USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > The Herald's history of Los Angeles City > Part 19
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But the county outside of the city shows a
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The Epoch of the Boom.
different side to the story. Here, and in Southern California generally, was where the professional operator and the crazy, irre- sponsible "boomer" held full sway. Farm property which had been worth $20 or $30 an acre, and which under favorable conditions of improved railway connection and a larger home market might be worth $100 an acre, was exploited as orange land that would yield $1000 an acre per annum in that fruit, and was sold at from $300 to $500. Some of it was cut up into "choice villa" tracts, and, with some trifling improvements, and a good deal of boasting about its "view," was sold at $800 to $1000 an acre. But the promoter's swiftest road to fortune lay in the townsite. From Los Angeles city to the San Bernardino coun- ty line is thirty -- six miles, and in this distance twenty-five townsites were laid out. As they averaged over a mile square, it may be said that the entire distance was one continuous townsite. It was much the same with other roads, and branches of roads, and projected roads. A few of these towns were bona fide railway stations, or farming district centers, where there was a bare possibility of a moder- ate growth with some small value to the in- side lots, but in the great majority of cases they were mere paper towns whose lots pos- The assessment sessed no value whatever.
figures for the county outside the city show what was happening in those years of folly. In 1836, $32,000,000 ; in 1887 it nearly doubled,
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History of Los Angeles.
$62,000,000 ; the next year $63,000,000. Then came the awakening; in 1889 it was $47,000,- 000, and in 1890 it fell clear back to a figure below that with which the boom had started, $20,000,000. Here was where the only reac- tion from the boom was to be found.
The money lost in this change of values- which was not as much as it might seem from these figures-came chiefly from inexperi- enced people of limited means, of whom some had just come to the country to settle, and were talked into foolish investments, and others were merely passing through the region as tourists, and thought to profit in a little speculation. Incredible as it may seem, the lots in the silly towns were nearly all sold. One scoundrel disposed of $50,000 worth of lots in towns located on the top of the moun- tains where in all probability no human foot will ever tread. Many Los Angeles people were tempted into unwise speculations, but few of them were permanently injured in the affair. Enormous amounts of money changed hands. The recorded real estate transfers of 1887 aggregated $100,000,000, and probably not more than half the operations of the year were ever entered up. There is no real estate boom in history that is to be compared with this, either in gross magnitude or in sudden contrasts of values. We have noted in vari- ous other instances that when Los Angeles has undertaken to accomplish a thing, it has done the work very thoroughly.
MISSION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE REORGANIZATION.
C
HE boom folly touched high-water
mark in the summer of 1887, and it
came to a sudden end late in the fall
of that same year. Some of the real estate brokers of that period claim to
be able to locate the exact day and almost the
hour when the tide turned, and eagerness to
buy was suddenly replaced by a wild frenzy to sell at any price. There was, however, no single event that formed the dividing line be- tween the rise and the fall. During the latter months of the boom time, the banks of Los Angeles, which had-let it be recorded to their credit-exercised great caution through the whole episode, began to refuse to loan money on property outside the city, no mat- ter what its supposed value, and to use as their basis of valuation for city property its price before the boom. Presently it became almost impossible to obtain money from the banks for real estate transactions of any kind. There was no combination among them, but
the leading financier of the city, Mr. I. W.
Hellman, marked out an ultra conservative policy for the bank over which he presided, and the others were entirely willing to follow his lead. Perhaps this of itself and alone
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History of Los Angeles.
might not have sufficed to smash the boom; but as the winter months approached, and the crowd of easterners that was expected failed to appear, the courage of those who had been holding up the market began to ebb, and they started out quietly to unload. In a short time everybody was unloading, and then there was no more boom.
