1902 (1901) (1903) (1890-1900) (1900-1910) Table of Contents
Anon. Ocean Park and Venice Timeline (1890-1909), Web Document, 2005b, 1902 See Text
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935, 1902 See Text
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1902, 1900s, 1890s See Text
Lionel Rolfe Literary L.A., Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 1981, 102pp., 1902 See Text
Santa Monica Planning
Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour,
2003.
44. Ocean Park Library, circa
1917-1918 See
Text
Jeffrey Stanton* Founding of Ocean Park, Web Document, April 6, 1998, 1904, 1903, 1902, 1902, 1900s See Text
Notes:
Anon. Ocean Park and Venice Timeline (1890-1909), Web Document, 2005b, 1902
"To assure electric trolley service to Ocean Park from downtown Los Angeles, Kinney* formed a partnership with Hook, the owner of the rival Los Angeles Traction Company. Although construction of the line started, Hook sold out to railroad interests who didn't want competition."
BLY (1979) ". . . In 1902 the first true theater, the Electric on Main Street, [Los Angeles] showed short comedies and educational films, and a year later Roy Knabenshue's dirigible at Chutes Park provided the first local filming."
Documents:
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935, 1902
Chapter IV Our First Families
" . . .
"[p. 43] The property [which included those lands that became Griffith Park] went to an American-General Baldwn. Everything went wrong. The cattle died. Fire destroyed the grain in the fields. Grasshoppers ate the green crops. The vineyards were stricked with a blight. Within a few years, a mortgage was foreclosed, and General Baldwin left in financial ruin.
"The lawyer to whom the estate was conveyed was killed in a drunken celebration. The heirs of the friend who had witnessed the will fought miserably and scandalously over his money. His widow married an adventurer and was unhappy.
"The gringo into whose hands the Feliz ranch finally came was a singular character and met a singular fate. There came to our pueblo in the eighties a young Welshman naned Griffuth Jennings Griffith. He was a handsome, swaggering, but poor. According to local tradition, his first job was driving a dirt wagon.
"[p.44] There was at the time a German family who raised garden truck at the edge of town [Los Angeles]. The old man became rich when the city reached out and surrounded his farm. There was a daughter upon whom the young Welsh peasant's eye fell greedily but he did not know just how to go about meeting her . . . A hack writer composed a love poem for him . . . A pioneer editor of the town has told me how this was . . . accomplished . . . [it was refused newspaper publication as a literary gem . . . [instead he was offered] the amusement rate which was 33 1/3 per cent in excess of the normal advertising rate. After several weeks of negotiations, he took it to another paper which published it at the ordinary commercial rate. It had the desired effect; he met and married the girl and gained riches thereby.
"Griffith-wealthy-was the most pompous man I have ever seen. He had a strut, a gold-headed cane, a flower in his buttonhold and a patronizing little snicker. He was, however, a very affable and, having an avid thirst for publicity, was easy to interview.
"He became addicted to strong drink and with each drink became more pompous. One day [in 1902] he drove his wife into a corner of their room at the Hotel Arcadia at Santa Monica and told her to get down on her knees and say her last prayers. He informed her that his agents had discovered she was conspiring with the Pope to overthrow America and he proposed to rescue the country-meanwhile flourishing a big revolver. He finally shot her through one eye; to escape a second shot, she jumped out of a window and was [p. 45] saved from death by a porch roof. His trial was one of the most sensational in the history of the pueblo. I covered it as a reporter. It was a battle between Earl Rogers, a criminal lawyer whose success had been phenomenal, and Henry T. Gage, equally famous and former governor of the state. Rogers defended Griffith and Governor Gage was engaged as a special prosecutor. Gage fairly blew the younger lawyer out of water when he drawled to the jury in his slow, deliberate way: "Gentlemen, there has never been a rich man in the state's prisons of California." I could see the jury bristle and fairly itch to make Griffith the first one. He went to San Quentin for two years. Came out nearly as pompous with an air of benign forgiveness."
