(1880-1890)(1880)(1888)(1870-1880)(1890-1900) Table of Contents
Note:
The Duke of Sutherland, (1979) was entertained by Col. R.S. Baker, on his 1881 tour of the United States and Canada, 1979, 1880s
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., 1905, 1893, 1888, 1887, 1884, 1857
{On page 11 is a photo of the Santa Monica Bath House taken about 1884 with a half circle of onlookers watching three gymnasts or acrobats.}
"By the spring of 1887, the Santa Fe Railroad had secured a right-of-way between Los Angeles and the mouth of Ballona Creek, four miles south of Santa Monica, and had built two wharves into the surf. By August 1887, "the first train reached La Ballona.
" . . . Jones and Baker were now selling lots near the beach in their Ocean Spray tract (south Santa Monica) . . .
"J.W. Scott, the energetic proprietor of the Santa Monica Hotel (the city's first hotel), had reaped enough . . . to launch a resort on the south side of town where, on the crown of the palisades, he built the grand Arcadia Hotel." p.12
"The Arcadia Hotel, on Ocean Avenue between Railroad Avenue (now Colorado) and Front (now Pico). . . . city's first skyline building. Opened in late 1887. . . Reported {a tabloid} in 1893: "The Arcadia Hotel is a first-class, high-grade resort, built upon the finest hotel site on the coast. To the many thousands of patrons of the past, {note that the past is five years} this famous resort . . . first floor. . . . reception parlor and hotel office . . . dining room . . . seats 200. . . . large hall leads to the sitting room and parlor, also the writing, ladies' billard and reading rooms. Directly opposite the main entrance is the elevator which runs to the {2} floors above and two below where the ballroom, a conservatory and other places of accommodation are to be found. On the basement floor access to the beach is made, where hot salt water baths may be enjoyed . . . furnished throughout with gas and electric lights, hot and cold water, bath rooms . . ." p.15 {A pier pictured on pages 17 and 21 was constructed.} The Arcadia was forced to close in 1888 for lack of business. p.24.
"The stage{coach}'s route is now Washington Boulevard, the earliest road between Los Angeles and Santa Monica." p. 18
[For several years around 1887, people constructed beach shacks on the beach. On page 20 they are referred to as squatters.]
"Frederick Hastings Rindge (1857-1905) purchased the Malibu Rancho in 1887 and was "a founder of the Santa Monica branch of the YMCA that made its home in Ocean Park." He also helped found Union Oil, Southern California Edison and Pacific Mutual." p.22
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935
Chapter XVIII The East A-Calling
"After the Sante Fe railroad built into Los Angeles, the pobladores discovered that we had a sea at our doors and that it would float boats-a stunning surprise to the Iowans [p. 224] who thought it was to take baths in. They began rounding in our Congress to appropriate money to build a breakwater and dredge out the mud flats.
"Huntington answered this demand with an ogre roar. It was lése majeste. He had whipped the pobladores to their knees before. Once they kept Crocker of the Southern Pacific waiting in the lobby of the council chamber while they debated the Southern Pacific's demand to turn over all the municipal bonds by which the San Pedro to Los Angeles railroad had been built. "I'll make the grass grow in the streets of your town," yelled Crocker; and the frightened little pueblo handed over its railroad.
"This time, Huntington's growls blanched no faces. Instead old General Otis, with his then little paper the Times, opened up a broadside that turned the old tycoon's face purple with rage . . . And in the Senate a brilliant young California-born senator, Stephen M. White, whose statue now stands in bronze in front of the court-house, lashed the great corporation boss with devastating fury.
"Collis P. Huntington knew he had, for the first time in his life, a fight on his hands. He wanted the breakwater built at Santa Monica for the very obvious reason that the Southern Pacific had a monopoly there. So confident was he that he could whip Congress into line that he went ahead and built a wharf nearly a mile and a half long going out from the narrow point of land where the road turns into the Malibu. For years it stood there empty and forlorn, growing gray and salt-crusted in the surf spray, a playground for children-a convenient fishing place for the Sunday excursionists. Finally, in the winter storms, its worm-eaten piles broke and drifted ashore to make sputtering green- and orange-colored fire logs for the movie colony at Malibu. Nothing burns like driftwood and broken ambitions.
"[p. 225] It was a furious struggle that lasted for years. Army engineers surveyed both places and recommended San Pedro. Their reports were pigeonholed by the Secretary of War-General Alger-with what motive no one has ever discovered. Powerful forces in the Senate rose to block Stephen M. White; but he was a gallant fighter.
"Desperately, as he felt the battle going against him, Collis P. Huntington offered to build a breakwater at Santa Monica and give it to the government.
"Congressman Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin said in the House of Representatives at that time:
""No question ever presented to me since I have been a member of this house has struck me with as much astonishment as this. I have never known anything like so determined a fight to thwart the will of the people to prevent the carrying out of just laws in the interests of a private corporation. And now these people who have been defeated year in and year out in their efforts to establish a harbor at Santa Monica come in and say: "We will build a harbor and give it to the United States if you will put it where the engineers of the United States army think it ought not to go.""
"[In 1896, Congress finally voted an appropriation . . . for San Pedro; but still nothing happened. General Alger, the Secretary of War, managed to block the work until 1899 when President McKinley press a button in the White House to dump the first car-load of rock. . . . The electrical connection failed to work. . .
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., 1880s
For over fifteen years the Sixth Street School was the only public school in the area of Santa Monica. Many of the boys and girls had to come long distances to attend classes. They came from the areas now known as Venice and Ocean Park, east from the area of the Soldiers Home, and from several canyons north of Santa Monica Canyon. Many of the children rode horseback, tying their horses to a hitching post in front of the school. Others, it was reported, boarded in town during the week, in order to partake of the opportunity of attending schools in Santa Monica, and returned home on week ends.