The non-appearance of the eastern tourists, who had for three years filled the hotels to overflowing, was a matter of profound aston- ishment to the Southern Californians. The latter had made great preparation for the en- tertainment of their guests by constructing a number of huge wooden hotels in inaccessible places all over the region. Finally it began to dawn on the people of Los Angeles that cli- mate alone would not permanently attract people of the tourist class. The entertain- ment of guests is a business that must be practiced with shrewdness and diligence. The first essential is good hotels, of which South- ern California had none at that time. Other essentials are facilities for pleasant traveling about and opportunity for sport and entertain- ment. Now Southern California at the time of the boom was not a pleasant place to visit, although the boom itself was a curiosity well worth seeing. The climate was on its best be- havior during the winters of i886-87 and 1887- 88, and the weather was perfect, but that was about all there was to be said in favor of the
335
The Reorganization.
country. Tourists are, for the most part, peo- ple of wealth, and it is their happy privilege to indulge in fads, which they may change as often as they choose. Southern California was for two seasons a fad. The moment it became common, and "everybody" was going there, it was dropped and forgotten. Not until nearly ten years later did the tourists begin to come again in large crowds. At the present time their number is probably several times as great as that of the liveliest year of the boom.
There were, however, others besides tour- ists who had been coming to Los Angeles. These were the people that proposed to make their homes in Southern California. The fail- ure of the real estate boom was not a matter that concerned them very deeply. They were attracted by the climate or by the horticul- tural possibilities of the region. The south- ern counties had a population of 64,000 in 1880, which by 1890 had increased to 201,000. Here were 137,000 new people, mostly from the states of the middle west, full of energy and courage, and entirely equal to the task of conquering the arid wilderness. Irrigation systems were established, and hundreds of- thousands of fertile acres set to trees. By 1890 the citrus fruit crop had grown to nearly a million boxes, yielding the growers over a dollar a box on the tree. Deciduous fruits, nuts, olives, wine and raisin grapes were planted, the area in wheat and barley in-
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History of Los Angeles.
creased greatly, small fruits were grown and canneries started up, and presently a beet su- gar factory began operations on a large scale. Of all this farming country, Los Angeles was the commercial center and the chief depot of supplies.
Los Angeles had now suddenly changed from a very old city to a very young one. Its population in 1880 was 11,000 and in 1890 was 50,000. Of this latter number, it may safely be estimated that more than three-fourths had not been living in the city more than four years. People who had come to Los Angeles in the 70's, and had been accustomed to re- gard themselves as new-comers, suddenly dis- covered that they were in the class of old set- tlers, and that they and others of earlier epochs had shrunk to an insignificant minor- ity. Just as the Spaniards had wrenched the country away from the aboriginal tribes, and as the first Americans had succeeded in shoul- dering the Californians out of the control of affairs, so now this overwhelming horde of new arrivals took possession of the land, and proceeded to make things over to their own tastes. There was some confusion at first, but in a surprisingly short space of time a re- adjustment was effected, with the new-comers very completely in the saddle. Their pur- chases of business and residence property were largely to the southwest of the center of the city, and a great building activity be-
337
The Reorganization.
gan in that direction. When the boom was coming to an end, the paving of streets was begun; for up to that time the business por- tion was deep in mud through the winter months and in dust through the summer. There had been a small sewer system which did not extend beyond Fifth street. It was first extended piece by piece over the business district, and out to Tenth street, and then by a huge bond issue it was made to take in near. ly the whole of the residence section as well. The new city hall on Broadway and the court- house on the hill were both begun just at the close of the boom, and a few years later the federal building was constructed.
Up to 1888 the street car system of the city consisted of a few decrepit horse cars on rather rickety tramways. In that year a con- solidation of most of the independent sys- tems was effected, and work was begun on the construction of a cable plant with three large power houses. In 1890 an electric sys- tem was built, which was finally consolidated with the cable and all put under electricity. The last horse car disappeared from the city in 1897, when the Main street line, which had not been part of the consolidation, adopted the new power. In 1898 the syndicate that controls the street car systems of San Fran- cisco purchased the Los Angeles lines, with the exception of the system owned by W. S. Hook and the Temple street line, and made
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History of Los Angeles.
many improvements. The city at present en- joys the privilege of genuine street car com- petition, and its residence section is thor- oughly covered with branch lines, both sys- tems being admirably managed.
