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22. Home Savings Bank.
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
It is quite clear from the preceding table that the banks here are as strong as they look, and that the visitor's first impression of strength and stability will be con- firmed by a closer in- vestigation and analysis of the items which com- prise the assets of each institution.
For the accommoda- tion of customers, most of the banks have large banking rooms, and are as a rule, located at prominent corners. In Los Angeles there is a greater proportion of banking business tran- sacted for the assistance and convenience of trav- elers than in most cities of its size, and this condition has
led to the adoption of methods especially de- signed to give satisfac- tory service to tourists who are visiting here and who are apt to find it rather inconvenient to secure proper identi- fication in a strange city.
A plan adopted by the leading savings banks is described as follows:
Each bank in eastern cities is furnished with a blank form of letter of introduction addressed to the savings bank in
41
TRUST COMPANIES
Los Angeles, and attached to it is a stub for signature of payee. The eastern bank officers send to the savings bank samples of their own signatures. When a cus-
tomer is coming to Los Angeles, the letter of introduc- tion is filled out by the eastern bank,, and the stub with payee's signature is mailed to the sav- ings bank. There is thus on file here, when the visitor ar- rives with the letter of introduction, a sample of his or her signature as well as the signature of the eastern bank. This makes a fairly good chain of evidence by which the stranger can be identified. and so saves the trouble and annoyance which so often mars a visitor's pleasure while away from home. This sys- tematic method of pro- viding identification in advance is rather an' expensive one for the bank here, and for that reason its operation is ·limited to the larger in- stitutions.
As a matter of his- torical record of growth the banking in- dustry of Los Angeles makes a remarkable showing for the past
4
42
GROWTH OF THE CITY
forty years, when the first bank was opened here. But the growth of the last ten years is the most noticeable. At that time there were less than 25% of the present num- ber of banks, and their deposits amounted to about 10% of their total today. An increase of about 75% in number of banks, and of about 90% in amount of deposits, is a most exceptional record of ten years' growth.
Taking specific instances of this growth: The three oldest banks now doing business, viz., Farmers & Mer- chants National (which was organized in 1871), the First National Bank (organized 1880), and the Security Savings
Bank (organized as Los Angeles Savings Bank in 1884), are also the largest, showing that the development has been along natural lines in which the first banks partici- pated in due proportion. The present standing of these three banks in relation to the subsequently organized in- stitutions is as follows:
· Security Savings Bank, deposits Jan. 1, 1907 . . $15,515,339.36 First National Bank, deposits Jan. 1, 1907 . ... 15,450,468.06 Farm. & Mer. Nat. Bank, deposits Jan. 1, 1907 13,110,929.00
Total of these three, Jan. 1, 1907. $44,076,736.42 Total of all other banks, Jan. 1, 1907 55,843,816.86
Grand Total $100,020,583.28
The stability of our banks is noteworthy. Only two bank failures in its history is the Los Angeles record. These were small and happened in 1893 and 1895, so that in the ten years of greatest growth there have been no black spots to spoil the page of progress.
43
BUILDINGS
MERCANTILE INSTITUTIONS
One of the evidences of the growth of Los Angeles is found in the number of first-class buildings that fill the business district. Not more than half a century ago the greater part of the city was built of adobe or wood, and even up to the end of the last century there were few fire-proof structures; now every block shows structures of brick, re-enforced concrete and steel. The business of the
town increased each year and took on the dimensions of a great city's trade, but the appearance of the business district was that of a country village. It was not until the beginning of the century that thoroughly modern buildings were erected in Los Angeles, while today there are whole blocks of imposing structures. From one stand- point this dilatory action has been of advantage to the city, for now that she has begun the erection of modern fire-proof structures she can profit by the experience that other cities have been gaining all these years. Today Los Angeles has hotels, office buildings, banks and stores com- pleted or in course of construction which would be a credit to any city. The modern building is as common, and even more so, here as in the large eastern cities,
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
and the skeleton of steel, the modern edifice in embryo. grows before one's eyes on every corner. Many of these buildings are put up by the old and tried citizens of Los Angeles, men who have watched the town grow and fostered it and helped to build it into the city it now is. Instances of this are found on every side.
