Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1898
p. 243] Annual Assessment of City of Santa Monica, 1887-1907, 1908a
1898 $1,871,588.00
[p. 252] Chapter VI South Santa Monica and Ocean Park
Ocean Park District
The settlement known as Ocean Park was separated from Santa Monica by the arroyo and the wide unimproved tract belonging to the Southern Pacific reservation. This was unfortunate, as it made communication between the two points difficult. The Santa Fe service was irregular; the horse car line and its successor, the electric line, gave infrequent service; the drive over dusty, ungraded roads, and rickety bridges was not tempting, and the walking through a mile of sand or dust was certainly not attractive. The settlement about the Santa Fe depot and the Y.M.C.A. holdings was largely made up of transient visitors from the interior, who rented cottages, or built upon leased lands. They seldom visited Santa Monica and scarcely realized that they were within that municipality. It was natural that they should object to the long journey to the postoffice and begin to express a desire for a postoffice of their own. During 1898 the subject was agitated and promises secured, although the office did not open for business until July, 1899.
This year Kinney and Ryan opened the Ocean Park race track and golf links, which were improved by grading and planting a large number of trees. One of the first golf tournaments held in California took place on these links when they were opened to the public, in July, 1898. The same gentlemen had contracted with the city trustees to build a wharf on the pilings used to carry the outfall sewer. This wharf was located at what was known as Pier avenue and was completed by August. It was 1,250 feet in length and afforded a fine opportunity to fishermen and pleasure seekers. The proprietors invited the public to a free barbecue and clambake on the evening of Monday, August 29th, which was attended by a big crowd who enjoyed the feast, music, speeches and dancing.
By coincidence, the old Santa Fe wharf was condemned by the city trustees on the day the new wharf was opened and a few days later the old wharf was practically destroyed by a storm. The completion of the new wharf stimulated the building of the long proposed beach walk connecting the Kinney and Ryan walk with Santa Monica. The Southern Pacific began by constructing a board walk, [p. 253] 16 feet wide, in front of its property from Railroad avenue to the Crystal plunge, and the North Beach Company followed with a walk connecting this and the bath house.
[p. 253] " . . .
The "Ocean View," an eighteen-room hotel, was built by G.H. Strong, and was opened July 10th, with a spread: but only a few days later the new hotel was destroyed by fire. Ocean Park suffered much during its early history from fires which seemed to be, in many cases, incendiary and which were very destructive on account of the lack of fire-fighting appliances and water. A few weeks later the store of Chambers & Co. was burned with its stock of groceries. There was a long dispute over the insurance in this case and a good deal of feeling was aroused by the circumstances.
The Methodist church began holding services in the Santa Fe depot in October, with Rev. Robert S. Fisher as pastor . . .
" . . .
[p. 267] Chapter VII Public Institutions
Schools
. . . [p. 267] to build a suitable building on the lots already secured at Tenth and Oregon. The contract for the building was let to H.X. Goetz and in June, 1898, the building was completed and dedicated by holding the graduating exercise for the year in it.
" . . .
[p. 269] School Trustees of Santa Monica
1897-98: R.P. Elliot, S.F. Carpenter, F.H. Taft (Clerk).
1898-99: R.P. Elliot, S.F. Carpenter, F.H. Taft (Clerk).
" . . .
[p. 275] Public Library
. . . [p. 275] The growth was steadily maintained. In 1898 it became necessary to secure an additional room.
" . . .
[p. 283] PostOffice
. . . In May, 1898, George B. Dexter was appointed [Post Master],
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[p. 284, 1898] Board of Trade-Chamber of Commerce-Improvement Club
The enthusiasm of the Chamber of Commerce seems to have worn itself out in 1898. At any rate in December of that year it was proposed to organize an "Improvement Club" which it was believed would eventually make the town doubly a paradise. Frank A. Miller, then mine [sic] host of the Arcadia, was one of the moving spirits in this organization and it started out with energetic-talk. J.J. Davis was president; F.B. McComas, vice-president; F.H. Taft, secretary; Dr. P.S. Lindsey, treasurer. The executive committee included F.A. Miller, W.S, Vawter, N.A. Roth, Roy Jones, Abbot Kinney, A. Mooser, A.W. McPherson, E.P, Clark, T.H. Dudley, F.H. Rindge, L.B. Osborne. The Club made a vigorous, although unsuccessful campaign to secure lower fares to Los Angeles. It also took up the matter of liquor licenses, recommending that only six saloon licenses be issued and that the license be raised to $600. The Improvement Club did some efficient work in arousing public opinion of the saloon situation, and for three or four months, the Outlook contains long reports of its meetings-then apparently the Improvement Club went the way of the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce.
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[p. 287] [Santa Monica] City Officials.
1898, Board of trustees, Robert F. Jones, N.A. Roth, J.J. Carrillo, Moses Hostetter, R.C. Gillis, R.F. Jones was president; clerk, J.C. Steele; treasurer, E.W. Boehme; marshal, M.K. Barretto; library trustees, S.D. Belt, J. Walter Gray, P.S. Lindsey, Fred H. Taft, T.H. Wells.
" . . .
[p. 298] Chapter VIII Churches and Societies: Baptist Church
In 1898, Rev. Chas. Pelley, a graduate of Charles Spurgeon's college, in London, located in Santa Monica and acted as pastor of the church until the spring of 1899, After his departure the work languished and the Sunday school died out.
[p. 298] Chapter VIII Churches and Societies: Baptist Church; Methodists
"In 1897-98 Rev. R.C. Wuestenberg was pastor and the membership was increased to 150, while the Sunday school numbered from 250-270. In July, 1898, it was voted to remove the old church to South Santa Monica, where a mission was holding service in the old Santa Fe depot. But after some agitation the action was not taken.
"The Methodists were granted the use of the building for their services until 1900 when they secured their own church.