Kevin Conley Annals of Amusement: How High Can You Go? The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, pp. 48-55. 2004a, 1920s, 1895, 1884, 1827
"There is general agreement that the country's first roller coaster was the Switch Back Railway; the debate concerns which one. The Mauch Chunk-Summit Hill and Switch Back Railway, an eighteen-mile gravity railroad, was built in 1827 to carry coal in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Forty-five years later, when the big rail carriers rendered it obsolete, Josiah White turned the Switch Back into a thrill ride suitable for the Victorian era: you could bring a picnic. The other Switch Back Railway, which covered a gentle six-hundred-foot circuit of bunny hills at a speed of six m.p.h., was built in 1884, and was a tourist attraction from the start. At a nickel a ride, it earned back its fifteeen-hundred-dollar construction costs in three days. Its inventor, LaMarcus Thompson, became the first coaster entrepreneur, building fifty variations on his creation in the next four years."
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1880s
[p. 161] Chapter II Laying the Foundations. 1870-1880.
. . . He [W.D. Vawter] secured a franchise in 1886 and with his sons built the first street railway, which was for some time operated at a loss. They demonstrated their faith in the future, however, by extending the line to the Soldiers' Home, a distance of about five miles, and he lived to see it a paying enterprise. . . Wtih his sons he [W.D. Vawter] organized the First National Bank of Santa Monica and opened the same in the brick building on the southeast corner of Third and Oregon, which they built in 1888.
" . . .
[p. 163] In 1884, the Vawters purchased 100 acres of the Lucas ranch, adjoining the then south boundary of the town. This land was later subdivided and sold in tracts and in lots and forms a large part of the present south end of the city of Santa Monica. During 1887-88 they sold half of this property for more than the whole tract has cost them and W.S. Vawter built a handsome house in South Santa Monica, one of the first residences in that district.
" . . .
Mr. [W.S.] Vawter has served the city of Santa Monica in many capacities. He was one of the first board of trustees when the town was incorporated and served from 1886 to 1892 . . . He [W.S. Vawter] was interested in th establishment of the Santa Monica street railway system and the Soldiers' Home line, all of which were sold to the Los Angeles Pacific. . . With his brother, E.J. Vawter, Mr. Vawter organized the Santa Monica Mill and Lumber Company, in 1886 . . . [W.S. Vawter] was interested in the First National Bank formed in 1888,
" . . .
. . . [p. 163] During the administration of President Harrison, he [W.S. Vawter] served as postmaster of Santa Monica, resigning on the election of President Cleveland.
" . . .
[p. 166 J.J. Carrillo, 1908b]
[p. 167] Chapter III. From Town to City. 1880-1890.
The opening of the new decade found Santa Monica in the midst of most discouraging circumstances. The population as shown by the United States census was 417, but this included the population of the entire township of La Ballona. Values had greatly depreciated. Three lots and a house on the corner of Oregon avenue and Second street were sold, about this time for $750. L.T. Fisher sold his place on Third street, now known as the General Sargeant house, two lots, a small house and highly improved grounds, for $300. Three lots on the corner of Utah and Third, with improvements, sold for $1200. As late as 1885 the corner now occupied by the Santa Monica bank building sold at a probate sale for $400. These are but samples of the effect of the "dark days." But Santa Monica was not alone in her depression. The years from 1880 to 1885 were quiescent throughout Southern California. The chief enlivenment came through the operation of the Southern California Railroad which was building branch lines in preparation for the coming of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé line, the completion of which ushered in the "boom" days of the later eighties. Santa Monica looked longingly toward this new line, the ocean terminus of which was not yet determined, north of San Diego. But the Southern Pacific hold on the situation here was too strong to tempt the California Southern this way, until after the failure to make a harbor at Ballona.
Santa Moniica still had advantages, however, which were not dependent upon any railroad. She continued to be the favorite summer resort for pleasure seekers from the interior towns of the southern end of the state and she offered many attractions to eastern tourists and health seekers-when they were fortunate enough to discover that such a place as Santa Monica existed. During 1883 it became necessary to increase her hotel accomodations and the Santa Monica Hotel was remodeled and increased by the addition of twenty rooms. Several new cottages were built and many tents were grouped each summer on "north beach," while the cañon still was a favorite camping resort also. In 1884 the Vawters showed their solid faith in the future by purchasing 100 acres of the Lucas tract, adjoining the town on the south, paying $40.00 per acre for the land.
" . . .
[p. 177] The Wharf Fight.-During the eighties the question of a wharf at Santa Monica was considered the most vital one of all that presented themselves. The people, the trustees, the Board of Trade, the contributors to the papers, and above all the editor of the Outlook, discussed this question in all its phases. The Outlook alternated between arguments to prove the necessity and the profits to be accrued from building a wharf; schemes for the building [p. 178] of a wharf and discourses upon the advisability of a harbor, or a breakwate at Santa Monica.
The first tangible step toward wharf building was the application, in February, 1887, of the Southern Pacific for a franchise to build a wharf at the foot of Railroad street, where the old wharf had stood. This was a direct result of the efforts to establish a "harbor" at Ballona, which were backed by the Santa Fe. But as the harbor of Ballona failed to threaten their San Pedro business, the S.P. application lay dormant. When it became evident that the railroad company would do nothing, more talk followed and in December it was announced that Mr. Bernard, who had still the stump of his wharf, built in '79 at South Santa Monica, had formed a company of capitalists who would rebuild that structure. A committee was sent to San Francisco to interview the railroad people and the Outlook declares: "There is hardly any ground for doubt that we shall have a wharf within the next six months . . .It is one of the anomalies of business that the old Santa Monica wharf was destroyed, not because it didn't pay, but because it did pay. That is to say, it paid the shipper and traveler and would have paid the railroad company had they not been interested at Wilmington and San Pedro."