In 1888 the people of Los Angeles became much elated at the prospect of securing a new transcontinental line to the east through Salt Lake City. A franchise was secured for a railway to run along the east bank of the river, which, it was announced, was to provide the Union Pacific with terminal facilities, it be- ing the intention of that road to build across Nevada to Los Angeles. The line from Salt Lake City was begun and carried through Utah, but a change occurring in the manage- ment and policy of the Union Pacific, the plan was abandoned and the hope of a Salt Lake connection was deferred for twelve years. The franchise for a road along the east bank was taken up by a party of St. Louis capitalists, who built a system running from Pasadena and Glendale through the city to San Pedro, which they called the Terminal. This system was sold in 1900 to Senator W. A. Clark, who is now constructing the line from Salt Lake to Los Angeles. It is be- lieved that the connection will be established within two years of the present writing (1901).
During and immediately after the time of the boom, numerous branch lines were con-
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The Reorganization.
structed by the Santa Fe and Southern Pa- cific throughout the whole region of South- ern California. Most important of these were the direct line to San Diego along the coast, which was completed by the Santa Fe in 1891, and the line to Santa Barbara of the Southern Pacific, which was built in 1887. The latter has since been made part of a through line by the coast connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. Both these two transcontinen- tal systems which, before the boom, were housed in Los Angeles in wretched little sheds, are now provided with large, well built depots ; that of the Southern Pacific was built in 1888, and that of the Santa Fe in 1893.
Thus the material welfare of the city, from whatever point it is examined, will be found to have greatly benefited through the boom. On the social and moral side, however, there was at first the appearance of a decided loss. Among the new people who came to the city during the height of the boom, the speculative and adventurous class, while not in the ma- jority perhaps as far as numbers went, were always the most conspicuous. They lost no time in asserting themselves in all public and social matters, and for a time something like anarchy prevailed. Here were 40,000 or 50,- 000 people suddenly gathered together from all parts of the Union, in utter ignorance of one another's previous history. A great amount of money was passing rapidly from
340
History of Los Angeles.
hand to hand, and a great city was in embryo. It was the golden opportunity of the fakir and humbug and the man with the past that he wanted forgotten. The native Californian and the early pioneer were hospitable, large hearted and unsuspicious. They were for a time easy prey, but having been repeatedly imposed upon, they became doubtful of all new-comers. Commercial and social life in Los Angeles during the later 80's was full
of startling uncertainties. The man with whom you were doing business every day might be an ex-convict-or he might be one whom the stripes were destined to ornament some time in the future. The people who had bought the house across the street might be married-or they might have neglected that formality, owing to the existence of prior partnerships "back east." A man who came within one vote of being elected chief of po- lice is now in the California penitentiary for life. Another, who was concerned in many of the largest boom enterprises, has since served two penitentiary terms in other states. Another who was a bank president and the owner of a daily paper, recently fled out of the Union with the police at his heels. One who occupied a popular pulpit in Los An- geles during the boom has since become fam- ous as a professional polygamist-confiding widows with money being his specialty. The list of swindlers, embezzlers and confidence
-
VIEW OF MODERN LOS ANGELES CITY
Photo by Pierce
341
The Reorganization.
men of that period would be a long one, if anybody should undertake to set it forth in full.
Immediately at the close of the boom the sifting out process began. The professional scalawags left of their own accord when the field was found to be worked out. The un- professional ones were easily detected and disposed of. The adventurers and adventur- csses and the people with the scaly records met the usual fate of their kind-they be- trayed themselves and were found out. Grad- ually a new society was formed, a little colder and more discriminating, perhaps, than that of the first pioneers, but felicitous in its com- bination of the old and new elements. The morals of the city which had gone back a few degrees during the confusion of the boom were brought up to the standard of the best American cities. In 1889 the gambling houses were all closed, and a couple of years later a Sunday closing ordinance for saloons went into effect. Poker dens, where strangers were taken in and fleeced, continued for some years, but they are now so thoroughly under the ban that they are operated only with great secrecy and on a small scale. The Sun- day closing law was evaded for a time, but at present it is very thoroughly enforced. During the boom, when the city had a pop- ulation of 50,000, the county jail averaged 250 to 300 occupants. Ten years later, with a
342
History of Los Angeles.
population twice as large, the jail averaged less than 100 occupants-a most remarkable contrast.
