14 SEP 1898 – Dinkelspiel, Towers of Gold, p.185 – In 1898, I.W. Hellman heads a syndicate of San Francisco bankers which backs Henry Huntington in his $3.5 million purchase of the Los Angeles Railway System (the LARy). The LA Times at first incorrectly reports that the Southern Pacific had bought up the private urban railway, but it was actually a private transaction with Henry Huntington, his uncle Collis and son Howard owning 55%, and Hellman and his frequent business partners, and fellow San Francisco bankers, Antoine Borel and Christian DeGuigne owned 45% of the stock of the new company. This will be the first step in the new Pacific Electric Railway which would soon spread all over the Los Angeles area.
On 4 OCT 1898 – Hunting, Borel and DeGuigne board Huntington’s private car to head to Los Angeles. Hellman engages a car to follow. The four meet in Los Angeles and then tour all the new railroads they just bought. Huntington is soon upgrading the lines, tearing out light rails and replacing them with more durable ones.Huntington had only been in California six years, but Hellman had financial ties to virtually all of the railroads involved.
1901-June 5 – LA Times blurb., p.8 – “The country all around Alamitos Bay is to be transformed into a delightful resort.”
26 JUN 1901 (LA Times, p.15, col. 3) – More franchise talk at Long Beach: trolley franchise is desired by H.E. Huntington – Charles R. Drake appears for the railway magnate, who, he says, wants a route to the beach.
24 JULY 1901 – West Coast Land & Water Company – This was Phil Stanton’s land venture in Huntington Beach.
21 AUG 1901 (LA Times, p. 8) — Large Deal is Closed: Four Water Companies Consolidated; Long Beach, Terminal and San Pedro water systems under one management
Seaside Water is formed, consolidating four major water companies in the Long Beach/San Pedro area. The consolidated companies included the Bouton Water Company, including all of the tanks, distributing system, etc. of the company in Long Beach, and the great Bouton artesian wells and lands north of Long Beach along the line of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. The other companies were the Long Beach Development Company, the Wilmington and San Pedro Water System (owned by the Banning Company) and the Terminal island Water system, owned by the Bouton Company.
The object of the new Seaside company is to supply the residents of the beach towns with pure artesian water from its inexhaustible wells in the artesian belt north of Long Beach.
In order to facilitate development of the company’s lands, assurances
The Long Beach City Council hears a proposal from Colonel Charles R. Drake, a Long Beach settler who previously imported Mexicans to work on the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad). Drake, who plans to build a resort hotel, requests the council issue a franchise to permit building a trolley system from Los Angeles to Long Beach, “by a syndicate headed by Henry Huntington and I.W. Hellman.” There was no mention of the specific company that would build the line.
The council votes to award the franchise to the highest bidder in August. Opposition formed not only against “more tracks on Ocean Avenue” but against Huntington because he still serves on the Board of the Southern Pacific. Unaware of the feelings between Huntington and those who now controlled he SP, people thought this new railway would be controlled by the SP and give them even more of a monopoly.
30 OCT 1901 – after a couple postponements, the auction for a Long Beach RR franchise was held on October 30, 1901 and the Hellman-Huntington representative, Eppes Randolph, outbid two other bidders for the franchise with a price of $9,600.
The day before Henry Huntington and his associates officially signed articles of Incorporation of the Pacific Electric Railway Company, and the documents were filed on November 10, 1901. $452,000 of capital was ascribed to the investors with Huntington investing $98,500, and Hellman, Antoine Borel, and Christian De Guigne each investing $67,800 (45% of the stock). The four had been involved in the San Francisco’s profitable Market Street Railway. The four other investors were John Slauson (owner of the 17,600 acrea Azusa Ranch), John Bicknell, and company engineer Epes Randolph.
The articles lay out in detail Huntington’s plans for a vast inter-urban electric railway system. The Pacific Electric would take over the Los Angeles-Pasadena interurban line, then build new lines from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, Riverside, Redondo Beach, San Pedro and Long Beach.
