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 60
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The additions which followed each other rapidly in 1909 and 1910, just preceding the taking of the federal census, increased the population of the city 13,000 and added to its wealth $32,000,000. Only one foreign city- London-exceeds it in area. There are five American cities, New York, Chicago, Phila- delphia, New Orleans and Rochester, that in- clude within their boundaries more square miles than Los Angeles.
While the expansion of the city's area in- creased its physical size among the great cities of the continent, it also added to its municipal expenses. The greatest increase was in the school department. Annexation brought in a number of antiquated school houses in various stages of dilapidation. No sooner were they within the city's limits than their patrons de- manded all the modern conveniences and the teachers demanded the increased salaries paid to city teachers. All of the union high schools annexed brought with them a number of dis- trict schools that although outside of the city limits were entitled to and received the same privileges accorded to the schools within the city's boundaries.
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While the city's area was increased to a little over one hundred square miles, the area of the Los Angeles City School District was enlarged to over two hundred miles. The expense of the police department was greatly increased, and also that of the street department. That department took in long stretches of country road.
The enlargement of the city was made the pretext for the formation of a new charter. A board of fifteen freeholders was elected in April, 1912, to form a new charter. After months of labor a code of basic laws was evolved by the board and submitted to the vote of the people at a special election held in January, 1913. By a vote of more than two to one against the charter the voters put the stamp of condemna- tion on the document. After its defeat a con-
vocation of socialists and would-be social reform- ers got together and formulated a number of amendments to the existing charter.
The chief object of the amendments was to legislate out of office the city officers elected in December, 1911, and to fill their places with civic reformers. Most of the amendments car- ried, but one of them, minority representation, which was to affect civic regeneration, was badly beaten. By the adoption of these amend- ments and their approval by the legislature the time of holding the election was changed from December to June, the term of office was made two years instead of four and the salaries of all the city officers except those of the Board of Education increased. Nothing was gained by the people through the change.
CHAPTER LII
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY BY DECADES
American cities grow erratically. Even the staid eastern cities have their booms-periods when they seem to take on the exuberance of youth and make for a limited time an un- precedented growth. We are accustomed to regard staid old Philadelphia as an example of slowness and to twit her people on their dila- tory methods and antiquated customs, and yet Philadelphia in her history can show the most remarkable decade of increase in population of any city in the United States. In the decade between 1850 and 1860 its population grew from 131,000 to 580,000-an increase of over four hundred per cent in ten years. The Pa- cific coast cities for several decades have made the most rapid growth of any in the United States. Some of them have trebled in size be- tween federal censuses. Los Angeles in its youth was probably one of the slowest, most unprogressive towns on the continent. The ten heads of families who built their tule huts around the old plaza north of the Church of the Angeles had no ambition to found a city. They planted their little fields, tended their herds of cattle and manadas of horses-lived out their uneventful lives, died, and are for- gotten. No forefathers' day keeps alive their
memories. No monument marks the last rest- ing place of any one of them.
The little pueblo grew in a leisurely way. There were no booms in its early history. Houses were not built until there was a crying need for them and subdivisions were unknown. In the four decades that the Pueblo of Los An- geles was under Spanish domination its popu- lation increased from 44 to 650. The only pub- lic improvements made by the community dur- ing that time were the zanja madre or mother ditch, the capilla or chapel and the guard house. The Church of Our Lady of the Angels was begun in the last decade of the Spanish era. but was not completed until 1822, when Cali- fornia had passed from under the rule of Spain.
The awakening of the pueblo from its succes- sion of Rip Van Winkle sleeps came with the fall of the missions. The secularization of these establishments returned to the public domain vast areas of fertile lands. Grants of these were made to settlers who had the means to stock them and cattle raising became the leading industry. This brought business to the town and it prospered and increased in population. Many of the richer rancheros had town houses where their families resided a portion of the
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year on account of the social advantages that urban life afforded.