". . . "
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1951,, 1902, 1901, 1900s, 1890s
Elizabeth Hamlin*, the newly elected principal [1901], found the [South Side] school with an enrollment of seventy-six and a staff of only two teachers, including herself. Convinced that the children were not getting all they should from their classes because of the lack of an adequate teaching staff, she approached Professor C.I.D. Moore, who had just been elected supervising principal, and confided to him her concern. He explained that his hands were tied; however, the ever-increasing enrollment soon compelled the board to hire a third teacher. [40. Ibid., pp. 23-24]
Miss Hamlin* recalls an interesting happening during her teaching career in the Santa Monica schools. [41.Personal Interview with Elizabeth Hamlin, April 9, 1951; Santa Monica, California.] There seemed, she states, to be a closer association with the school in those days than is currently apparent. Life revolved around the schools. School activities provided the only entertainment available.
- "We celebrated all the holidays in the schools and always had a big tree at Christmas time. I remember an amusing incident connected with one of those Christmas celebrations at the school.
- "Thinking to make Christmas celebrations more real to the children, I told them the story of the Savior's birth. The next day, an irate parent visited me and administered a first-class scolding. He accused me of teaching religion to my classes, a practice which, he pointed out, had been stopped by law!"
At a public meeting, held April 18, 1902, the townspeople enthusiastically proclaimed their approval of the plan to build a new school. They wanted, they asserted, a school worthy of the town and of the children who would attend it. Nothing less than a building with eight classrooms would suffice to take care of the town's anticipated growth. They believed that $12,000 would prove ample to cover the cost of such a building, and they urged that the money be raised by calling for another bond issue. [42. Pearl, op. cit., p. 25.]
An election held May 12, 1902, provided the funds for the new building with only four dissenting votes out of the 205 votes cast. The community of Ocean Park felt jubilant over the prospects of having one of the finest schools in California. The school census figures reveal that in 1902 there were 1084 children of school age in Santa Monica, which represented an increase of 161 over the previous year. Sixty-five percent of the increase had occurred in Ocean Park. [43. Pearl, loc. cit.]
When the school was completed, the cost had come nearer to $15,000 but included two additional lots. Trustee Vawter offered the lots at the unbelievably low price of $610.00. The original, smaller school building was purchased by the Ocean Park Catholic Church and was removed to the corner of Third Street and Marine Avenue, where it became a caretaker's cottage. The larger one-room building remained for several years and was used as a community center building. The board finally sold the building to another church and it was moved to a new site on Seventeenth Street. [44. Ibid., pp. 25-26.]
The community and the children took great pride in the new building that was ready for occupancy in November, 1902. Its imposing beauty was enhanced by its commanding position up on the hill. Since the board of trustees had failed to provide a single object of art to beautify the interior of the building, the school set about to earn money for that purpose. They gave entertainments for paid admissions and sold candy and other items to swell the fund. A long desired piano and set of encyclopedia were also acquired in this way. [45. Personal interview with Elizabeth Hamlin, April 9, 1951; Santa Monica, California.]
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1902
[p. 212] Chapter V. Expansion. 1900-1908.
[p. 212] In 1902 the wholesale [liquor] license was raised to $1,200
[p. 220] 1902
The history of 1902 was largely municipal. As has been seen, the difficult task of settling on a site for the city hall was carrried over into this year. But before it was decided the still more important matter of re-organization came up. The new election was called for January 28th. In the meantime, the Board of Trustees ordered a census of the town to be taken. The call for re-organization of the city was based upon the United States census of 1890, which gave Santa Monica a population of 3057. Cities must have a pupulation of 3,000 at least, in order to be raised to the rank of fifth class. Opponents of the change had insisted that the town did not now have the requisite three thousand and the census of the Board resulted in but 2,717 names. The promotors of the movement, however, asserted that this census did not count, as by law, the population would be taken from the United States census. At the same time the Good Government League claimed that the census taken by the Board was defective and set men to work to re-take the census. After a long and very thorough canvas, in which, we are certain every nose was counted , the result was reported as 3,260.