February 1st, 1888, Geo. S. Van Every and T.A. Lewis, two well known residents of Santa Monica, made an application for a franchise to build a wharf at the foot of Bicknell avenue. At the next meeting of the city trustees a petition was presented by the Santa Monica Wharf Company, signed by forty-five citizens, asking that an election be called for the purpose of submitting the questions of voting $10,000 bonds to be given to the company on the completion of the wharf according to the franchise asked by Messrs. Van Every and Lewis. The discussion and public meetings that followed this action were lively and some warm language must have been used, for a few weeks later the following note was published: "To the Honorable Board of Trustees of the town of Santa Monica. Gents: Whereas we hear it talked by divers persons that the proposition to vote $10,000 subsidy to the 'Santa Monica Wharf and Shipping Company' was simply a scheme to extort and obtain money from the said town for personal purposes; and, whereas, from the said talk, we are advised and believe that the decision will be against us, therefoe, we beg to withdraw our proposition to construct a wharf and here announce that we will have nothing to do with the matter; but would recommend that the town vote bonds necessary to build and maintain a wharf of its own. George S. Van Every, T.A. Lewis."
After more discussion and public meetings, it was generally agreed that it would be feasible for the town to vote bonds for a wharf; but this scheme was decided by the city attorney to be illegal and, nothwithstanding their little "defi" [sic] Messrs. Van Every and Lewis again came to the front with an application for a franchise, which was granted, to build a wharf at the foot of Front [p. 179] street. Mr. Van Every started north to investigate the cost of piles and the Outlook ventured a cautious blast of triumph-with strings on it. Past experience was beginning to tell. After which there is an ominous quiet on the subject of a wharf until the organization of the Board of Trade in December, 1888, which began an immediate agitation of the subject. The "Wharf Committee" reported in favor of organizing a stock company, which proposition was at once acted upon. Papers for subscription were circulated, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade were entertained by the Santa Monica Board of Trade and, incidently, urged to subscribe. More public meetings, more discussion, pro and con. But at last sufficient subscriptions were obtained to warrant the incorporation of the "Santa Monica Wharf Company," July 13th "Critic" in the Outlook writes a sharp letter in which he objects to the acts of the committee in electing itself as directors of the new company and immediately demanding an assessment of 40 per cent from subscribers. He also demands where the wharf is to be built and who is to decide that important question.
Another lull followed while the question of the outfall sewer and an occasional editorial as to the "harbor" seemed to occupy the attention of Santa Monicans. But in December, Mr. J.B. Dunlap appeared before the board of trustees, representing "capitalists" -tht magic quantity-and asked what subsidy Santa Monica was prepared to give for a wharf. This question led to the proposition that the town vote bonds for a sewer system and then pay a wharf company to carry their sewer out to sea. After much legal lore had been expended, it was decided that this might-or might not-be done.
After whch matters seem to have simmered until March, 1890, when the Outlook indulges in this mysterious language: "There is music in the air! Glad tidings float on the breeze. Rumor says Santa Monica is to have a wharf! Our people generally believe it. So does the Outlook. We are not at liberty to enter into details, as everything is not beyond the possibility of failure. There is every reason to believe, however, that our wharf scheme, for which the Outlook and many zealous residents of Santa Monica have so striven, will be a most gratifying success, at an early day, and that, too, in a shape more satisfactory than any of us have dared hope for."
At a public meeting of the subscribers to the "wharf fund" held May 6th, Messrs. L.R. Vincent, D.L. Bancroft and W.D. Vawter were elected commissioners to act for the subscribers, and S.W. Luitweiler, representing the Los Angeles & Pacific Railroad, was present with a proposition. In June articles of incorporation for a new wharf company were filed. This was the "Santa Monica Wharf and Railway Terminal Company," the incoporators being J.A. Stanwood, E.E. Hall, Elwood Chaffy, Arthur Gayford and W.L. Corson; the capital stock fixed at $300,000, $80,000 of which had been subscribed. "The company have acquired an ocean frontage of about a mile and a half, and [p. 180] a large tract of land" (the present site of Ocean Park and Venice). In the meantime many rumors were afloat as to the intentions of the Southern Pacific Company, which had again sent representatives to Santa Monica and looked at the old stump which still represented past commercial importance. During 1890 the town was in a fever of expectation as to the possibilities of the Southern Pacific action and the probability of the Santa Monica Wharf and Railway Terminal Company actually doing something. But after wating until the spring of 1891 for some tangible signs of fulfillment, the citizens again took a hand. In May a petition signed by about a hundred citizens was presented to the board of trustees requesting them to call an election to determine the question of issuing bonds for the construction of a wharf. After a full and enthusiastic discussion of this project by the trustees and the citizens, the matter was put to a vote and was defeated by the vote of two trustees. Another meeting was called and some very hot language was used; a new petition was prepared, urging the trustees to respect the wishes of the citizens; but the two obdurate members remained firm and again the petition was denied. The excitement ran high and the feeling against the two trustees was very bitter in some quarters.
The following emphatic words expressed the feeling of the editor of the Outlook: "We haven't voted any bonds for a wharf at Santa Monica, nor has any person or persons agreed to build one; yet when a location is mentioned for a wharf, it is like shaking a red rag at a mad bull. If there is any one thing that some Santa Monicans can do better than anything else, it is getting up a raging opposition when something is proposed upon which all should agree. If a man started out tomorrow with a pocket full of twenty-dollar gold pieces, some 'chronic' would start a howl of opposition because the right person, in his opinion, had not been selected to make the distribution."
" . . .
[p. 245] Chapter VI South Santa Monica and Ocean Park
A portion of the Lucas ranch was divided into twenty-acre blocks by E.H. Lucas, one of the sons. A number of these were sold in the early eighties to various parties, including several Englishmen. The land was fertile and water was easily obtained by putting down wells and some prosperous little ranches were established here. Among these early settlers were Walter H. Wrenn, Nathan Bundy, Thomas Carlisle, Joseph and John Bontty [sic].
" . . .
