Palisades . . . and announced plans to [plat?; subdivide?] a fashionable residential district . . . the Santa Monica Outlook Railway was organized, with Kinney as President, to build a steam road from Santa Monica along the base of the bluff to the mouth of the canyon. . . . .
"The same year [1887], thanks to Kinney's enthusiasm over the forestry movement, Senator Jones and Arcadia Bandini de Baker donated six acres of land in Rustic Canyon to the state as a site for the nation's first forestry experimental station. One of the projects to be undertaken was a study of the newly introduced eucalyptus trees, thousands of which had been planted across the state under a variety of conditions. The need was recognized a more scientific approach to the problems of planting and use.
"The Santa Monica Forestry Station was formally established on December 20, 1887, to test trees from other countries for their usefulness and adaptability to the soil and climate of California. Fourteen more acres were added in 1889, and the deed was officially recorded. By then, the original plot had been cleared and planted, and a buildiing for offices, seed storage, and exhibits had been constructed. A residential manager was housed in a cottage on the grounds.
"The tract extended over several levels of land in Rustic Canyon and across the mesa to the east, where it commanded a view over Santa Monica Canyon. The Outlook reported brisk sale of trees to communities across the state-18,000 were shipped to Pasadena to landscape new subdivisions and 12,000 to Los Angeles to be placed in parks. Overall management was in the hands of Abbot Kinney, who was chairman of the state board of forestry. In fact, orders for trees were originally placed with Kinney himself.
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" . . . some of the large specimens Kinney planted near the bluffs in Huntington Palisades and those at the Forestry Station in Rustic Canyon remain as a . . . legacy of his enterprise . . . As for Kinney, he abandoned his subdivision plans-perhaps as a result of the economic downturn of 1888-and in 1891 sold his entire property on the mesa to Collis P. Huntington." p. 27
4. The Long Wharf
" . . . Ernest Marquez Port of Los Angeles . . .
"The major player in the drama was Collis Huntington of the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose reputation for ruthless business dealings had preceded him. Years before, during the gold rush, he had made his fortune in the hardware business in Sacramento, selling necessities to the miners at cutthroat prices. Now that competition from the Los Angeles & Independence Railroad had been eliminated, Huntington moved to reinforce the Southern Pacific's monopoly in the area and raised rates on the San Pedro line to an exorbitant level.
"At the same time, in the mid-1880s, the Union Pacific and Santa Fe railroads sought their own outlets to the sea, threatening the Southern Pacific stranglehold on shipping. Congress recognized the need for an improved deep-water port for Los Angeles and began a series of investigations and hearings to decide on the most suitable location. Senator William B. Frye of Maine, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, visited Senator Jones at his palatial new home in Santa Monica overlooking the bay, and became a zealous champion of Santa Monica's bid for the harbor. The contest gained momentum when Collis Huntington and the other top nabobs of the Southern Pacific decided to build their own harbor in Santa Monica and to push for Senate support.
"As the new owner of Abbot Kinney's land, . . . Huntington went on to acquire a right-of-way across the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon . . .
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