The election resulted in a decided victory for the Good Government League and the progressive citizens generally, the vote standing 231 for and 118 against, giving a majority of 118 as against the majority of seven the other way at the previous election. But votes do not settle the question voted upon in Santa Monica. At the next regular meeting of the Board of Trustees when it was in order to officially canvas the vote, that long suffering body was served with a writ of injunction, sworn by H.X, Goetz, enjoining them from canvassing the votes and declaring that the election to have been illegal. When the Board had recovered from the shock of this attack, they engaged counsel to defend them in this case and in another action, brought by Attorny Fred H. Taft, demanding that the city fathers count those votes, or show cause why. The courts decided that the election was all right and on February 10th, the last act in this long drawn-out drama took place, and the returns of the election were duly declared although the new city government could not, by the terms of the law, go into effect until the year 1903.
The voters of Santa Monica certainly had ample opportunity to exercise [p. 221] their free and sovereign right during the years of 1900-2. Besides the regular state election in November, 1901 and the municipal election the next spring, five special elections gave them a chance to express their opinions. In view of the important matters under the control of the Board this year, a good deal of interest was taken in the annual town election. Mr. W.S. Vawter was nominated as the representative of the Ocean Park district by an enthusiastic pubic meeting. There were numerous other candidates for the trusteeship and for all the other city offices. The question of a special tax for the repair of the outfall sewer and the wharf at Pier Avenue was also submitted and voted on favorably. Messrs. Vawter and J.C. Steele were elected trustees, J.C. Hemingway, clerk; E.W. Boehme, treasurer and M.K. Barretto, marshal. In the re-organization of the board, T.H. Dudley was elected president and F.H. Taft was chosen as attorney. One of the first acts of the new board was to raise the wholesale liquor license to $1,200 per year.
During the summer of 1902 especial attention was called to the safety of Santa Monica Beach as compared with other beaches. It was shown that very few accidents, due to undertow , had ever occurred on this beach and that every precaution to prevent accidents was taken, a guard being maintained on the beach at all times, life boats being at hand in case of need. The Los Angeles Times stated: "It is safe to say that since this little city was laid out, nearly a million people have bathed in the surf there; and while there have been a number of fatalities due to suicide, heat failure, and apoplexy or cramp, there has not been one authenticated instance of any person being overcome by a treacherous current or tide, or any person having been lost who was bathing from any public bath house."
Among the conventions entetained this year were the Women's Auxillary of the Episcopal church and also the Summer Institute of Sunday Schools of the Episcopal diocese; the annual convention of Christian churches of Southern California, lasted eleven days and brought a large number of visitors to attend its sessions. In October, the grand Lodge of the Good Templars, a state organization, held its annual session here.
The "short line" of the Los Angeles-Pacific was opened in August, thus giving a new and considerably shorter route to Los Angeles. An important land deal of the year was the sale by the Pacific Land Company to the Erkenbrecher syndicate, of a tract, of 390 acres of land, lying just east of the then town limits and including 38 acres within the town limits. A portion of this was divided into town lots and the rest was made into five and ten acre tracts. Another very decided improvement was the paving of Oregon and Utah streets which had long been discussed but, as usual, with a variety of opinions. The Columbia building near the corner of Third and Oregon was built by Bishop Montgomery on ground adjoining the Catholic church. This was a three story brick with [p. 223] two large storerooms on the ground floor and a pleasant hall for public purposes upon the second floor.
[p. 222, J.G. Hemingway, 1908b]
Another matter which the city fathers were called upon to meet this year was the question of allowing the Santa Fe road to abandon its line from Inglewood into Santa Monica. The road had petitioned the State Railroad commission to be allowed to do so, on the ground that it was operating the line at a loss. There was considerable opposition to permitting this action on the part of the donors of the right of way, and at the same time a petition from many other citizens of Santa Monica prayed that the abandonment be allowed. It was generally believed that this would result in a competing electric line coming into Santa Monica, and rumors that the Traction Company were looking this way were frequent during the summer. In August Abbot Kinney made application for a franchise for a steam or electric line through the town to be operated by the Redondo and Santa Monica Beach line, of which he was the chief incorporator. After some investigation this franchise was refused. In July it was announced that the right of way had been secured for a line direct from the city to the Ocean Park district, through La Ballona and Palms. The promotors were a company of whom Frederick H. Rindge was the chief.