On October, 1905, the tourists and even townspeople were startled by the sight of over a thousand persons, all members of one store, congregated on the corner of Eighth and Broadway to witness the ceremony of breaking the ground for Hamburger's new department store. The ceremony performed on that date was one unique in the history of Los Angeles, one unique in the history of America. There was a multitude of people- men, women and children. Some were driven in carriages; some hurried there in automobiles; others, many others. walked, but they were all there to the number of ten thousand, and amid great enthusiasm the ground was first broken for the greatest and costliest store west of Chicago. There were members of the firm, sons and grandsons of the founder of the store, and employes who had been with the firm since its beginning, and curious and interested citizens and tourists who wished for the success of the great enterprise. There was shown an evidence of in- terest in the mere erection of a building which would not be shown by the practical easterners and which is an example of the pride and affection that the Angeleno has for his town and its progress. The People's Store has been a part of Los Angeles for over a quarter of a century and has kept pace with the advance of the city. Its
founder. A. Hamburger, was one of the "forty-niners" and was a loyal Californian before he came to Los An- geles. Born in Germany, he came while yet a youth to America in a small sailing vessel, and landed at Philadel- phia. He traveled and worked in the East and South be- fore coming West, finally settling in Los Angeles as his permanent place of business. Here in 1881 he had a small store on Spring and Requena streets, but in four years the
45
DEPARTMENT STORES
increase of his business compelled him to move to larger quarters and to double his force of clerks. Another four years and the second move was made, with a correspond- ing increase in assistants, and now there is an army of over one thousand, but their four-story building, still on Spring street, is insufficient for the needs of the business. Hence this will THE necessitate another ånd a larger move, PEOPLES STORE for which the large structure at Eighth and Hill streets is now being built.
A
The loyalty of the Angeleno for his home is proverbial and every one takes A. HAMBURGER & SONS a pride and a joy in improving and beautifying the city of the Angels and in the development of her industries. The planning and construction of the business blocks are not the mere ideas of a day, but are the result of years of study and hard work. The selection of the site for the model department store which the descendants of the original Hamburger Store are build- ing, was decided upon some years ago and is indica- tive of the growth of the town toward the southern and higher portion of the city. When the building is com- pleted, it will exemplify the foresight of the builders and will be a monumental structure to which the city can point with pride. Nowhere in the East will there be one that can surpass it in all its details for the comfort and con- venience of its patrons and the enjoyment of its employes. It will be six stories in height and will extend from Broad- way to Hill street, its seven floors covering an area of over thirteen acres.
Placed end to end the flooring would reach from Los Angeles to Oakland, a distance of four hundred and eighty miles. There will be five million bricks used, all of which are made in the brickyard especially constructed and equipped for this purpose. The show cases placed end to end would cover the distance from Santa Monica to
46
GROWTH OF THE CITY
Pasadena, and there will be hundreds of thousands of square feet of plate glass to let in the daylight, and by night the illumination will be supplied by four electric generators with a capacity large enough to light a city the size of Pasadena, supplemented by an electric generating plant great enough to light ten city blocks.
The building will contain its own heating and refrigera- tor plants. The twelve electric elevators will have a
carrying capacity of twenty thousand per- sons a day, and the moving stairways or escalators can accom- modate four thousand every hour. The im- mense establishment will be a miniature city in itself, and in order to fill it with merchan- dise, the buyers for the company will need to travel over three hun- dred and sixty thou- sand miles per annum.
All the large stores and buildings of Europe and America have con- tributed their share to the success of this new edifice, for by their experience the West las profited and through their failures will come suc- cess. Its plans for patrons and employes reached the high- est ideal that has ever. been conceived and carried out. The parlors, reading rooms, writing rooms and retiring rooms will make the place a metropolitan club. There will be an emergency hospital and a nursery; there will be twelve elevators and a number of moving stairways. One floor will be the recreation floor and so arranged that it can be thrown into a large auditorium, where con-
47
DEPARTMENT STORES
certs, public receptions, recitals and entertainments will be given. The roof will be transformed into a garden, to be used as a restaurant during the summer months and where will be held festivals and open- air concerts.