In the decade between 1830 and 1840 Los Angeles made the greatest gain in population of any decade during Spanish and Mexican rule. Its population increased from 770 to 1250. In 1835, by a decree of the Mexican congress, it was made the capital of the territory and raised to the dignity of a ciudad or city. The revo- Intions during the decade and the capital war were drawbacks to its property, but the loss of life in the battles fought did not ma- terially decrease its population.
The decade between 1840 and 1850 was a pe- riod of wars and rumors of wars and of war in reality. First came the capture of Monterey, October 19, 1842, by Commodore Ap Catesby Jones on the supposition that war had been de- clared between Mexico and the United States. Next was the overthrow of Governor Michel- torena by Pico and Castro at the bloodless bat- tle of Cahuenga. Pico became governor and Los Angeles the capital of the Californias. Then followed the quarrel between Pico and Castro and the marshaling of their respective armies to suppress each other. The capture of Mon- trey by Commodore Sloat and eventually the conquest of the territory by the Americans put an end to internicene wars between native California factions.
The pueblo's first boom under American rule came after the discovery of gold in 1848. The first effect of Marshall's discovery was to de- populate it of its able-bodied men. Many of these returned after a brief experience in the mines. They had discovered that it was easier to get gold by selling cattle and fruits to the miners than by delving among the rock or bur- rowing into the earth for it. The crying'need of that time was houses. Houses ready framed were shipped from New York, Boston and Liverpool around the Horn and for many years supplied the need for lodging. Ord's survey, the first subdivision of the pueblo or public lands, was made in 1849. The standing price of Ord's survey lots on Main, Spring, Fort (Broadway) and Hill streets between First and Eighth was $50 for a lot 120 feet front by 165 feet in depth. This was quite a rise in value over the price of lots before the conquest. The ruling rate then was twenty-five cents per vara, about eight cents per front foot. In the decade
between 1840 and 1850 the population of the city increased from 1250 to 1610. The popula- tion after the conquest was largely migratory and transitory. The tourists of that time who had come "the plains across" were not looking for climate or soil. They had no use for any soil not mixed with gold dust, so they did not stop in the metropolis of the new country.
The first years of the eighth decade (1850 to 1860) were remarkable for the extraordinary prosperity prevailing throughout Southern Cal- ifornia. Every food product of the soil com- manded a high price and a ready market. In 1856 and 1857 there was a gold rush to the Kern river mines. Much of the travel and most of the supplies passed through Los Angeles. The placer mines of the San Gabriel river and of Santa Anita creek added a new characteristic to the productions of the hitherto cow country and afforded a temporary relief to the "hard times" that were settling down on the metropo- lis of the cattle industry.
The year 1858 was remarkable for the num- ber of new buildings erected. The estimate for that year is $180,000. A few of these re- main. The Arcadia block on the corner of Arcadia and Los Angeles streets was built that year by Don Abel Stearns and named for his wife, Donna Arcadia. It was reported to have cost $80,000 and was regarded as the finest business block south of San Francisco. On the second floor was a hall where balls and other social functions were held. It continued to be the social assemblage room of the city down to 1885. Another building erected in 1858 and 1859 is the two-story portion of the Temple Block. The upper floor was divided into office rooms and mostly occupied by attor- neys. Some of the great legal lights of the bench and bar of the state have occupied apart- ments in this dingy building. Devoid of archi- tectural beauty in its youth, old age has not improved its appearance. In 1911 the city council bought it and the three-story addition to it built in 1871 on the installment plan for a city hall, agreeing to pay half a million dollars for it ; the property holders of the north end of the city contributing about one-third of the purchase price.
The building designed for a market house and theater which occupied the present site of the Bullard Block was erected by Juan Temple
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in 1858. It was sold in 1868 to the county for a court house and used for that purpose until 1891. The county disposed of it by auction. It was sold for $100,000, which was an increase of about four hundred per cent on the original purchase price. The population of the city at the beginning of its ninth decade (1860) was 4,400, a gain in ten years of 2,790-the largest gain in its history so far.