In September the Traction Company made an offer of $3,500 for a franchise in Santa Monica. The Board of Trustees, being hard up for cash as usual, were disposed to look favorably upon this proposition; but it was recalled that Mr. Hook had offered $5,000 for a similar privilege in Long Beach and it was also pointed out by interested citizens that, according to law, any franchise must be sold to the highest bidder. Lawyers differed as to this point and the discussion waxed warm. A franchise was drawn up, granting the company all that was asked, for a consideration of $2,500 and an electric current sufficient to supply 12 arc lights of 2000 candle power. While the discussion was going on, Captain John Cross, of the Terminal road appeared and offered $5,000 for a franchise; but the Board of Trustees passed the Hook franchise without considering this offer and despite strong opposition on the part of many citizens.
A day or two later John C. Morgan, one of the trustees, and a man who was always ready to fight for his convictions, brought suit against the Board of Trustees to restrain them from making the proposed "Hook" franchise a law. Meanwhile the first payment was made on the franchise and the Traction road began making preparations for entering Santa Monica. The Los Angeles-Pacific also began to move, removing the poles which had long been a bone of contention, on Oregon street; double tracking and otherwise improving their service-in anticipation of competition. In February, 1903, Col. A.B. Hotchkiss took steps to test the validity of the Hook franchise, since it was granted without competitive bids. When it appeared that the Traction Company had secured their rights of way through Santa Monica and Ocean Park, the Los Angeles-Pacific railway, alarmed for its supremacy, also began suits to contest [p. 224] the right of way, and in retaliation, the Los Angeles, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Company, which had been incorporated to handle the Santa Monica end of the Traction Company, began suit to condemn certain tracts in Ocean Park, needed for the Traction right of way. The officers of this company were W.S. Hook, Abbot Kinney, T.J. Hook, C.A. Sumner and E. E. Milliken, and it was generally known as "Abbot Kinney's Company."
The Hook franchise was sustained by the attorney-general and the contest between the two trolley line companies became a bitter one. The annual election of city officials was approaching and the attitude of the trustees toward the railroad question became the vital question. The Herald announces: "The railroad election battle is on and that it promises to be hotly contested is evidenced by the fact that each of the rival companies has established boarding camps within the city limits and is registering every available man in their employ. Three registrars have been working for the last thirty days and on March 4th the city registration shows an advance of 343 votes over the registration of last November. Since March 4th fifty additional names have been added and before the registration closes it is conservatively estimated that over 400 increase will be shown."
The campaign that followed was one of the most strenuous ever known in Santa Monica. George D. Snyder, H.X. Goetz, A.F. Johnstone and J.C. Morgan were candidates for the trusteeship and were pledged "not to put any impediments in the way of the Traction Company's building and operating a line in Santa Monica, according to the terms of the franchise recently granted them." W.S. Vawter, T.H. Dudley and J.C. Steele were candidates for re-election. The saloon question was again involved and much type was used by the press and much talk was poured out on the streets and in public meetings over the situation. Messrs. Dudley, Vawter, Goetz, Johnstone and Steele were elected, and as at least three of them were pledged to the anit-saloon party, there was rejoicing in the temperance ranks. It soon developed that the railroad stiuation had already been taken out of the hands of the city officials by the sale of the Traction road and its interests to Clark and Harriman, who having no use for a competing line, were not expected to push the road to Santa Monica. Abbot Kinney, however, still retained the franchise granted to Ocean Park, Santa Monica and Los Angeles road and made an attempt, which was promptly put a stop to by the city trustees, to occupy them. But in 1904 he sold his railroad interests to the Los Angeles Pacific road, thus putting an end to the hope, still maintained by Santa Monica, of a competing line.
" . . .
[p. 253] Chapter VI South Santa Monica and Ocean Park
. . . The city and citizens later built walks [along the beach] and thus about 1902 easy communication was at last established betwen the "north side" and the "south side."
