Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1987, 176 pp., 1904, 1896, 1895, 1890s,
Chapter I: Building Venice of America (1904-1906)
"Abbot Kinney had been feuding with his three Ocean Park Improvement Company partners for some time when they met in the company office in January 1904 to divide their beach front property. Kinney and his former partner Francis Ryan had purchased the tract of land just south of Santa Monica in 1895. Here they had developed a modest seaside resort by building a golf course, tennis courts, country clubhouse, boardwalk and a fishing pier at the foot of Pier Avenue. They gave the Santa Fe Railroad a small tract of land with the understanding that they would build a pavilion there, and a much larger tract to the Y.M.C.A. in hopes that the construction of an auditorium and bathhouse would attract conventions and assemblies to Ocean Park. The remainder of the property was subdivided into small 25 x 100 foot, $45 lots which sold well considering the economic slump of the 1890's. Unsold lots were rented for $15 per year with the understanding that 'neat and substantial cottages' would be built upon them. Transportation to the resort was arranged when a spur of the new Los Angeles electric railroad was extended south from Santa Monica to Hill Street in 1896.
"The Auditorium . . . burned in 1897."