The decade between 1860 and 1870 was marked by disasters. At the beginning of the decade the premonitions of a war between the North and the South divided the population into antagonistic factions. There was no unan- imity of action between them and no civic pride for the growth and development of the city. This condition lasted throughout the war and was continued by some of the most bellig- erent after its close, whose chief weapon of warfare during hostilities was that with which Samson is alleged to have slain the Philis- tines.
The greatest flood ever known in California occurred in the winter of 1861-62. Great dam- age was done by the overflow of the rivers. This was followed by the other climatic ex- treme, the greatest drouth ever known in the history of the state. The drouth of 1863-64 put an end to the cattle industry and financially ruined the cattle kings. The financial gloom that darkened the city and county during the decade began to lift a little near its close. This was due to immigration, at- tracted by cheap lands. These were the subdivisions of the great ranchos lost to their former owners on foreclosure of mort- gages and put on sale by their new owners at low figures. The principal enterprise begun and completed during the decade was the building of the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad to Wilmington. It was completed to Wilmington October 26, 1869. The city gave $75,000 to its construction and the county $150,000. This was the first railroad built in Southern Cali- fornia. Another enterprise that must be credited to this decade was the completion of the tele- graph to Los Angeles. The population of Los Angeles city in 1860 was 4,400; in 1870, 5,614, a gain of 1,214. This gain was made in the closing years of the decade. The assessed value of the city property in 1860 was $1,425,648; in
1870 $2,108,061, a gain of only $682,413 in ten years.
The decade between 1870 and 1880 began auspiciously. The first transcontinental rail- road had been completed to San Francisco in 1869. This brought immigrants to the central part of the state and some of them drifted down into the southern counties and were pleased with the country. There was consid- erable building in the city. The Pico House, the most ambitious hotel in Southern California, was erected in 1871 on the site of the historic Carrillo house, the point from which Ord took his compass course when he made his plan of Los Angeles in 1849. The northern part of the Temple block was built in the same year and the Temple and Workman bank opened in it the next year.
The beginning of the decade was marked by great activity in railroad building and railroad projecting. The act authorizing what was gen- erally known as the Texas Pacific Railroad was passed March 3, 1871. San Diego was to be its western terminus. There was great rejoicing in San Diego. Her people saw, or thought they did, a brilliant future for their city. It would become the great seaport city of the south. The trade of the Occident and the Orient would come to it. Los Angeles would become a sub- urb of the City of Bay and Climate. A branch road was projected to Los Angeles to bring its trade to San Diego. In 1872 a railroad war or contest aroused the people of the Southern counties. The Southern Pacific company was building a road up the San Joaquin valley. Its eastern connection was uncertain. It might connect with the thirty-second parallel road or it might become a part of the Texas Pacific. To bring it via Los Angeles an offer was made to the company to vote bonds to the amount of five per cent of the taxable property of the county. In consideration of this subsidy the company was to build twenty-five miles north from Los Angeles city and twenty-five east. The Texas Pacific entered the contest with an offer to build sixty miles of its road in the county to connect Los Angeles with San Diego. The Southern Pacific Company countered this with an offer to build a branch to Anaheim and to take Los Angeles and San Pedro road as part of the bond issue. At the election held November 5, 1872, the Southern Pacific won.
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The parts of the road were all united September 6, 1876, and Los Angeles had transcontinental connection with the east but by a roundabout route. The Texas Pacific was wrecked by that financial cyclone known as "Black Friday in Wall Street."
The Los Angeles and Independence Railroad was another road of this era. It was intended to connect the mining regions in the Owens river country with tide water at Santa Monica. It was completed to Los Angeles and was op- erated for a few years when it was purchased by the Southern Pacific Company and became part of that system.
The decade between 1870 and 1880 was a colony founding era. Riverside was the first of the colonies founded. The San Gabriel Orange Grove Association which eventuated in Pasadena came next. The American Colony which founded Long Beach came near the end of the decade.
