USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 59
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The intention of the members of this society was to conduct a fair on the plan that fairs were then conducted in the eastern states-the exhibition of prize pigs, poultry, cattle, sheep and other farm products-the show enlivened
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by an occasional mildly conducted horse race. The times were not auspicious for the venture. The days when a cattle baron could bet a thou- sand head of cattle on the speed of a favorite mustang were long past. The barons had neither cattle nor coin to bet and the newcom- ers, who had acquired their lands, were but little better off financially.
The Fairs did not pay and the Park fell into disrepute. There was an attempt at one time to convert it into a corida de toros for bull fighting. The Los Angeles Journal of October, 1879, describes one of these exhibitions :
"The bull was lassoed and thrown and his horns sawed off so close to his head that they bled. When he regained his feet he made it lively for the toreadors, knocked one down and very nearly trampled the life out of him; his other tormentors took to the top of the fence. This bull had too much fight in him. He was turned out and two milder ones run in. They were more interested in fighting the flies than the toreadors. This was the last attempt to revive bull fighting, the national amusement of Spain and Mexico, in Los Angeles."
The incorporators of the society were unable to pay the interest on the mortgage or the prin- cipal when it came due. It was foreclosed in 1879 and the property sold July, 1880, on a writ of execution for $9,190-the interest and cost of foreclosure having nearly doubled the original debt. The ruling rate of interest at that time was fifteen per cent per annum.
May 20, 1880, the Sixth District Agricultural Association was formed and a Board of Direc- tors appointed by the governor of the state, W. E. Hollenbeck was made president of the Board and William Niles secretary. The Board of Directors and a number of public-spirited citizens combined to redeem the property and convert it into fair grounds. They laid off a portion of it on the east, south and west fronts in building lots. One hundred and thirty of these were sold at $100 each and sufficient funds were received from the sale to pay off the indebtedness. The deed was made to the Board of Directors of the Sixth District Agri- cultural Association, "to hold in one piece or divide as they may elect the property known as Agricultural Park."
William Niles, the secretary, prepared the deed to transfer the property to the Sixth Dis-
trict Agricultural Association. He inserted a clause in it providing that it should be used for a period of twenty-five years for Agricultural Expositions or Fairs and after that it was to revert to the stockholders, of which there were about one hundred. This action of Niles was disclaimed by all the stockholders except Niles, his brother and Fairchild.
In 1883 action was begun in the superior court to set aside this deed, all the grantees except the above named three being plaintiffs. Judgment was rendered in favor of the plain- tiffs.
In 1895 new complications arose in the legal status of the Park. John Lynch was speaker of the Assembly. He secured the enactment of a law providing that fair grounds could be managed by a board of directors elected by the stockholders of the grounds. This virtually took the management of agricultural exposi- tions out of state control. The capital stock of the new association, which was named Agricultural District Number Six, was divided into one hundred and thirty shares of $100 each and transfer of the property made to the new association.
Litigation and the change of owners and managers had a demoralizing influence on the Park and it had again lost its character and fallen into disreputable habits. The grounds were leased to "Col." I. D. Black and were de- voted to horse racing, rabbit coursing and various gambling games. Jack rabbits were trapped and kept in cages. On Sundays these were turned loose with a pack of hounds after them and a pack of boys and men after the hounds. The yelping of the hounds and the yelling of the boys made Sunday a day of horror to the neighborhood.
Hon. William M. Bowen, a prominent law- yer living in that section of the city, was teach- ing a class of boys in the Sunday School of the University Methodist Church. In the spring of 1899 he noted a falling off in the attendance of his class. Examining into the cause he found it was due to the orgies in Agricultural Park. He set himself the herculean task of cleaning the Park of its undesirable tenants. The Park at that time was beyond the city limits, and the city ordinances could not be enforced against the transgressors. An at- tempt had been made in 1896 to annex it to
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the city, but the sporting element voted it down. In June, 1899, a second election was held, and although bitterly fought by the race track crowd, the district in which the Park was lo- cated was annexed.
