Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1912, 1905
"Pp. 26. 27 [Photo captions: "Pier Avenue in 1905 boasted some rather imposing buildings"];
Pp. 28, 29 [Photo Captions: "In 1910, the Fraser Pier, later to become Pacific Ocean Park, looked like this"]
" . . . 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 similar 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 temporary shelter. A state of emergency was declared, and the National Guard called out to protect against looting. . . .
" . . ."