A financial crisis in 1875 closed nearly all the banks in the state for a time. Some of them never reopened. Among these was the Temple and Workman bank of Los Angeles. It carried down with it the fortune of many an unfor- tunate who had trusted to the good name of the bankers, who were supposed to control its destinies but who had unwisely trusted its man- agement to subordinates. The drouth of 1877 wrought havoc with the sheep industry that had taken the place of the cattle industry killed by the dronth of 1863-64. Of improvements, the Baker block, the most imposing structure hith- erto erected in the city, was completed in 1878 on the site of the Palacio de Don Abel as Abel Stearns' residence was called. The federal cen- sus of 1880 gave the city's population 11,183, an increase of 5,569 in ten years- a gain of almost one hundred per cent. The assessed valuation of the property in the city in 1870 was $2,108,- 061; in 1880 it was $6,871,913. Considering the financial reverses that had occurred during the decade this was a good showing.
At the beginning of her tenth decade (1880 to 1890) Los Angeles was still clinging to many of her old customs and methods of living and doing business. The streets were unpaved and in the rainy season almost impassable. The sidewalks were of boards or gravel. The street cars were still propelled by horses or mules,
car fare ten cents a ride. There was no free mail delivery. The retail stores kept open from seven in the morning to ten at night and to twelve on Saturday night. The smallest coin in circulation was the "bit," ten cents. The fire alarm was three shots in quick succession and three more if the engine did not arrive. The business streets were lighted with gas, but the greater part of the residence portion was shrouded in darkness.
The telephone was unknown and electricity unused for light or power. All transcontinental railroad travel and traffic came via San Fran- cisco. The Pico House was the aristocratic hotel of the city, the St. Charles the next in order. The Baker block was the center of the fashionable retail trade and best office build- ing in the city. The decade was one of transi- tions- the passing of the old and the ushering in of the new. The completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad to its eastern connection brought immigrants direct to Southern Cali- fornia. In December, 1881, the city was lighted by electricity. Seven masts one hundred and fifty feet high were erected at different points and the light diffused from the globes was supposed to be sufficient to light the city.
The Nadeau, the first business building of any size south of First street, was built in 1882. It towered above its surroundings. The only two-story building in the block was the brick school house on the northwest corner of Spring and Second streets. The tourist had only to a very limited extent found Los Angeles. The Nadeau was too large to be devoted entirely to hotel purposes and a number of the rooms were rented for offices. The Y. M. C. A. began busi- ness in it and a justice's court was held in it. The cause that effected the most rapid transi- tion from the old to the new was the real estate boom of 1886 and 1887 fully described in Chap- ter XXXVIII of this volume.
The completion of the Santa Fe Railroad sys- tem, competition between the railroads, low fares and a plethora of money in the middle west poured in an army of speculators. A speculative mania prevailed. New towns were created and the older cities and towns ex- panded into the surrounding country. The horse car was superseded by the cable car and the first attempt was made to establish an electric line, but it was not a success.
-
Modern Los Angeles, 1915 Taken from Old Normal School
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
A building boom accompanied the real estate speculations. The business district spread over into Broadway and its movement southward on Main and Spring streets was accelerated. The population of the city increased from 11,183 to 50,395, a growth unprecedented by any other city on the coast. Property values increased from $6,871,913 to $46,997.160-an accumula- tion of wealth as unparalleled as its increase in population.
The closing decade of the century (1890 to 1900) was a period of business depression and financial gloom. The reaction had come from the extravagances of the previous decade. "Hard times" prevailed not only in Los An- geles, but throughout the United States. The people had been living beyond their incomes and mortgaging the future for the pleasure of the present.