" . . .
. . . [p. 254] In 1902, Mr. William Martin, owner of the Martin block, on the corner of Ash and Second streets, gave the use of a part of a lot for a fire house and the board of city trustees provided the lumber for a small building, and bought a fire bell.
[ p. 257]1902.
But, as rapid a was the pace set in 1901, the advance made in 1902 excelled it. A change took place at the beginning of the year, which meant much in the history of this section. This was the sale announced February 12th, of Mr. Dudley's interests in the Kinney and Dudley property to Messrs. A.R. Fraser, H.R, Gage and G.M. Jones; Abbot Kinney retaining his half interest. This sale included the beach from Azure street, now Fraser avenue, to a point 700 feet below the Country Club house, now Horizon avenue, and the club house and grounds.
If such a thing were possible, new energy was given to the developments along the ocean front by the new management. It was announced that the wharf would be rebuilt, a bath house and pavilion built at Pier avenue, and the old plank walk on the ocean front rebuilt. The entire tract was to be sewered and the alley between the front and the tracks, now Speedway, would be improved. But the most important move was the change of policy with regard to leasing lots. It was announced that no more lots would be leased and that leasers would be given until May 1st to purchase their lots or vacate. Hereafter lots would only be sold with building restrictions which would put an end to the building of cheap "beach cottages." Many of the lease holders purchased their lots and removed the old buildings to put up modern cottages which would yield an income on the increased valuation of the property. Many of those who did this realized handsomely on the investment. To many, however, the prices charged for lots and the building restrictions seemed prohibitive and the cottages were removed to cheaper property. During 1902-03, it was a common sight to find a cottage on wheels moving back from the ocean front to the hills, under the escort of William Menzies.
In March, 1902, the Ocean Park bank was organized with T.H. Dudley, Abbot Kinney, Martin Dudley and Plez James as stockholders. It opened for business April 8th in a building on Second street; but work was soon begun on a brick and steel building on Pier avenue and before the end of the year the new bank was occupying handsomely fitted quarters and had added a savings department.
The previous year the old school house had proved inadequate and the Baptist church was rented for the higher grades. The rapidly increasing school population made a new building for the Ocean Park school imperative, and after an enthusiastic public meeting on the South Side, followed by another public [p.258] discussion of the question on the North Side, the school trustees called for a bond election to vote $12,000 for a suitable school house for Ocean Park. The bonds were carried, practically without opposition; the two old buildings were disposed of and the handsome eight-room structure, now known as the Washington school house, was built on the old location, the corner of Ash and Fourth streets. Two additional lots were purchased for the grounds and the entire building and grounds cost over $16,000.
The election of W.S. Vawter as city trustee to represent the South Side, and the fact that T.H. Dudley was president of the board of city trustees, assured this section of full representation in civic affairs and still further obliterated the old feeling of estrangement between the two sections of the city. The building boom continued. June 12th, the Los Angeles Saturday Post writes thus of the beach:
"There are seven hundred cottages at Ocean Park. They are all tasteful and many of them are pretentious. Ocean Park is not a place with a stiff, ceremonious air. There is a hospitable individuality, a generous atmosphere, in their architecture that shows as much as anything else that the good people of Ocean Park are not divided into social cliques or factions."
During this year Pier avenue became the leading business street. Among the business blocks of the year were the Rice and Kellogg block, of three stores, with housekeeping rooms above; a two-story building put up by Gillett & Co.; the new bank building, occupying four lots and costing $10,000; a two-story block erected by Abbot Kinney. The rapid rise in values is well represented by Pier avenue property. In 1900, lots on this street sold for a few dollars; in 1901, $500 would have been considered a high price for a lot; in 1902, twenty-five -foot lots sold for $40 per front foot; in 1903, a lot which had been purchased for $30 per front foot, was sold for $85 per foot. In 1904, C.J. Wilson sold a block on Pier avenue with a two-story frame building and a lot of 54 feet frontage for $21,000, and it is stated that the property was then yielding 10 per cent, on the investment.