[p. 288] Chapter VIII. Churches and Societies: Methodist Church
. . . [p. 288] A pastor was sent here in 1883-4, Rev. J.B. Howard, who found but three resident members of the church. He nevertheless succeeded in gathering a number of new members and strengthened the church by changing the location. The lots on Sixth street were sold and the present location on Fourth street and Arizona avenue were purchased and the building removed.
The church continued to gain slowly under pastors [in the 1880s] until 1890 , , .
" . . .
[p. 329] Chapter XI Venice of America and Its Founder
After a few years residence at "Kinneloa," Mr. Kinney found that the seaside air was better suited to his health than the foothills, and, in the early eighties, he purchased a home on Ocean avenue, Santa Monica. Since that time he has been closely associated with the development of the Santa Monica bay cities.
James W. Lunsford The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, illustrated by Alice N. Lunsford, 1983, 1880s
Ocean Park
"47. Herman Michel* House, 3014 Third Street. The former house of Herman Michel*, who established the first dairy in Los Angeles County in the 1880s near the intersection of Seventeenth and Santa Monica Boulevard. The dairy was later moved to the present site at Fourth and Rose in Venice."
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), 1880s
"Abbot Kinney suffered ill health and an almost constant state of insomnia
" . . . He arrived by steamer in San Francisco's harbor in 1880 . . .
" . . . he decided to visit a Southern California resort noted for its therapeutic qualities, the Sierra Madre Inn in the foothills east of Los Angeles.
"Intent on playing billiards to wile the night away, Kinney tired and fell asleep on the game table. . .
"He . . . purchased sufficient land to build a wood-frame house, and plant a citrus orchard . . . which he named "Kinneloa". . . .
"Kinney took an active interest in Southern California affairs. He invested in business property in downtown Los Angeles and subdivided real estate on the east side of the city. He was instrumental in forming a free library in Pasadena . . .
"He helped form the American Pomological Society, headed the California Academy of Sciences and was an active fighter against the California "fruit trust" involvement in the citrus marketplace.
"Politically he was a Democrat and an avid follower of William Jennings Bryan's precepts. He ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the California state assembly, and he was appointed to the California Forestry Board, the Yosemite Valley Commission and the Los Angeles County Road Commission.
"He authored numeous books and pamphlets on political, social and scientific topics and published a weekly newspaper, The Los Angeles Post.
"Kinney joined the California National Guard and was awarded the rank of major.
"With author Helen Hunt Jackson, Kinney undertook a government-sponsored study of California Mission Indians and the two co-authored a report recommending a number of reforms needed in the treatment of the native American.
"Abbot Kinney and Margaret Dabney Thornton, the daughter of a California Supreme Court justice, were married on November 18th, 1884. The couple move to a new home on the bluffs of Santa Monica overlooking the Pacific. . . . Kinney became active in its development.
"He formed a construction firm, the Santa Monica Improvement Association, which received contracts for a number of private and public buildings in Santa Monica and paved and landscaped the road connecting Santa Monica with the Soldiers Home several miles away. . . .
"Kinney formed a land syndicate to purchase 247 acres on the northern boundary of Santa Monica. It was steep hilly terrain and Kinney visualized it as a future Southern California K(sic)nob Hill. His plans were never realized and the land was eventually sold to Colis B. Huntington.
"With Francis G. Ryan as a partner, Kinney purchased another tract of acreage south of Santa Monica. Although it was mostly sand dunes and swamp, the two men proposed to develop a resort there.
"They persuaded the Santa Fe railroad to extend a spur line onto the property and they built a pier, golf course, horse-racing track, boardwalk and other resort amenities on the northernmost edge of their holdings. The site was named Ocean Park in 1885 and the Kinney-Ryan team merchandized lots there for $100 apiece. The small resort slowly began to prosper.
"Ryan died in 1889 and his widow's new husband, Thomas Dudley, became Kinney's partner. Dudley and Kinney did not get along well and eventually the partnership was dissolved. Dudley's interest was transferred to three Santa Monica investors, Alexander Fraser, Henry Gage and George Merritt Jones. But these three men did not get along with Abbot Kinney either.
"Finally, ownership of the property ws completely divided. Kinney became sole owner of the undeveloped southern half of the acreage . . ."
Gordon Newell and Joe Williamson Pacific Coastal Liners, Superior Publishing Co.: Seattle, WA, (Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing: NY), 1959, 192 pp., 1880s
p. 27 "During the period between 1870 and 1890 most seacoast communities, from San Diego and Santa Barbara to Gray's Harbor, depended (p. 33) largely on the steamships for their transportation needs. Numerous independent lines, many of them one-ship companies, were formed to serve these secondary ports, but few of them flourished for long. They were in competition with the ubiquitous steam schooners, that breed of small wooden lumber carrier peculiar to the West Coast. These little craft poked their blunt noses into every port and doghole along the coast and most of them carried passengers, usually in doghouse-sized staterooms with three bunks piled one above the other . . .
Andrea Schulte-Peevers and David Peevers Los Angeles, Lonely Planet: Oakland, 2nd ed., 1996(1999), 351pp., 1999, 1996, 1890s, 1880s
"Painting & Sculpture
"The first art schools in Los Angeles date to the 1880s and include the LA School of Art and Design, founded by Louisa Garden MacLeod, and the College of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California. A decade or so later, the young city saw an influx of painters migrating to sunnier climes from the East Coast and also from San Francisco. Many settled around the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena as well as Topanga Canyon, Laguna Beach (Orange County) and Avalon on Catalina Island. Known as the 'Eucalyptus School,' these painters specialized in pleasant Impressionist-style landscapes with natural and pastel color palettes."
