Jeffrey Stanton Raw Data Notes, Bay Cities, October 12, 2003
I collect data about Venice and Ocean Park's history. I've read the newspapers (Venice Vanguard and Santa Monica Evening Outlook completely through, plus large portions of the Los Angles Times up to 1913. Naturally I've been curious about the area's businesses, where they were located, how the business community grew to accomodate a growing resident population and increasing tourist industry that centered around Venice's amusment piers at Windward and Center Street, and Ocean Park's piers between Navy and Pier Ave.
Unfortunately, I've never figured out what to do with this information and it has been filed away for many years. While it is possible to recreate the business districts using maps and aerial photos, then identify and mark the various businesses located in those buildings, the real question is: Does anyone care? People in the Venice Historic Society don't, and with most of Venice's residents being newcomers to a community, they know little of its history, nor care. I've had little feedback on this Web-Site since it was put on-line eight years ago in spring 1996. Still, someone out there may find a use for it and if they can use the raw data to create something interesting, please inform me and send me a copy of the results.
The following business information was taken from various phone books for the years 1907, 1912, 1915/16 & 1923/24, 1933 & 1936 at the Santa Monica Library. While it is helpful. it certainly isn't complete since not everyone owned a telephone, and I'm not sure what the criteria was for a business to be listed. The later directories are more useful. Lists of businesses by street addresses are not available before 1915.
Directories available: 1905, 1907, 1912, 1913/1914. 1915/16, 1917, 1918, 1919/20, 1921/22, 1923/24, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930/31, 1933, 1936, 1938, 1940 (no Venice).
Venice and Ocean Park's business districts were both laid out by Abbott Kinney and /or his business partners in the case of the latter. The Ocean Park area was developed first (1891) and initially had the most residents. Its business district was on Pier and Marine and along Ocean Front Walk (Promenade-north of Navy) near the three block wide amusement pier. Since Trolleyway wasn't very wide, and lacked sidewalks, most businesses spilled over onto Main Street.
Venice of America, the Kinney tract (1905) near Windward, set aside Windward, Zephyr (Market) and Lorelei (18th Street), each one block long, for the business district. As the town grew, businesses spread along the Ocean Front Walk, especially near the three block Abott Kinney Pier at Windward. Businesses also appeared near the Center Street Pier in the teens, along Washington Blvd. (Abbott Kinney Blvd.) in the 1920's, and on Venice Blvd near the old City Hall. There were plans to expand the Windward business district near the canals after Villa City was closed in 1927. The lawsuits about filling in the canals delayed plans, and then the Depression derailed the project. That proposed business street became Venice Way, which eventually became housing in the 1940's instead of a business street.
Fires sometimes reshaped the community. The 1912 Fraser Pier fire burned the entire 6 block business district. That same pier partially burned in 1915, and was entirely destroyed along with adjoining structures on O.F. Walk in 1924. The Kinney Pier at Windward burned in 1920, but luckily spared the nearby business district.
Determining business names is quite difficult as usually a restaurant, for example, is only identified by the business owner's name. This is one of the reasons that I initially lost interest in the project when I started it many years ago.
Notes on Street Names: Zephyr is now Market, Lorelei is now 18th, Washington Blvd. extended to Rose on what is now called Hampton. Leona is now Washington St, White Wings was in Villa City where Venice Way is located, St Marks Plaza was at the foot of the Venice Pier at the intersection of Windward & O.F. Walk.
Jeffery Stanton 1907 Bay Cities Directories, with amendments