The employes are equally well provided for. For them are reading rooms and a li- brary; assembly rooms for lectures and meetings; a dining room; a gymnasium and baths; a class room where new em- ployes will be in- structed by competent teachers. The rooms will be kept open during and after business hours, so that they may be enjoyed at all times.
To the people who think of this as the wild and wooly West, it may come as a surprise that Los Angeles can and does support such buildings as this, and this is not the only one. There are few office build- ings in town which are not modern and which do not con- -- tain every convenience for the facilitation of business. The new grocery store of Jevne's is a mar- vel seldom seen anywhere in the world. The Pacific Electric Building, where the cars of the railway system enter the building for the taking on and the discharge of passengers, has its duplicate in but two cities on the continent. From its buildings one could
48
GROWTH OF THE CITY
scarcely believe that Los Angeles was a straggling city of adobes but a quarter of a century ago.
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES
Among those who regard Los Angeles as a pleasant winter and summer resort, there are very few who think of it as a manufacturing town. Yet by those who know, it is considered that no city west of the Mississippi can equal the City of the Angels in its manufacturing indus- try. The discovery of crude petroleum in and about Los
Drying Fruit
Angeles gave to the manufacturing interests a great im- petus, for oil has proven a success on the railways and its low price, as compared with coal, has greatly encouraged all branches of manufacturing.
In 1890 the value of Los Angeles manufacturing pro- ducts was only $9,893,835 but in 1900 the value of manu- facturing products was $21,297,537, which in 1906 was in- creased almost two and one-half times, the value in that year reaching to over $50,000,000.
The Made-in-Los Angeles Exposition, held May, 1907. an exhibit of all the products manufactured in Los An- geles, was a surprise even to the old inhabitants. It
49
MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS
showed that there were over two thousand manufacturing establishments of all kinds in the city, employing 14,000 workmen. If it were necessary the people in the city could live without importing anything but boots and shoes, and even felt shoes and slippers are manufactured at
-------
Dolgeville. From Los Angeles is shipped wine, honey, olives, olive oil, sugar made from beets, jams, jellies, choc- olates and crystalized fruits in great varieties. All kinds of delicious food stuffs are supplied to the coast and even to some parts of the East. Green chilis are canned here as no where else in the United States and one firm has shipped 2,000,000 cans of chili peppers in one year, all the peppers being grown in Southern California and the cans made in Los An- geles.
Here are manufactured pipe organs and automatic piano players. From a Los Angeles factory came the largest organ in the world. This had 10,059 pipes and was sixty-three feet long and fifty feet high. There were 80,000 feet of lumber and 130 miles of electric wire used in constructing the interior, and when it left Los Angeles it took twelve furniture cars to move it.
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
Everything that is used in the building of the fine steel and reinforced concrete structures that are going up every day in the business center of town can be had
from the Los An- geles factories, ex- cept hinges and locks for doors. Structural iron, art metal, building pa- per, rubber sanded roofing, elevators, furnaces and fire escapes are all made and installed by home industry. All kinds of min- ing machinery, hoists, gas engines. stamp mills, pumps, concentrators and assay outfits are sent from here to all parts of the world. One firm has sent fifty-five complete sets of laboratory and assay ma- chinery to South Africa. Stoves, ranges and heaters, all kinds of cooking utensils, all kinds of electric appliances and radiators, art tiling, straw board, roller grating, fine silks, furniture, bug- gies and automo- biles need not be im- ported. They can be bought from home factories. The plant of the sole manufac- turers of gold, sil- ver and brass surgi- cal instruments made from a formula thought for many years to be lost. is located here. California precious stones, kunzite,
51
FRUIT GROWERS' EXCHANGE
tourmalines, azurites, mined in San Diego county are cut and polished in Los Angeles. Baby foods, condensed milk and tooth powders have large establishments-in fact, though some cities may have more ex- tensive plants, there is no city in the country that can show as wide a range of manufactures.