Grant H. Smith The History of the Comstock Lode 1850-1920, Geology and Mining Series No. 37, University of Nevada Bulletin: Reno, Nevada, vol. XXXVII. 1 July 1943, no. 3, (revised 1966), Ninth printing, 1980. 305pp. 1870s, 1860s
[p. 52] "Stewart was an able and diligent a United States Senator [from Nevada] . . . When his second term expired in 1874 he did not contest with [p. 53] Sharon for reelection, but turned to mining-in Bodie, in the Panamint Range, and elsewhere-always without a success . . . About the year 1884 he formed a law partnership in San Francisco with William F. Herrin, counsel for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Although Stewart had not lived in Nevada for many years, he returned in 1886 and was again elected to the United States Senate (succeeding James G. Fair), and for two additional terms, with the assistance of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Nevada was ably represented in the United States Senate during those years, where Jones [1873-1903] and Stewart [1865-1874; 1886-1904] served as the spearhead in the contest for the remonetization of silver."
" . . .
[p. 249] Chapter XXV Fire in the Stopes-Low-Grade Operations in the Bonanza Mines-The Comstock Milling Monopoly-The Last Washoe Process Mill-Losses in Tailings-Tailings Reworked
[p. 249] Fire in the Stopes
[p. 249] "The immense quantity of timber used to fill the stopes of the Virginia and the California was often remarked upon: "Every ton of ore extracted from the Con. Virginia and California mines leaves a corresponding vacuum. That space is filled with solid 14- and 16-inch timbers, leavving only a sufficient space between the huge bulkheads for the passage of men and cars . . . The cost of these timbers at the mines is $21 per thousand feet (board feet), but even at these figures, it is much cheaper to fill with timber than to employ men to fill with waste rock."
[p. 249] "Not less than 150,000,000 feet of timber, board measurement, had been packed into those stopes and workings-enough to builld a dozen small cities-and a fire would turn the mines into a volcano. Lord tells of that danger and of the vigilance of Mackay and Fair.
"Fortunately, no fire occurred until May 3, 1881, when the bonanza ore was exhausted. There was no hope of quenching it, so all drifts and other openings into the stopes were closed and sealed in order to shut off the supply of oxygen. [p. 249] Three years after, when the fire was brought under control by the injection of carbonic acid gas, the upper stopes were opened and the extraction of low-grade ore was begun. Meantime, the bonanza mines had been levying assessments to carry on deep mining. that hope failed at the end of 1884, the pumps were drawn, and the lower workings began to fill with water. The shares of Con. Virginia and California, which had already fallen to 15 cents, then sold at 5 cents. The Bonanza Firm had not given the stock any support for years and the speculative public lost all interest until the low-grade operation proved unexpectedly profitable.
[p. 250] Low-grade Operations in the Bonanza Mines
[p. 250] "In 1883 Senator J.P. Jones, who had been mining low-grade ores from the old stopes of the Crown Point and the Belcher for three years (as a lessee) [Jone leases his old mine (s) in 1880] was given a lease on the Con. Virginia stopes from the 1550 level upward under an agreement to pay a royalty of 50 cents a ton for every ton milled. All of the openings into the stopes had been sealed since the fire broke out in 1881 and it was stipulated that he should not begin operations until the stopes could be entered. [Footnote: "When the fire burned out the millions of feet of timbers which had been packed into the stopes as the ore was removed, the whole country caved downward to fill the vacancy. The cave extended far up on the hillside back of the town leaving a long crack like an earthquake slip. So great was the pressure in the stopes that pieces of old 14-inch timbers were compressed to 6 and even 4 inches and resembled petrified wood. The town itself slid downward a little, but without damage except to brick buildings." Nevada Historical Magazine for 1911-1912.]
[p. 250] "Mackay was in Europe practically all of that year engrossed in the affairs of the proposed Atlantic cable, and it is evident that neither he nor Superintendent Patton had much confidence that the fills and margins of the old stopes could be mined at a profit. All of their efforts during the preceding four years had been spent on a search for a new ore body below the Con. Virginia bonanza. Development work down to and including the 2900-foot level had been a continual disappointment, and on January 1, 1885, deep mining in the North End mines was abandoned. Ten months later the water was at the 2000-foot level and still rising.
[p. 250] "Patton notified Jones in the spring of 1884 that he had extended a drift into the stopes o the 1200-foot level and that he could begin operations. Jones commenced in May, and up to November 1, 1885, had mined and milled 18,487 tons of ore yielding $310,109.69, or $16.70 a ton, valuing silver at $1,2929 an ounce. The discount brought the value down to $14 a ton.
[p. 250] "As soon as it appeared that Jones was succeeding the Con. Virginia company began to extract low-grade ore below the 1550-foot level. For economy of management and operations the Con. Virginia and California companies were reincorporated on October 1, 1884, as the Consolidated California and Virginia Mining Company with a capital of 216,000 shares of the par value of $100 each. The company itself mined 19,670 tons, yielding $15.91 a ton during the first year, which gave a small profit. Mackay wanted the company to take over all of the operations and he [p. 251] persuaded Jones to surrender his lease to the company by agreeing to give him a one-third interest in the new milling company to be organized to mill the ores. James L. Flood who had taken his father's place in connection with mining affairs, was the third partner. [p. 251 Footnotes: James C. Flood [ -1889] died in 1889 of a long and distressing illness with Bright's disease. It is said that Mackay and James L. Flood bought all of the stock in the treasury at the market price when these operations were begun.]
[p. 251] "The Jones lease was surrendered on January 1, 1886, and the Consolidated Company entered upon ten years of very profitable mining in and about the old stopes, although the operation would have been far less successful except for the lucky discovery of three narrow sheets of good ore adjoining the old California stopes. The first one was found in the summer of 1886, the second in 1891, and the last in 1894. It happened that the first was encountered after Mackay returned to take charge while Superintendent Patton took a vacation. Fair had done little crosscutting on either side of the bonanza owing to the rush of water that followed the cutting of clay walls. In these later years the stopes were practically dry as the water had been drained by deeper workings.
" . . .
[p. 252] ". . . Mackay and Flood . . . withdrew from the Comstock in 1895.
" . . .
