1839 (1800-1850) (1828) (1850) Table of Contents
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1839, See Text
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1839, See Text
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1839 See Text
Documents
Fred E. Basten Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years, A pictorial history of Santa Monica, Venice, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu, Douglas-West Publishers: Los Angeles, CA, 1974, 227 pp., 1839
"The year following the Alvarado-Machado grant to 'a place called Santa Monica' (1828), Don Francisco Sepulveda, soldier and citizen of that growing inland town, Los Angeles, was given possession of and provisional title to 'the place called San Vicente,' which included all of the original town of Santa Monica. It faced the ocean, extending from Santa Monica Canyon to what is now Pico Boulevard. Inland, it reached almost to the Westwood region and took in the mountains that overlooked the San Fernando Valley.
" . . .
"The grant to Francisco Sepulveda was confirmed by California Governor Alvarado in December, 1839 . . . " p. 2
"The dispute was settled when the Board of Land Commissioners, created in 1851 to investigate and pass upon land titles in California, ruled that Sepulveda would receive 'Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica' with 30,000 acres. To Reyes and Marquez went 'Boca de Santa Monica' with 6,600 acres." p. 5
La Ballona rancho, or as it was named in the original document "La Ballena" (the whale), was formally granted to a company composed of Augustin and Ygnacio [ 1794- ] Machado, Felipe and Tomas Talamantes, all citizens of Los Angeles, by Governor Alvarado in 1839. There is evidence to show that prior to this grant, a tract of land nearer to Los Angeles had been occupied by the same citizens as a stock range but had been taken back from them, either because it was too near the city, or was needed for the stock of San Gabriel.
At any rate they received a princely domain in fertile fields and rich pastures of "La Ballona," and at once stocked it and built residences upon it. The haciendas of the Machados on this ranch were among the best examples of the California home. They are still standing-that of Augustin Machado, a large and most substantial adobe, the walls and roof of which is still intact, is unoccupied at present and is used as a store house. It seems a pity that this, one of the best specimens of he early California homes should not be preserved. The home of Ygnacio Machado, a little distance away, is now occupied by one of his sons, Antonio, and the part which remains is in good repair and is a fine sample of the simplicity and solidity of the genuine adobe house of the better class. This house once contained fourteen rooms build about a court, but a portion of these have now been removed.
Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979) (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts) 1839, pre-1768
The Land
"Marshland and unstable sand dunes made up most of the property that Abbot Kinney owned. . . .
"It was part of the former La Ballona Rancho, a land grant deeded to the Machado and Talamantes families by the Mexican government in 1839. Some of it had been used for cattle grazing but the land was too often flooded to provide good forage."
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1839
" . . . One of the lengthiest disputes in the history of the ranchos began in December 1839, when Francisco Sepúlveda applied for his grant for Rancho San Vicente, which adjoined Rancho Boca de Santa Monica on the north and east, and somehow included in it portions of all three adjacent ranchos. Two subsequent surveys went farther and placed all of Rancho La Ballona within the Sepúlveda grant, leading him to rename his enlarged property Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica.
"An even greater threat arose when the United States army marched into Los Angeles in 1846 and again in 1847, leading to the surrender of Alta California to the United States in 1848. . . . The Board of Land Commissioners rendered its decision on April 14, 1854: the confirmation of an undivided one-half interest in the Boca de Santa Monica . . . Rancho to Ysidro Reyes and the denial of the other undivided one-half to the Marquez widow and children . . . On December 10, 1856, the U.S. District Court reversed the ruling on the Marquez half-share, but the issuance of the patent, or final deed, was delayed until 1881.
" . . .
"Meanwhile, Ysidro Reyes died at home in the pueblo during the smallpox epidemic of 1861. . . . .
" . . .
"Baker established himself in Los Angeles and on September 3, 1872, purchased Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, paying the heirs of Francisco Sepúlveda $55,000 for over thirty thousand acres. A year later, on August 14, 1873, he bought an undivided one-half interest in Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, without patent, for $6,000 from Maria Villa de Reyes. In 1874 Colonel Baker married the widowed Arcadia Bandini de Stearns, a major landholder in her own right . . .
"Baker was eager to resolve the boundary disputes between the two ranchos and to take possession of his land, but it was 1881 before the United States patent for Rancho Boca de Santa Monica was issued and signed by President James Garfield on July 21 . . . The case for partition remained to be settled and came before the court on July 6, 1882. In the meantime, Colonel Baker had sold a three-quarters interest in his landholdings to Senator John P. Jones of Nevada for $150,000, and the remaining one-fourth to Arcadia for $50,000, but asked that the partition be continued in his name.
" . . .
"On June 8, 1883, the Decree of Partition was filed giving the allotments. Robert Baker received 2,112.80 acres, including what is now the Riviera, upper Santa Monica Canyon, Rustic and Temescal canyons and the intervening mesa which would become the heart of Pacific Palisades.
"Each of the five surviving heirs of Francisco Marquez . . . received three allotments-a large parcel of agricultural land on the western mesas, several acres in lower Santa Monica Canyon for a homesite and crops, and a small parcel at the mouth of the canyon for commercial use . . . approximately 4,543 acres."