In the early 80's the subject of state divis- ion was agitated anew, chiefly because the laws that dealt with riparian rights were suited to the needs of the miners of the north rather than to the irrigationists of the south. It was contended that the interests of the two sections of the state were so radically differ- ent that a separation must be effected. In 188I a mass meeting was held in Los Angeles at which a report was drawn up in the shape or a series of questions addressed to the leading attorneys of the city, asking them what steps were necessary to bring about the division. The reply, signed by eight attorneys, was to the effect that the action taken by the legisla- ture in 1859, followed as it was by the favor- able vote of the southern counties, was still in effect, and that the new territory could proceed to organize and ask for admission to the Union. A circular was then issued call- ing for delegates from each county to meet in convention at Los Angeles, September 8, 1881. This gathering came together on the appointed date, all of the counties being rep- resented. Resolutions were passed favoring state division, but it was decided to take no active steps until the population of the new district was large enough to insure its recep- tion as a state. In 1888 the subject was again
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The Reorganization.
called up in a mass meeting at Hazard's pa- vilion in Los Angeles, and General Vandever, who represented the Sixth district in con- gress, introduced a bill attempting a division of the state. The meeting was slimly attend- ed, and little enthusiasm was shown. The Vandever bill was never reported back from committee.
September 5, 1881, the founding of the city was celebrated with a great procession which circled the plaza, much as the procession of De Neve had done 100 years before. The 5th was taken instead of the 4th through the error of a local historian.
The mayors of the period from 1880 to 1890 were: J. R. Toberman, 1879-1882; C. E. Thon, 1883-4; E. F. Spence, 1885-6; W. H. Workman, 1887-8; John Bryson, four months in 1889; H. T. Hazard, 1889-1892.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE MODERN CITY.
C HE decade from 1890 to 1900 was one of steady, even growth and develop- ment for Los Angeles, the population increasing from 50,000 to 102,000, and the assessed valuation of prop- erty advancing from $50,000,000 to $70,000,- 000. The wave of hard times which swept over the Union in 1893-6 did not pass by Los Angeles, but its ravages were not serious. One advantage that the city derives from its somewhat isolated position is that of com- parative independence in its commercial in- terests. Hard times affected the market value of some Southern California products and di- minished the amount of tourist travel; four banks in the city closed their doors in the panic of 1893, one of which failed disgrace- fully; another retired from business with honor and credit, and the other two soon re- sumed with new strength. There were sev- eral mercantile failures, none of them of any considerable size. For a time the city was worried by the presence of a number of un- employed men, chiefly in the building trades. In 1895, in spite of the hard times, the build- ing permits had aggregated $5,000,000, and great numbers of workmen were attracted to the only city in the Union that seemed to be
345
The Modern City.
holding its own. The next year the permits fell to $2,700,000 and in 1898 they were only $2,100,000. As times were still bad all over the country, the men thus thrown out of em- ployment were unable to get away, and pro- vision had to be made for them. Funds were raised by public subscription, and the men were put to work on the parks. Business gen- erally, however, held its own fairly well through this troublous time. In 1892, before the panic, the bank clearances for the year were $39,000,000. In 1893 they were $45,000,- 000. In 1894 they were $44,000,000, in 1895, $57,000,000 ; in 1896, $61,000,000. This shows how the city continued to expand, in spite of the bad times.
An important event in the industrial de- velopment of the region was the establish- ment of the present chamber of commerce of Los Angeles in 1888. This institution differs somewhat from those that bear a similar name in other cities, in the extent and variety of the work it undertakes. Its membership is not confined to men in active business, but includes all who are interested in the advance- ment of the city. It has 1000 members, and almost from its inception has been endowed, through the far-sighted liberality of the wealthy and progressive men of the city, with sufficient funds to carry on an active cam- paign of advertising and of local development. The chamber's first meetings were held in
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History of Los Angeles.
the old board of trade building on First and Broadway, which has since been torn down. In 1889 a permanent exhibit of Southern Cal- itornia products was opened over the Mott market on Main street, between First and
Second. In 1894 the organization moved to its present quarters at Fourth and Broadway, in a building designed especially for its use. 1.ecently it purchased a piece of property on Broadway, between First and Second streets, where its permanent home will probably be erected during the coming year.