Mr. Bowen was elected to the council and was successful in securing the abatement of the objectionable amusements at the Park. To pre- vent it from retrograding into disreputable habits he set to work to raise money to pur- chase it for a city park. When about $25,000 had been subscribed he received a hint from the late J. S. Slauson that it might be well to ex- amine into the title and find out who were the real owners.
An investigation of the title led to litigation, which carried to the supreme court, resulted in that court deciding the act of 1895 unconsti- tutional and void and restoring the Park to the state and its control passed to the reor- ganized Board of Directors of the Sixth Dis- trict Agricultural Association.
The property having come to the state with a clear title, the question arose what can be done with it. A plan was evolved to erect a Museum and Exposition building. The state leased the property jointly to the city and county for park and exposition purposes for fifty years. The county supervisors agreed to expend $150,000 on the erection of a Museum of History, Science and Art, the city $100,000 on beautifying the grounds and the state to appropriate $250,000 towards the Exposition buildings. It has also appropriated a similar amount for an armory.
The first movement towards the erection of buildings in the Park was made in January, 1910, by the Historical Society of Southern Cal- ifornia. The president, Dr. George F. Bovard, and the secretary, J. M. Guinn, met with Wil- liam M. Bowen in Dr. Bovard's office. Mr. Bowen presented a rough sketch of the pro- posed Museum building.
It was decided to invite the Southern Cali- fornia Academy of Science, the Fine Arts League and the southern branch of the Cooper Ornithological Society to unite with the His- torical Society to interview the Board of Super- visors and ask that Board to appropriate funds sufficient to build and furnish a building for the collections of these societies. The secre- tary of the Historical Society, J. M. Guinn, was
instructed to communicate with the officers of these societies and to ask them to assist in se- curing an appropriation.
February 14, 1910, Dr. George F. Bovard and J. M. Guinn, who had been elected on the Board of Governors of the proposed Museum Building, William M. Bowen and representa- tives of the Academy of Science and of the Art League met with the Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors assured the representatives of the different societies that money sufficient to build and fit up a suitable building would be appropriated.
William M. Bowen presented the outline of a plan for the government of the building. "The building and the exhibits in it will be under the management of a Board of Governors ap- portioned as follows: Two from the Historical Society; two from the Academy of Science; two from the Fine Arts League; one from the Cooper Ornithological Society; one at large and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors." The plan was adopted. The following-named persons constituted the board: At large, William M. Bowen; Historical Society, Dr. George F. Bovard and J. M. Guinn; Academy of Science, Dr. A. Davidson and William A. Spalding; The Fine Arts League, Mrs. Wil- liam H. Housh and T. E. Gibbon ; Cooper Or- nithological Society, Howard Robertson ; Board of Supervisors, the chairman, C. J. Nellis. William M. Bowen was elected presi- dent and Howard Robertson secretary of the Board of Governors.
Monday, July 11, 1910, the following-named members of the Board of Governors of the Museum of History, Science and Art assembled at Agricultural Park to break ground for the erection of a building: William M. Bowen, president of the Board of Governors; C. J. Nellis, chairman of the Board of Supervisors; J. M. Guinn, secretary of the Historical Society of Southern California; W. A. Spalding of the Southern California Academy of Science; Howard Robertson of the Cooper Ornitholog- ical Society, and Mrs. W. H. Housh, president of the Fine Arts League.
The corner stones of the Museum of History, Science and Art, and also of the Exposition Building were laid by the Masonic fraternity, December 17, 1910. At the time of laying the corner stones of the Museum and Exposition
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Building Miss Mary S. Bowen, daughter of William M. Bowen, christened the grounds Exposition Park, using water brought from the head of Owens River Aqueduct.
SUNSET PARK
Sunset Park, containing ten acres, was do- nated to the city by Mrs. Shatto. It is located in an aristocratic district and although small in area is one of the most valuable of our parks from a financial standard, and is a very at- tractive resort.
GRIFFITH PARK
Griffith Park, containing 3,015 acres and claimed to be the largest public park in the world, was donated to the city by Col. Griffith J. Griffith. At the time it was donated it was outside of the city, but by the annexation of East Hollywood and Ivanhoe, February 27, 1910, the limits of the city were extended to include it.