A financial panic in 1893 closed every bank in the city except two; all except two in time resumed business. Money was almost immune from borrowers. The millionaires of the boom who had loaded themselves with unproductive realty saw the values of their possessions shrivel day by day until there was nothing on which to plaster a mortgage. The depression of the decade was further increased by two successive dry years, 1897 and 1898. The rain- fall was respectively 7.18 and 5.53 inches. Two drouth years drove the farmers on the dry lands to the verge of bankruptcy. The wail of the free-silver advocates over the demonetization of the white metal and their portents of the financial ills that would come upon the country if their wailings were unheeded deepened the despondency. Notwithstanding the dolor that darkened the decade there was a spirit of optim-
ism and confidence in the city's future that did much to bring about a reaction.
The Spanish war had but little effect on the city. The Seventh California Regiment made up from the southern part of the state con- tained three companies from the city. It did not leave the state. A battery of light artillery under command of Capt. J. D. Fredericks raised in Los Angeles county did service in the Philippines.
Despite the hard times several important public improvements were made. The court house was completed in 1891. The Los An- geles High School was finished and occupied the same year. An outfall sewer to the ocean was constructed and several of the business streets paved. Electric car lines were substi- tuted for the cable cars. The first cable line had been built up Second street and over Bunker Hill out to Belmont avenue. It was abandoned after a few years of unsatisfactory service. The first electric line extended up Second to Olive, north on Olive to First, thence on First and other streets to Westlake Park.
Oil discoveries were made within the city limits. The oil development extended a line of derricks diagonally across the city from Buena Vista street (now North Broadway) to West- lake Park. While the oil industry helped those who owned property in the district it retarded the development of property adjoining the belt and was a potent factor in accelerating the growth of the city to the southward.
The population of the city increased during the decade from 50,395 to 102,479 and the as- sessed value of city property from $46,476,713 to $64,915,326.
CHAPTER LIII TWENTIETH CENTURY LOS ANGELES
The beginning of the twentieth century found many of the older residents of the city who had speculated in town lots and unpro- ductive acreage still struggling to throw off the incubus of debt that had weighed them down for a decade or more. The financial de- pression was slowly lifting. Rates of interest
had fallen from eight and ten per cent per annum to five and six. Business had drifted but little to the southward in the preceding ten years. Several of the large retail houses re- mained on North Spring street. The wholesale district extended along Los Angeles street from the Plaza to Second street. All the banks with
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one exception-the Farmers and Merchants National-were still north of Fourth street.
Although times were improving there was but little speculation in real estate. Remem- bering the fate of many a promoter who had plunged in the booming days of 1887 those who ventured on subdivisions in 1900 did so with extreme caution. There might be a reaction and they had found that unproductive real es- tate with a mortgage attachment was about as dangerous as a dynamite bomb with a time fuse. The awakening came largely through new men, some to the manor born and some with eastern capital that they were not afraid to invest. Thus new blood was injected into the sluggish arteries of trade and speculation. New enterprises were inaugurated. Beginning about 1902 and increasing in volume until 1914 the two leading characteristics of the develop- ment of Los Angeles were the subdivision of acreage into town lots and the erection of busi - ness blocks and residences.
The first sky scraper was built in 1902. It is now known as the Hibernian building and is located on the southeast corner of Fourth and Spring streets. It reached an altitude of four- teen stories. The city council later put a limit on the ambition of builders, restricting them to twelve stories. Previous to the erection of the Hibernian or Braly building as it was called when it was built, the highest building in the city was but seven stories. Property values on the business streets were low. Twenty-five hundred dollars per front foot was paid for the site of the Braly building. This was regarded at that time as a very high price.
The erection of the Pacific Electric build- ing, southeast corner of Main and Sixth streets, in 1902, and the inauguration of a system of in- terurban electric railways by Henry E. Hunt- ington, connecting the beach and interior towns with their terminal, the Pacific Electric build- ing, accelerated the drift of business to the southward. Among the earlier large buildings erected within the sky scraper area might be named the Herman W. Hellman building and the Angelus Hotel on the northeast and south- west corners respectively of Spring and Fourth streets. These were followed by the Hotel Alexandria, the Story, the Central. the Security and the Hamburger buildings. This last on Eighth and extending through from Broadway
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