CITRUS FRUIT
The first orange trees in California were only for orna- ment about the early missions and village plazas, and for a hundred years the fruit grown scarcely met the small local requirements of the scattered settlements and prospective cities. In 1874 the government sent to Riverside the first orange trees of the seedless variety, now so well known as the Washington Naval. Twenty- five years ago the total ship- ments were scarcely twenty carloads; this year the ship- ments will approximate over 25,000 carloads (oranges only). This same increase is seen in the products of the lemon orchards. The devel- opment of the markets mak- ing it possible to dispose of this large increase in pro- duction has been due to a large extent to the California Fruit Growers' Exchange. When citrus fruit growing in California emerged from
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
the stage of experiment and pastime into that of profit seeking, the problem of markets immediately confronted
the growers. They were thousands of miles from the populous centers in which their fruit must find consum- ers, and they had practically no home market or agencies to which they could convert it into ready money at re- munerative figures. Now, through the efforts of the various fruit growers, the problem has been solved by the association of the grow- ers into a fruit exchange.
The cooperative marketing of citrus fruits as it is done by this Exchange is not fully understood. In order "to provide for the marketing of all the citrus fruit at the lowest possible cost under uniform methods, and in a manner to secure to each grower a certain marketing of
his fruit and the full average price to be obtained in the mar- ket for the entire season, " the Ex- change was organ- ized. During the thirteen years of co- öperation in the marketing of citrus fruits under the ex- change system, the output of the state has increased from 4,000 cars in 1892-3 to 29,000 in 1906-7. Being a growers' organization, the Exchange has always taken a prominent part in the efforts that have been made
53
SILK FARM
to correct transportation evils, to obtain increased import duties on citrus and other competitive fruits and against reciprocity.
The shipments of citrus fruits, including oranges, lem- ons and citrons, from California in 1901 were 8,800,000 boxes, whereas in the season embracing 1906-7 the ship- ments will approximate 12,000,000 boxes.
SILK FARM
Silk has been produced in California since 1868 and it has been found that the mild climate of Southern Cali- fornia is as well adapted for the cultivation of mulberry trees and the raising of the worms as that of China and Japan. Just a short distance east of San Gabriel at Mission View, a part of the fa- mous Baldwin Ranch, is an ex- tensive orchard of mulberry trees planted to provide leaves for feeding the silk worms. The co- Sil Cop coonery for the hatching of the worms and the developing of the silk cocoons is near the entrance to Elysian Park at the corner of Buena Vista street and Solano avenue. The insects can be watched in their development from the egg to the worm, on through the cocoon stage to final emergence of the chrysalis. The succeeding operation of reeling the silk from the cocoon and making it ready for commercial use is equally interesting.
ELECTRIC ROADS
The story of the rapid but steady growth of Los An- geles reads like a fairy tale and it cannot be readily un- derstood until one takes into account what part the. elec-
54
GROWTH OF THE CITY
tric railways have had in the building up of this metropo- lis. It is now acknowledged that the modern transporta- tion methods by way of electric car lines have trans- formed the entire residential conditions. Distances have
been swept away and it is not only possible, but a daily practice, for people to live in the pure air of the country, and yet be within easy reach of their business in town. Those who formerly lived on a narrow city lot or were confined to the apartment houses now enjoy their acre of land in the fertile val- ley and yet retain all the privileges and ad- vantages of a city life. Those who must still live in town can take frequent vacations to the mountains or the sea and the electric railways have provided suburban homes for the people of moderate means, and pleasure haunts for the citizens of Los Angeles and the inland points.
No city of its size in the world has such an extensive
55
ELECTRIC ROADS
and well-equipped suburban system of electric railways. And nowhere else is there such a varied program offered to the seekers of rest and pleasure. One may leave the business center of the city and within an hour find rest be- neath a fragrant pine tree in a secluded cañon of the high mountains, or turning in the opposite direc- tion, enjoy the pleasure of a dip in the warm wa- ters of the Pa- cific. There are scores of resorts, hamlets, villages, towns, on mountain, amid the foothills or along the beach, to satisfy the tastes and whims of the most exacting. The Pacific Electric and the Los Angeles Interurban systems alone have five hun- dred miles of track within a radius of thirty miles, and ex- tensions are con- stantly building. The amount of travel on the cars of these systems is astound- ing.
