Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1887
" . . . 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 the San 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)
" . . . 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 . . .