When the chamber of commerce began work, which was just at the close of the boom, the industrial conditions of the region were in very bad shape. The city had entirely out- grown the country ; the farming land had been overrun with townsites; much of it was in the hands of non-residents, who were holding it for speculation instead of for use; and so large a percentage of those actually engaged in husbandry were either ignorant of the whole art or were utterly inexperienced as to local conditions of soil and climate, that the results were far from satisfactory. A primary object of the chamber in the estab .. lishment of the display of local products was to enable the farmers to compare their work and thus gain by one another's experience in this new strange country. For this same pur- pose citrus fairs were held during the years from 1890 to 1895. One of these fairs, that of
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The Modern City.
1891, was sent to Chicago and exhibited to an attendance of 120,000 people in the old expo- sition building on the lake front. These fairs and the display made at Chicago in the Co- lumbian exposition helped to stimulate orange culture, and to regulate and improve the in- dustry. Other lines of horticulture and of farming were encouraged and assisted, and at the end of a few years the industrial situation had been reorganized on a substantial basis. Manufacturing had begun in various lines that were allied to the agricultural develop- ment-beet sugar, fruit canning and crystalliz- ing, making of pipe for irrigation, etc.
A great amount of work was done by the chamber of commerce in making the possibil- ities of the Southern California region known in the eastern states with a view to attracting immigration; and the extraordinary increase in population during the decade from 1890 to 1900, an increase that is still actively in prog- ress, shows how successfully the designs were carried out. This advertising was of all kinds, the distribution of printed matter, the use of space in magazines and newspapers, and, most important of all, the sending of large and striking exhibits to the great fairs of the coun- try. At the Columbian exposition in Chicago in 1893, the Midwinter fair in San Francisco in 1894, the Cotton expositon in Atlanta in 1896, the Transmississippi exposition at Oma- ha in 1898 and the Pan-American at Buffalo
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History of Los Angeles.
in 1901, the chamber had independent exhib- its that attracted wide attention. It also par- ticipated on a smaller scale in numerous dis- plays in Europe and America.
No new railways were constructed into Los Angeles during this period, but an event of great commercial significance was the be- ginning of work on the deep-water harbor at San Pedro. As the original project for the improvement of the inner harbor for vessels of light draft drew toward its completion, ag- itation began for the construction of a seawall from Point Fermin out into the exterior bay, to protect an area which could be used as a harbor for the largest ocean going vessels. The total sum expended on the interior im- provement was about $900,000, and the depth of water attained would admit vessels draw- ing seventeen and eighteen feet. It was, and is, used chiefly for the lumber and coal trade of the coast, but was not practicable for the ocean commerce that was seeking outlet and inlet through this region. There being no deep-water harbor nearer than San Francisco on the north-500 miles-and San Diego on the south-100 miles-there was need of a harbor of refuge and a harbor of naval neces- sities at this point. The engineering author- ities of the government conceded the justice of the claim, and in 1891 a report was sub- mitted to congress by a board of army en- gineers appointed to examine the coast from
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The Modern City.
Orange county to Santa Barbara, with a view to determining the best point for the construc- tion of a harbor, and this report was une- quivocally in favor of San Pedro.
In 1892 the first effort was made to secure an appropriation from congress to begin tlie work, but it was defeated through the declara- tion of the chief engineer of the Southern Pa- cific that no harbor could ever be constructed at San Pedro. It was decided to appoint a special commission of five eminent army en- gineers to review the work of the first board and report on the comparative merits of Santa Monica, Redondo and San Pedro. This body visited the locality and made a thorough in- vestigation, and their report was in favor of San Pedro. But the Southern Pacific was still not satisfied, claiming that the war de- partment had favored San Pedro chiefly through a desire to be consistent. All efforts to secure an appropriation for that place were resisted, and for several years the commercial men of the city were divided into two camps, for Santa Monica with the Southern Pacific, and for San Pedro against the Southern Pa- cific.
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