The menagerie has been moved from East- lake Park to Griffith Park. Mount Hollywood, in the park, is the most elevated land within the city. Its elevation is 1,647 feet.
SOUTH PARK
South Park was bought by the city. It was purchased in 1898 by the issue of bonds voted that year. The amount of the bonds was $10,000.
The area of the park is eighteen and one-half acres. Its money value is estimated at $175,000.
SYCAMORE GROVE
Sycamore Grove was purchased by the city for a park. In Pueblo days before Los Angeles owned a park it was a favorite place for holding picnics. The Arroyo Seco in 1914 cut away several acres of its area. It contains twenty acres.
There are a number of small parks in the city which have but little history. Several of these are less than an acre in area. The total acreage of the city parks is 3,983 acres.
PLAYGROUNDS
The city maintains a system of playgrounds. There are eight of these, varying in size from the sixty one hundredths of an acre to forty- three acres. They are as follows: Violet, Echo, Recreation, Slauson, Hazard, Downey, Exposition, Solano. In addition a summer camp and a bath house are maintained. The total acreage of all the playgrounds is 69.70 acres. The value of the land is estimated at $175,000; the improvements, buildings, fences, etc., at $77,000; the equipment $29,767. The total monetary value of the playground prop- erty of the city is estimated by the Playground Commission at $282,465. The appropriation made by the City Council for the maintenance of the playgrounds amounts to about $60,000 per year.
CHAPTER LI
EXPANSION OF THE CITY BY ANNEXATION AND CONSOLIDATION
For more than a century after Governor Felipe de Neve founded the little Pueblo of Los An- geles, with but one slight addition its boun- daries remained the same, that is "one league (Spanish) in the direction of each wind meas- ured from the plaza center." Its area reduced to our measurement was 27.7 square miles.
The Department Assembly or Diputacion with a desire to expand the limits of the pros- pective city and capital, in 1834, gave it an area of sixteen square leagues or "two leagues measured in the direction of each of the four
winds." This gave the pueblo a domain of 111.1 square miles, an expansion that after a dozen enlargements by annexation and consoli- dation it has not yet reached.
This attempt at enlargement met with ob- stacles. The pueblo limits extended on the north collided with the San Rafael rancho and on the northeast with the Rosa de Castilla, one of the ranchos of the Mission San Gabriel.
On the east it extended to the rancho La- guna, on the west to the La Brea and Cienega and on the south to the Los Cuervos, but the
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distances from the plaza to the rancho lines were not in all cases two leagues toward each wind from the plaza center.
At the time of the conquest the municipality was holding on to its magnificent domain. The city was ten miles across from east to west and the same from north to south. It was then the largest city in area in America.
In 1853 Henry Hancock was employed by the city council to subdivide over thirty-seven thousand acres lying south of Pico street and extending two miles west by two and a half south, and as far east as the Los Angeles river into thirty-five acre lots. This was outside or beyond the pueblo area of four square leagues. He also made a survey of the four square leagues within the city limits measuring a league each way from the center of the plaza. All the lands beyond the old pueblo grants and the old survey in the city were divided into thirty-five acre lots. This is known as the Hancock survey.
When the United States claims commission began its arduous labors of confirming or re- jecting Spanish and Mexican grants, the city council employed an attorney to defend its claim to its expanded area. The attorney was a politician with a pull and supposed to have influence with the political party in power. He pulled down the greater part of his munificent fee and the city lost its land. For some time after the adoption of its first charter the city had two boundaries on the south, the pueblo boundary and the charter boundary. The latter was confirmed to it in 1869 and added one and one-tenth square miles to its area, a pitiful compensation for years of litigation.
In 1875, after many delays, a United States patent signed by Gen. U. S. Grant, when he was president, was granted to the mayor and council. When Los Angeles celebrated its cen- tennial September 4, 1881, it had increased in area just seven hundred twenty acres over its dimensions on that day one hundred years be- fore when good Gov. Filepe de Neve planted his little colony of pobladores around the old plaza, which long ago was abandoned, and across its boundaries today whiz the automobile and electric car.