By extending his streetcar tracks to these outlying areas, the PE is increasing the value of the property in these areas, much of which is now being owned by Huntington.
1 FEB 1902 — Long Beach Savings Bank—(Incorporated February 1, 1902). Capital stock, $200,000; paid in coin, $200,000. P. E. Hatch, President; J. W. Tucker, Cashier; Directors, I. W. Hellman, J. Bixby, P. E. Hatch, G. Summers, W. Schilling, J. A. Graves, C. H. Thornburg, J. W. Tucker, G. A. Newcomb, E. C. Denio, C. F. Vandewater, W. Welsh, F. C. Yeomans, T. L. de Coudres, G. H. Bixby.
National Bank of Long Beach—President, Jotham Bixby; Vice-Presidents, George H. Bixby, D. S. Shaw; Cashier, P. E. Hatch; Assistant Cashier, A. S. Cates; Directors, Jotham Bixby, I. W. Hellman, T. L. De Coudres, C. P. Patterson, J. A. Graves, D. S. Shaw, Geo. H. Bixby, Chas. R. Drake, P. E. Hatch, Geo. Summers, Fred H. Bixby, J. W. Wood, C. H. Thornburg, Wm. Schilling, F. C. Yeomans.
1902 – Isaias Hellman helps establish the Long Beach Savings Bank (Jotham Bixby, President) and served on its Board of Directors. With the Bixbys, Hellman had extensive real estate holdings both in Long Beach and Los Angeles. [Did Hellman help do this to make it easier for people to invest in Long Beach, knowing that the railroad would soon run through the entire town.]
Even before its opening, the proposed PE Railway’s impact on property values was electric.
April 8, 1902, LA Times: “Huntington is in a hurry. Property along the line of the road has advanced enormously in value. Land that could be bought a few years ago for a very small figure is now bringing $500 an acre. Several men have made fortunes out of it.”
1905 – Henry Huntington purchases Redondo Land Co. Electrification of LA&R in 1902 brought a new wave of settlers and the purchase of the townsite and the LA&R by Huntington in 1905 set off a boom unparalleled by any other beach town in the southern California area. The magic name of Huntington caused the town to erupt on all sides, but the purchase is the last straw for Hellman and his partners. .
12 JAN 1903; Long Beach Press, Page 1, Column 2 —
Alamitos favored; the chief men of the Pacific Electric and of the Alamitos Land Company make a tour of the country east of this city
From Long Beach Heritage website
Astounding Secrets of Alamitos Bay (per Naples, Stan Poe 2006)
The first “interest” meeting of the principal players took place on January 13, 1903. I. W. Hellman hosted a party at the Del Mar Hotel which was the finest in town prior to the construction of the Virginia Hotel. The party included Henry Huntington, A. Borel, Chas. de Guigne, William Kerckhoff, Epes Randolph,the general manager of the Pacific Electric Co.,Chief Engineer Pillsbury, and Jotham and George Bixby (It seems odd that Fred H. Bixby would not be involved, representing the J.W. Bixby interests) . They arrived by Pacific Electic trolley and took the tally-ho to tour Alamitos Bay. They returned to Del Mar, lunched and left.
On September 28, 1903 Peninsula Avenue (now Ocean Blvd.) was vacated by the Board of Supervisors to provide a railroad right-of-way.
In May of 1904 (LS note: should be 1903?) the Alamitos Bay tract was sold by George Bixby and W.W. Lowe [Alamitos Land Co. officers] to George Hart, the pre-eminent attorney at the time in Long Beach, who represented a “syndicate of prominent citizens of Los Angeles whose names cannot as yet be made public.” The purchase included one and three-quarters miles of frontage at Alamitos Bay including the entire spit of land now known as the “peninsula” for $150,000. According to the Evening Tribune of 1904, “The Alamitos Bay Company made a pretty good deal of the thing as it had only cost them $35,000 a short time since.” The Pacific Electric Company, a heavy holder, ran the double track down the peninsula with the intent of continuing to Newport Beach. The name of the area was changed to Vista Del Mar, meaning view of the sea, and it was originally subdivided into 800 lots.