The company spent several thousand dollars this year in improving the sewer service. Twelve miles of new sidewalks were laid by the city and private parties and many streets were graded. It is estimated that street improvements reached about $20,000. On Saturday, November 15th, 1902, appeared the first issue of the Ocean Park Review, with A. Bert Bynon as editor.
On August 2nd, the new line of the trolley road by way of Palms, was opened, the event being celebrated by an excursion of the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles, and distinguished citizens, who were entertained with a fish dinner at the country club. The Ocean Park Country Club sent out elaborate [p. 259] invitations, announcing a polo match, tea, dinner, and reception, with speeches and dancing, in honor of the occasion. The invitation read:
"The Los Angeles-Pacific Railway company will open its Short Line cut-off from Los Angeles to Ocean Park, tomorrow, Saturday, August 2nd, 1902. And in honor of this event the Los Angeles Country Club has arranged for a demonstration that will mark the epoch as the most important in the history of Ocean Park up to this date.
"The opening of this line of railway communication is recognized as of such importance to the future welfare and prosperity of Ocean Park that the head moulders of the present and future greatness of that noted beach resort appreciate the necessity of this great proposed demonstration.
"And these head moulders of the present and future greatness are Messrs. Fraser, Jones, Kinney and Gage, the proprietors of the Country Club, and it is these gentlemen who extend a cordial invitation to participate in the exercises and the recepton of the Jonathan Club of Los Angeles and the other guests."
[p. 267] Chapter VII Public Institutions
Schools
[p. 267] In 1902 $12,000 bonds were voted for a new building on the south side and the next year [1903] an eight-room building, costing when complete about $16,000 was ready for occupancy.
" . . .
[p. 269] School Trustees of Santa Monica
" . . .
[p. 270] Supervising Principals of Santa Monica Schools:
[p. 283] PostOffice
[p. 287] [Santa Monica] City Officials.
[p. 298] Chapter VIII Churches and Societies: Baptist Church
Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1916, 1908, 1902, 1895, 1893, 1890, 1870
"Gill's style grew out of what he found in Southern California. He added elements that were missing, and produced an architecture as uninsistent as the (p. 220) change of the seasons. His architecture was integrated into the past, the climate and the way of life so that it blended into the scene as do the houses in a Cotwold village and in Tuscany. The fact that San Diego has something approaching a unity of style is due entirely to Gill, whose work was extensive and widely copied by contractors and various draftsmen who had been through his office.
"It was an architecture of modesty and repitition. The elements he repeated were the ones which his perceptive eye recognized as good: they had bee tried and tried again until they had reached the ideal of appropriateness. Gill was a conservator of the past, buildingh always for the present, in new materials, with new methods evolved through arduous trial and error.
"He was a romanticist whom time has shown to be a realist. His references to the missions in his work indicated a romantic regard for the past-rather than a sentimental attempt to recapture it. His expressions in light, color and the integration of house and garden were certainly romantic considerations.
"The voice of the romantic poet was evident in his words: "We should build our house simple, plain and substantial as a boulder, then leave the ornamentation of it to Nature, who will tone it with lichens, chisel it with storms, make it more gracious and friendly with vines and flower shadows as she does the stone in the meadow."-(from The Craftman, May 1916)
"However, Gill left nothing to chance. He put to work certain principles of which he had a profound knowledge: the principle of the stone, which he translated into concrete; the principle of naturalness, which he used in his coordination of house and garden by pergolas, courts, patios, and porches. He understood shadows and shadings, and they enhanced his walls, but when the vines are stripped away and the trees which cast shadows are uprooted, his sensitive forms remain.
"Gill's first building in San Diego, the Normal School, 1895, gave little hint of his later creativity. Now demolished, it revealed only that he and the chairman of the board liked columns. But Gill never again used Ionic capitals. His later columns were strong and modest, with small bands and flat caps.