At the beginning of the great real-estate boom of 1887 population in a few places had crossed the city boundaries and planted itself
beyond on town lots, but by far the greater part of the land bordering on the city outside was held in small farms. What was known as Ver- non, a body of land lying south of Jefferson street and extending southerly to Slauson avenue, was devoted to fruit raising-oranges, apples, peaches, pears and grapes.
During the boom a few tracts of land- small farms-lying beyond the city limits were subdivided and put on the market in town lots. With the subsidence of the boom subdivision ceased and the value of lots decreased. Some of the subdivided tracts were returned to acre- age.
It was not until well along in the second decade of its second century that the city began its expansion by annexation. The first addi- tion to the city was the annexation of Highland Park, a tract of land adjoining to and lying northeast of the city. By this annexation the area of the city was increased nine hundred and four acres. This addition was acquired by an election held in the city and the district seeking annexation, October 13, 1895. At the same election an attempt was made to take into the city Vernon, a district known as Har- mony, lying south of the city and a portion of the University lying west of the city.
It was defeated by a faction fight and the men afraid of taxes. Another election was held April 2, 1896. The disaffected district was left out and the district lying along the south and western borders and an extensive tract ex- tending along the western side of the city well up to the northern line were taken in. This was the largest annexation that had been attempted. It contained 6,517 acres-over ten square miles. The two tracts had been connected by a shoe- string strip of one hundred feet wide to make them contiguous territory.
June 12, 1899, Garvanza, containing four hun- dred and forty acres, and University (that had refused to come in at a former election) on the same day united their destinies with the city. These two increased the city's area 1,576 acres.
With the ending of the century the city rested from its absorption of additional terri- tory. All that was in any way compactly set- tled had been annexed and there was no de- mand from the owners of farm land to have it subjected to city taxes. The closing years of the century had been a period of financial de-
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pression. The free silver craze had demoral- ized finances. The Spanish war had added to the depression and two dry years in succes- sion had reduced the farmers to the verge of bankruptcy.
With the beginning of the new century light began to break through the financial gloom that had darkened the closing years of the last. The city had grown slowly during the decade just ended. Money was plentiful and rates of interest low, but the oldtime residents' expe- rience with a real estate boom had made them cautious about venturing on new projects. It was the newcomers who began to invest. Prop- erty values advanced. Those who had been carrying mortgages since the booming days of 1887 unloaded their incumbered holdings at what they considered a good figure and were happy to be out of debt.
But when they cast about for an investment on which they could make a good turn they discovered that property values were advanc- ing while their bank accounts had remained stationary. Then they were not happy. Great projects were being agitated. The Owens river aqueduct would be built, and that would make Los Angeles a great manufacturing city. The Panama canal was an assured fact, and that would make Los Angeles the great seaport city of the south. The city of San Pedro controlled the outer harbor, and the city of Wilmington the inner harbor. Corporate interests en- trenched by years of undisputed domination held possession of a large part of the water front of both harbors, and were scheming to get more.
The two towns were not financially able to develop the harbor to accommodate the ship- ping that would come when the Panama canal was completed.
The problem to be solved was how can Los Angeles get control of the harbor? It might extend its limits to those of the sea coast towns, but that would not give it control of their har- bors. The only feasible plan was the consolida- tion of the three cities into a Greater Los Angeles, but this was barred by the fact that their territory was not contiguous to Los An- geles city. The city attorney finally solved the puzzling problem. On his advice the council called an election, and on the 26th of December,
1906, the famous shoestring strip tied Los Angeles to Wilmington and San Pedro.
The "shoestring" was a strip of land half a mile wide starting from the southern limits of the city, which were shoved down about four miles, and running in a straight line south to Gardena, where it made a right angled turn to the west of about a mile and then continued southerly to intersect the westerly lines of the sea coast cities.
The harbor cities were not pleased at the prospect of being absorbed by the inland city. The corporate interests were hostile to the union. The "shoestring" was loose. It had failed to tie the cities together. It required an enabling act to legalize consolidation, and the adverse interest could not agree upon a method. The first bill presented to the legislature of 1907 was defeated. At the session of 1909 a law was enacted which was satisfactory.