Power for operat- ing the cars on the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Interurban Railway sys- tems is generated at the main power plant of the com- pany, at Seventh and Central avenue. The plant con- sists of 20,000 horse-power, in water tube boilers, under
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
which California crude oil is used as fuel. This entire equipment is under the control of one man. In engines and generators the equipment consists of six 2,500 horse- power engines directly con- nected to the generators. The current is generated at a pressure of 2,400 volts, and stepped by means of trans- formers to 15,000 volts, and distributed to the various sub-stations, which are lo- cated approximately seven miles apart over the entire system, there being twenty of these stations equipped and running at the present time, each one of which is capable of turning out 2,000 horse-power and applying the same to the trolley wires covering its particular part of the system.
Sub-power plants are located, one in Pasadena, consist- ing of 2,000 horse-power and one in the western part of the city of Los Angeles, having an equipment of 2,500 horse-power. These power plants constitute the main source of supply, addi- tional power being pur- chased from the lines of the Kern River Com- pany, whose plant is lo- cated at Borel, one hun- dred and thirty miles from Los Angeles.
The home of the Pa- cific Electric system and the station for the despatch of its numerous passenger coaches is a magnificent nine-story building at the corner of Sixth and Main streets, containing on the ground floor
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PACIFIC ELECTRIC
spacious waiting rooms, a good restaurant and lunch room. drug store, news and curio stands, and train shed. This is a modern steel and concrete building, actually fire-proof. and containing about eleven acres of floor space. In addi- tion to the up-to-date passenger station, five floors are fitted up and leased to individuals for offices; the seventh floor contains the general offices of the Pacific Electric Company and allied interests, and the eighth and ninth floors are occupied by the Jonathan Club. The rooms of this Club, together with the adjacent roof garden, are con-
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sidered equal to the quarters of any social club in the country. An average of six hundred cars are received and despatched daily from this station.
The freight traffic and mechanical equipment of this system are no less interesting than its passenger business. The equipment for the handling of freight trains on the suburban lines compares favorably with that of many much more extensive steam roads. Freight cars built in the local shops of the company, of which two hundred are in service, are of forty tons capacity and built to meet all master car-builders' standards. Four modern engine motors of two hundred horse-power and weighing fifty- two tons each, incorporating the best modern ideas for
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GROWTH OF THE CITY
electric haulage, were designed and constructed in the lo- cal shops. They are capable of handling each twenty-five cars, or about one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three train tons, at a speed of thirty miles an hour, and can haul one thousand tons of freight on a one-per- cent grade at fifteen miles per hour. The trolley cars used on the street lines of the city are also built by the company at the local shops. The me- chanical department of the company alone employs upwards of one thousand men.
Not the least interesting item of the mechanical equip- ment of this remarkable electric railway system is the switching arrangement already installed at seven stations, placed at the intersections of streets where the largest number of cars are operated. The lack of a suitable and economical method of adjusting switch frogs attracts the attention of all those who ride daily upon the street cars of all large cities. The usual method, requiring the pres- ence of a switchman with his awkward iron rod, or the necessity that the motor- man or conductor shall get down from the car to open the switch, seems too slow and antiquated to be used on any system well equipped in every other respect. A Los Angeles man has solved the prob- lem. All signals are given and switches thrown by a switchman located in a tower, which is placed at street corners, on a hollow casting nine inches in diameter: the
59
SWITCH TOWERS
base of the tower is nine feet eight inches from the side- walk, the operator having a full view of cars approaching from all directions. Switches are thrown by hydraulic
WHITTIER
pressure, the water being obtained from the city mains. The semaphore blades are electrically operated by solen- oids. Two lights are displayed from each semaphore, one a red light and the other a green light, green light being signal for car to proceed. This method greatly facilitates switching the cars rapidly, with no danger of col- lisions, providing signals are properly observed, and fifty per cent more cars may be switched than by old methods. In the near future an elevated struc- ture of steel similar to those used by the elevated railways in New York, Boston and Chicago will be built on Los Angeles street, enabling all the sub- urban cars to arrive and depart without interfering with the service of the
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