"Other early works were also highly derivative in style. His Pickwick Theater, 1904, looked as if he had laid tracing paper over Sullivan's Transportation Building and squeezed it into a 40-foot front. A fountain in the San Diego Plaza was reminiscent of the Coragic Monument of Lysicrates. But among Gill's sketches was another study for the Plaza fountain in a style very much his own. The client for both fountain and theater was Louis Wilde for whom Gill, in 1919, planned a duplex in Coronado. His nephew, Louis J. Gill, later recalled tht Wilde had said, "You build it and then I'll tell you where I want the doors and windows." Gill finally resigned the job. He walked out on one other occasion, when in 1909, the congregation of the Christian Science Church, San Diego, decided to add a dome to his design.
"The First Methodist Church, 1906, Gill's only attempt at Gothic architecture, was uninspired. Althogh it contained examples of good detailing, he was not at home in revival styles. As Louis Gill put it, "He didn't know one style from another," and this perhaps was his good fortune.
"In 1898, Gill entered into a partnership with W.S. Hebbard. Out of their office came several amiable brick and half-timbered houses for San Diego and Coronado, all of them remarkable for their simple and direct use of redwood for interiors. In the McKenzie house of 1898, however, the walls were panelled with cherry wood shipped from Japan . . .
"Gill had a great deal to do with winning clients for the firm, for he had a broad, handsome Irish face-his mother had been born in Ireland-and a sincere and straightfoward way of speaking. His passion for dancing was perhaps a reaction to his strict Quaker upbringing; he often went to dances at the Coronado Hotel, where many easterners came to spend the winter months. There he met the Olmsted brothers, Frederick Law, Jr. and Albert, and their sister Marion, the sons and daughter of Frederick Law Olmstead, the famous park planner. Through the Olmsteds he was introduced to the wealthy and philanthropic Mason sisters, supports of Tuskeegee Institute. As a result of the meeting, in 1902, Gill was commissioned to design a house for them, almost a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
"The house was a sensation in Newport, for thousands of feet of redwood were shipped to Newport to be used for the interiors. The mission influence was evident in the stucco walls, arches and red tile roof, but the scale was eastern and fashionable.
"Gill was more successful with two other Rhode Island houses he designed the same year, the Birckhead house in Portsmouth and the Albert Olmsted house in Newport. In both he combined indigenous shingle work with California redwood interiors.
"He took other elements to the East such as the corner window, which he had first used in 1898 in the McKenzie house in Coronado. In several of his eastern houses, he designed windows that dropped into a parapet wall, some of which still operate today.
Lionel Rolfe Literary L.A., Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 1981. 102pp., 1902
" . . . [Upton] Sinclair discovered socialism in Wilshire's Magazine, which was published by H. Gaylord Wilshire . . . in 1902 which he discovered in a New York editor's office . . . he had a knack for writing pulp fiction. . . .
" . . ."
Santa Monica Planning Division Santa Monica Landmarks Tour, 2003.
"The library site was donated by the Tegner* family where the original Tegner* home once stood. In 1902, Charles A. Tegner* opened a small real estate and insurance office in downtown Santa Monica, which is still operating after 100 years." p. 19
Jeffrey Stanton* Founding of Ocean Park, Web Document, April 6, 1998, 1904, 1903, 1902, 1902, 1900s
". . . Despite political connections, municipal assistance for their resort produced few results and city services were lacking. When Dudley* finally sold his half interest in the resort in February 1902 for $400,000, it was a clear indication that Santa Monica's business establishment feared that Kinney's resort would draw tourist dollars from their North Beach resort, and that it would not support Kinney*'s plan to compete against Sherman and Clark's Los Angeles Pacific trolley service.
"Kinney*'s three new partners, Alexander Fraser*, Henry Gage* and George Meritt Jones* immediately invested in improvements. Their plans included installing a sewer system for the community, extending the beach walkway to the extreme end of their tract, developing the residential tract immediately south of Rose Avenue, and constructing a large bathhouse. Unfortunately Kinney* didn't get along with them, probably because they refused to support any of his projects. First they weren't willing to make enemies of powerful rival businessmen by supporting Kinney's rival trolley company. Secondly they were more interested in their money losing Casino (restaurant and vaudeville theater) that they built beside the pier. Thirdly, they disagreed on how the wetlands on the southern portion of their land should be developed."