[p. 252] "During the years 1884 to 1895, inclusive, the mine produced 860,661 tons of ore, yielding $16,447, 221, coin value, or $19.11 a ton, from which dividends amounting to $3,898,800 were paid, after the payment of $1 a ton royalty to the Sutro Tunnel Company. The value of the gold exceeded that of the coin value of the silver by nearly $2,000,000. The average milling charge was $6.50 per ton, with an 80 percent recovery rate. Mackay and Flood had large idle mills at that time, which enabled them to make a low milling charge . . .
[p. 252] "It is interesting to note that the low-grade operations in the bonanza mines yielded more in dividends than were paid by any of the other Comstock mines in all their history with the exception of three-the Savage, the Crown Point, and the Belcher.
" . . .
[p. 282] Chapter XXVIII "The 1886 Deal"-The Revival from 1886 to 1894-The North End Mines Pumped Out 1899 to 1920
" . . .
[p. 284] The Revival From 1886 to 1894
[p. 284] "When the Combination shaft stopped pumping in October 1886, men thought the Comstock was finished. All that remained was the low-grade ore in the old upper levels which had been so honey-combed with workings that there was no hope of finding another bonanza, and only a chance of encountering some fair ore that had been missed. Nor did the remaining low-grade ore give any promise. Those old upper ore bodies had been stripped time and again of all rock that would pay a profit. The stock market was on its last legs.
" . . .
[p. 285] "The Belcher and the Crown Point, controlled by the Jones interests, and the Yellow Jacket, by the Sharon interests, reduced 750,000 tons of ore averaging $12 a ton, mill returns, during the eight years following 1882, but only to the advantage of their mills. No dividends were paid, but on the contrary a few assessments were levied when the mill returns failed to pay the expense of mining and milling. Such of the other mines as could find a little ore were producing on the same basis.
"[Footnote: Comstock mines during the past three years have been steadily increasing the yield from low-grade ores extracted from old workings in the upper levels; no dividends being paid, but nearly all steadily levying assessment. Of course there is no profit in the business on that basis," says the Mining and Scientific Press of December 27, 1884, "and yet most of those interested in the operations of these mines manage to get a profit out of them by ownership of the mills that crush the ore. "]
" . . .
[p. 291] Appendix Table of Production of Comstock Mines from 1859 to January 1, 1882. Notes on Table. Comstock Production and Profits from 1859 to 1882. Table of Production of the Comstock Mines from 1882 to 1919, Inclusive.
" . . .
[p. 295] "The production up to 1871 was approximately 60 percent silver and 40 percent gold. Thereafter the Crown Point and Con. Virginia bonanza changed that by returning a slight excess in favor of gold. After 1880, silver fell rapidly in value and the total value production of the Comstock may be stated at 55 percent silver and 45 percent gold.
" . . .
[p. 295] Comstock Production and Profits from 1859 to 1882.
[p. 295] " . . .
". . . [estimates based on] the sale value which increases the yield of the bonanza mines and of the Crown Point and of the Belcher by about $10,000,000.
". . .[estimates of the value of recovery from tailings] "worked by various private mills" ought to be $23,765.000 . . . The Bonanza Firm alone produced about $12,000,000 from tailings, up to 1881, and Sharon and Jones as much more.
[p. 296] " . . .
"Lord's estimate of private profits is $2,000,000, whereas the Bonanza Firm alone made $9.070,728 from milling contracts, including profits from tailings and Sharon and associates, and Jones and associates in like manner, gathered in an additional $10,000,000. (It was not considered "good form" at that time to refer to private profits.) The total of private profits was not less than $20,000,000. Expenditures by nonboard companies (referred to as "private companies"), and by individuals, from which no returns were had, may be placed at $11,000,000.
" . . .
Jeffrey Stanton Santa Monica Pier A History from 1875 to 1990, Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 1990, 1909, 1907, 1905, 1900, 1892, 1890, 1889, 1888, 1887, 1886, 1885, 1882, 1880, 1880s, 1879, 1878, 1875,
Chapter 1: Santa Monica's North Beach (1875-1907)
"By 1880, Santa Monica wss experiencing a deep business depression. The population had bottomed out at 350 citizens, the hotel was closed and only a saloon, restaurant, and several grocery and dry goods stores remained. . . . Santa Monica Hotel reopened in 1882, when J. W. Scott bought the hotel. He remodeled it and added a twenty room addition the following year.
" . . . In 1885 the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad managed to break Southern Pacific's monopolistic grip on Southern California when it completed a line to San Diego. The company laid rails north and secured a right-of-way to Ballona Creek, just three miles south of Santa Monica. The railroad in partnership with Ballona Harbor and Improvement Company, planned a massive seaport there. They built two piers and began digging a channel from the sea into the inland lagoon. Track was laid toward Palms and Los Angeles.