After the passage of the consolidation act a campaign of education was begun-for there were still doubters in the cities by the seaside- unbelievers who had no faith in the promises of the campaign orators who were sent to en- lighten them. Opposition in the harbor cities diminished as the campaign progressed. August 4, 1909, an election was held in Wilmington. By an affirmative vote of 107 to 61 negatives, Wilmington became a part of Greater Los An- geles. On August 12th San Pedro voted on the question. The vote stood 726 for and 227 against. In Los Angeles there was scarcely any opposition.
On the 28th of August the papers legalizing consolidation were filed with the secretary of state at the capitol. By the shoestring annexa- tion the city gained in area 11,931 acres, or 18.64 square miles. By the Wilmington con- solidation 6,358 acres, equal to 9.93 square miles. San Pedro added 2,948 acres, or 4.61 square miles, to the city's area, and Los Angeles became a seaport city, or perhaps to state it more accurately, a city with a seaport.
With the approaching completion of the Owens river aqueduct a mania for annexation seemed to seize the people living in districts contiguous to Los Angeles city. The Cole- grove district was the first to apply. It lay west of the western addition annexed in 1906, and extended northward beyond the northern limits of the old city. The election was held
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October 19, 1909. The district came in prac- tically with no opposition from either the ins or the outs. This annexation added 5,570 acres, or 8.72 square miles, to Greater Los Angeles.
The next to apply for admission into the growing city was the city of Hollywood. It came in by consolidation at an election held January 24, 1910. The vote in Hollywood stood 409 for consolidation and 18 against. In Los Angeles 6,224 for and 373 against. Holly- wood added 2,848 acres, or 4.45 square miles, to the city's area.
Following Hollywood came East Hollywood, Ivanhoe and a strip of country east of the Los Angeles city limits extending to the Tropico line. Most of this was sparsely settled, but the people had become so accustomed to annexing territory that there was no opposition from the ins. The election was held February 18, 1910. The territory brought within the city limits by this annexation was 7,112 acres, or 11.11 square miles. Included in this, however, was Griffith Park, a body of land containing 3,015 acres. This park was donated to the city by Col. Griffith J. Griffith, but lying some distance beyond the corporate limits, the city had made but little use of it. As an integral part of the city it became a valuable adjunct to our pleasure re- sorts.
In six months the city's area had been in- creased by annexation and consolidation nearly forty square miles. Then there came a lull in the annexation mania. Two years passed be- fore any more territory was added. An attempt had been made in the fall of 1911 by what was known as the Arroyo Seco district to unite with the city. A portion of this lay west of Highland Park and Garvanza and a part east extending down the Arroyo Seco and along the eastern line of the old city. The annexation scheme was defeated by certain commuters who preferred to govern themselves. Another elec- tion was called February 9, 1912. The recal- citrant districts, Bairdstown and Belvedere, were left out and the Arroyo Seco district was taken into the city. The area annexed was 4,416 acres, or 6.9 square miles. The city by annexation and consolidation had increased its area to 107.62 square miles, a fraction less than it claimed at the time of the conquest.
At an election held May 4, 1915, 168 square miles of the San Fernando valley were annexed
and four square miles of the Palms district. Through all the changes by annexation and consolidation the eastern boundary line has re- mained unchanged. It is where Governor Felipe de Neve would have placed it on that September morn in the year of our Lord 1781- one league toward the east wind from the plaza where his little band of pobladores were build- ing their tule huts.
By the various annexations and consolida- tions that have added to its area, Los Angeles lias lost the symmetry of form it possessed in its pueblo days. With its panhandle extension to the northeast, the bulging boundary line to the west, the half mile wide by twelve miles long shoestring strip to the south that ties it to the seaside cities that have lost their in- dividuality there is no geometric term that will describe its shape. There is no living thing with which it can be compared. The main por- tion of the city is approximately eight miles long north and south. There are hardly two points in its boundary lines where it is the same length and breadth. Its extreme length north and south is about thirty-two miles, its ex- treme width east and west is eleven miles.
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