" . . . J.W. Scott purchased a tract of land between Railroad and Front St. from the Southern Pacific for $3000. He subdivided this property in south Santa Monica into forty lots and sold thirty lots for $30,000. he then used the money in 1886 to begin construction of a first class hotel called the Arcadia. " p.10
{Photograph p. 8: 1888 view north from the Arcadia Hotel, showing the tourist facilities of North Beach. In the immediate foreground is a woodburning locomotive, and two people looking away from the locomotive across a ravine to a dune road leading to a sign on the side of a fragile looking shed, Vawter's Choice Groceries, No. 10 Third. In the mid-ground is Eckert & Hopf's Pavilion Restaurant, and on the beach beyond the Santa Monica Bathhouse and set well back on the bluffs above the two-story Santa Monica Hotel. Tents for beach businesses were manufactured by William I. Hull there and one can see an advertisment for tent rentals at the foot of the stairs leading down from Eckert & Hopf's. It is remarkable how forested Santa Monica appears, trees already taller than the four chimmnies of the Santa Monica Hotel, thirteen years after its founding.}
{The Arcadia Hotel photo on page 11: The 125 room Arcadia Hotel opened January 24, 1887. It spills down to the Arcadia Bath House, the Royal Cafe to the boardwalk on a narrow beach above the high tide line. There are houses immediately to the south on the bluffs with wooden walk ways to the beach on what might now be Bay St. A high picket fence seems to shut the houses off from the hotel. Just at the southern edge there is a wooden water tower. }
{The useful synthetic diagram on page 9 indicates the placement of structures and south of Railroad St.: (7) Los Angeles and Independence Wharf (1875-1879), described above; (9) Eckert & Hopf Pavilion Restaurant (1879-1900); (10) Thompson Scenic Railroad (1887-1889). which connected the Arcadia Hotel across the railroad gorge to Ocean Av.; (11) Arcadia Bathhouse (1887-1905); (12) Arcadia Hotel (1887-1909); (13) Jackson Hotel (1889- ) across Ocean Av., from the Arcadia Hotel; (14) Southern Pacific Railroad Depot (1878- ); (15) Southern Pacific Railroad Tunnel (1892- )}
{Page 12 1887 photo of the Thompson Switchback Gravity Railroad, forerunner of the roller coaster which connected the Arcadia Hotel to Santa Monica across the railroad gorge.}
{Page 13 Undated photo cable-driven steam-powered Ferris Wheel.}
"His [J.W. Scott] elegant 125 room hotel which was named for Colonel Baker's beautiful wife Arcadia, became the finest seaside hotel in California when it opened on January 24, 1887. It was a huge, long rectangular, wooden structure located on the edge of the bluffs, just south of the railroad tracks that led to the old wharf. Its five stories rose from the beach on the ocean side, but it was only three stories high at its inland entrance that was topped by an observation tower. It had a dining room for two hundred guests, a sitting room, parlor, ladies' billiard and reading rooms on the first floor. There was a ballroom and conservatory on a lower floor. The beach was accessbile through the bottom floor where one could sit at the cafe or lounge on the sand. There were also therapeutic salt water baths available.
"The Arcadia had a unique Thompson Switchback Gravity Railroad which carried passengers from the top of the bluff across the arroyo and back, on a short 500 foot undulating track that used natural gravity. La Marcus Thompson came to Santa Monica during the winter to supervise the ride's construction. One end of the gravity railroad terminated at the Arcadia Hotel and the other end at the Pavilion on the north side of the Southern Pacific track. This early style roller coaster, whose gentle dips thrilled passengers of the day, had a reverse track so visitors could ride both directions.
"Legend had it that the town's early-day prostitutes and their pimps took it over one night for a joy-ride and frustrated the hotel patrons efforts to ride for an hour. Another account mentions a drunk who one night became trapped when the car he released began travelling back and forth between two of the larger dips." p.16
"In February [1887] Southern Pacific officials visited the Arcadia Hotel. They soon announced that they would build a new deep water wharf to compete with Santa Fe's nearby Port Ballona project. . . .
"The Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads . . . became locked in a deadly rate war. Fares from Kansas City to Los Angeles, normally about $100 began plunging. On the morning of March 6, 1887, the fare was down to $8. At noon, Southern Pacific lowered it to one dollar, a fare the Santa Fe . . . didn't match. . . . The fares rose steadily, but remained about $25 for the next few months.
"Easterners and midwesterners, . . . came to California by the thousands. Real estate agents eagerly awaited the newcomers, and offered them free transportation and meals in exchange for attending land auctions. Long Beach and Glendale were a few of the new towns that were instantly created and subdivided out of the remaining rancheros. . . .
" . . . New businesses, many built of brick, filled in much of Santa Monica's unpaved downtown area along Second, Third and Fourth Streets. The Santa Monica Evening Outlook newspaper began publishing again, and W.D. Vawter*, who opened the town's first general store in 1875, applied for a franchise to operate horse drawn trolleys on narrow-gauge tracks. His line, when it opened in June 1887, began at Ocean Avenue and Railroad Street, weaved through the business district, and ran to 7th St. and Nevada (Wilshire).
" . . . The Port Ballona developers suddenly discovered that a hard layer of clay lay under the marshes at the mouth of the creek. When their dredging machines couldn't dent it, they were forced to abandon the project. Once the threat of a competing port evaporated, the Southern Pacific, too, scrapped plans for its new wharf in Santa Monica.
" . . . The First National Bank that Vawter* and others planned in 1887 finally opened in 1888. The trolley route was extended south along Ocean Avenue to Pico and along Nevada to 17th Street, then out to the Old Soldier's Home in 1890.
" . . . Southern Pacific brought 200,000 tourists to Santa Monica in 1889, and thousands more arrived by their own conveyance. On one warm Sunday 12,000 visitors arrived to watch a balloon ascension. Although the Santa Monica Hotel was destroyed by fire on January 15, 1889, . . . The owners promptly rebuilt directly across the street from the Arcadia Hotel.
"The influx of newcomer's and the growth of trade during the late 1880s led to the need for an improved deep-water harbor in Southern California. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Pacific preferred the San Pedro location. Senator Jones and Santa Monica civic leaders campaigned for a harbor nearby.
" . . .
" . . . Southern Pacific . . . changed their mind. . . . the real reason [being]the success of Santa Fe's Redondo Beach wharf which opened in 1889. Except for coal and lumber, 60% of all seaborne shipping in and out of Los Angeles area was handled by that wharf. . . . "
Les Storrs Santa Monica Portrait of a City Yesterday and Today, Santa Monica Bank: Santa Monica, CA, 1974, 67 pp., 1884, 1880s
P. 9 [Photo Caption: "Third St., northward from Utah Ave. (Broadway), c. 1881, with horses and buggies and plank two story shop, and with some tree growth evident]
In 1884 Williamson D. Vawter*, one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church, and his sons William S. [Vawter*] and Edwin J. [Vawter*] . . . acquired 100 acres of the Lucas tract, adjoining Santa Monica to the south, for $40 per acre. By 1885 St. Monica's Catholic Church moved into its building on Third St. In 1888 St. Augustine's Episcopal curch moved into its new building on the site of the present church in the 1200 block on Fourth St,, although Episcopal services had been held in a variety of places ever since 1875.
Gregory Weinstein The Ardent Eighties, International Press: New York, 1928, 182 pp. Obtained at the John Muir Elementary and Olympic High Swap Meet, Ocean Park, February 2, 2008 (Signed by Gregory Weinstein, "To Jacob Mousky, A man with spunk and a smile") Reprinted copies of the book are available from Googlebooks.
The author recounts the pogroms of the 1880's which drove his family from Europoe, and recounts his attempts to live righteously in a society which he sees as better than absolute monarchy, but still short of its promise of democracy for workers, and ordinary people.
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1880s
"Roller skating succeeded walking as a fad and was in turn eclipsed by the bicycle in the 1880s. The first velocipedes, unstable contraptions with a tall front wheel and a small one behind, were seen briefly in Los Angeles in 1869 . . .
"Baseball . . .
"Boxing . . .
" . . . By 1880 . . . in the fall, the circus came to town as it had each year since the 1840s . . . "Frank Gardner's famous double somersault over 3 elephants and 9 camels."
Page 15: Poster for W.W. Cole's Circus The Only Electric-Lighted Sun-Eclipsing Big Show That Ever Crossed the Great Divide "Cheer after cheer rent the air at each surprising feature." Nashville American. The Grandest and Best Circus Ever in California at Los Angeles Wedn'sday Sept. 15. Reproducing and Reflecting All Earth's Grandest Marvels! Under the resplendent glare of the Brush Dynamo Electric Light, used exclusively with W.W. Cole's Great Concorpation of Circus, Menagerie, Aquarium, and Congress of Living Wonders. "The best trained horse in the world"-Quincy Daily Herald The Only Show that Faithfully Keeps its Word. "A better show never existed."-Lincoln Daily Journal.
2. "The Best Young Men": The Arcadia Block
(Sept., 1880) Fifty-three original members formed "a purely American", as opposed to a Germanic, Los Angeles Athletic Club, renting Stearns Hall, on the second floor of the old Arcadia Block at the corner of Los Angeles and Arcadia Streets, built in 1858 by Don Abel Stearns and named in honor of his wife, Doña Arcadia Bandini. . . . "In recent years the rooms had been used for dancing classes and as a skating rink, while the ground floor was occupied by the firm of "Harris Newmark and Co., Wholesale Grocers and Liquor Merchants." Across Los Angeles St. from the Calle de los Negros. The three-story Baker Block, immediately to the rear, contained shops, offices and the . . . apartments of Arcadia Bandini de Baker herself. . . . By November the club had installed a trapeze, long horse, flying rings, parallel bars, dumbbells and Indian clubs, and turnverein trained teachers were teaching the beginners. Boxing was introduced.
" . . .
"[Ed] A. Preuss [a charter member of the Turnverein, and an accomplished athlete, served as the LAAC gymnastics instructor] was co-owner of the Preuss and Peroni Drug Store . . . which advertised . . . nostrums, "the Lion Malaria and Liver Pad, with body and foot plasters and three remedies in one, and only one dollar for all." The shop included a soda fountain . . .
" . . . In 1881, . . . Los Angeles celebrated its own centennial. . . . population 11,183 . . .
3. Blazing New Trails: The Downey Block [1882-1889]
The new quarters included a carpeted billiard room, as well as showers and dressing rooms and a reading room, along with new athletic equipment. . . .
" . . .
"Gradually the mania for cycling overshadowed public interest in track and field as well as other sports. This phenomenon had its beginning in 1882 when a group of young men who had formed the Century Club for cross-country horseback riding tried to decide to continue . . . In a flip of the coin, cycles won . . . the name of the club was changed to the Los Angeles Wheelmen . . .
" . . .
"In spite of the danger involved in riding the old-style velocipedes, cycling quickly became a recognized sport. Within the year, a season of races sponsored by the LAAC on a course between Los Angeles and Santa Monica proved . . . successful . . . the safety bicycle was invented with wheels of equal size in 1886 . . .
"Interest in amateur sports and physical fitness continued to grow as the boom reached its height (1887). Trainloads of tourists and new residents arrived daily on the competing Southern Pacific and Santa Fe lines, paying as little as a dollar for a ticket from the Midwest. Excursion parties of tired travelers who had been recruited en masse in their home towns were often met at stops along the way with offerings of flowers and fruit, band concerts, and the blandishments of land promoters.
"The new Angelenos were a remarkable lot: they were cultured, conservative, affluent, and most of them were health-seekers. Afflicted with a variety of real and imaginary ailments, droves of these self-proclaimed invalids had heard the promises of the railroad publicity agents and came to California seeking the benefits of the climate and miraculous cures. . . .
"The influence of the Club and the recently introduced science of "physical culture" balanced "the salves, tonics and nostrums." . . .
" . . . "
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp., 1880s
"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."
3. Abbot Kinney and His Trees
"The land boom of the 1880s reversed the area's downward trend and saw the population of Los Angeles grow from 12,000 to 87,000 For Santa Monica the magic year was 1886, when subdivisions multiplied and work was begun on the elegant Hotel Arcadia. Southern Pacific trains made four round trips to Santa Monica on weekdays, six on Sundays, . . .
" . . .
"By the end of the decade, Santa Monica had become a full-fledged resort, with hotels, restaurants, and an opera house. George Grimminger had a beer garden at Third and Utah (Broadway); a gospel tent was pitched at Third and Oregon (Santa Monica Boulevard); and . . . citizens objected to people camping on the beach. . . . In July, 1888, 5,000 visitors came to Santa Monica, 500 to Long Beach, 400 to Redondo, and 100 to Catalina. . . .
" . . .
" . . . Mendel Meyer [a violinist, known from San Francisco to Tombstone] maintained salons and saloons in Santa Monica and the Canyon in the eighties and nineties . . ."