This information seemed to be a fairly academic example of property development until I found that Henry Huntington had originally planned to create a “tent city” down the entire length of the peninsula! Tent cities were established at the Hotel Del Coronado for some time covering the Silver Strand to the south of the hotel. The city included a boat house, dance hall, bath house, and other amenities and marvelous tents with wooden floors and two foot high walls with striped canvas. They were fully furnished with the latest Victorian decor, mirrors, oriental rugs, and electric light bulbs. This notion might account for the construction of the pavilion at 62nd Place on the peninsula, as well as the hotel on the Bay side and the “duck club” as a private club for the investors.
The Naples development with its canals seems to pre-date in some ways the more famous “Venice” canal-community development up jut south of Santa Monica. From Venice history website:
Abbot Kinney was a wealthy tobacco mogul, world traveler and co-owner of the thriving Ocean Park Casino and Resort near Santa Monica. Sometime in th 1890’s he envisioned the land south of Ocean Park through the Del Rey peninsula as a “Venice of America,” a resort town complete with canals, gondolas, amusement piers, hotels and Venetian-styled structures. he and his Casino partners purchased all the marshland land south of Ocean Park. After the partnership dissolved, the split was determined by a flip of a coin. Kinney won the toss and chose the marshy southern half of the property. Determined to build the “Coney Island of the Pacific”, Kinney Kinney sent his building superintendent to the East Coast to visit various seaside resorts. Acquiring a landscape architect and town planner from Boston, Kinney and his staff drew up preliminary plans in June. Contracts were signed to dig up the half mile long, seventy foot wide Grand Canal and build the 900 foot long, 30 foot wide amusement pier at Windward Avenue. Construction began shortly thereafter. He then hired architects to design all the town buildings in “Venetian Renaissance” style.
In September, The Los Angles Pacific Co. enabled inland LA residents to visit Venice by completing the first electric trolley line. By the year’s end, construction of the Ship Cafe and Auditorium, located on the Abbot Kinney Pier, the Venice Canals, and the St. Mark’s Hotel on Windward were well underway.
Huntington versus Harriman – Part II
4 MAY 1903 — On May 4, 1903 – H.E. Huntington is outbid for a small downtown LA railway — the “Hook” line (owned by Hooks). The ridiculously overpriced amount of $100,000 is a message to Huntington. It turns out the buyer is a front for William A. Clark, the owner of the Los Alamitos sugar beet factory. Clark himself is a front for E.H. Harriman who had recently gotten the best of Clark in a behind the scenes for some SoCal railroad properties and the San Pedro to Salt Lake railroad – and a major railroad player whose properties had been bought out by E.H. Harriman days earlier.
Later in the month, Huntington rushes North to confront Harriman at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel Grill. Dinkelspiel (in Towers of Gold) says that in a meeting that lasted until almost midnight, Huntington and Harriman reached an agreement to each own 40% of the PE and Hellman’s group maintained a 20% investment.
6 MAY 1903 – LA Times, pA8—SANTA ANA. Huntington’s Beach Town. SANTA ANA, May 5—In the deal by which Henry Huntington and associates became the principal stockholders in the Huntington Beach Company, which succeeds the West Coast Land and Water Company in the ownership of Pacific City, the old company receives $200,000 for its present interest in the beach and takes $100,000 stock in the Huntington Company which is capitalized at $300,000. Articles of Incorporation were filed today (in Los Angeles) with the following as directors: W.B. Brown, T.G. McGuire, C.A. Gates, A.F. Martin, W.W. Powell, N.N. Thompson and H.S. Laughlin. As a provision of the agreement of Mr. Huntington with the West Coast Land and Water Company is that within thirty days from date construction work on an electric line from Los Angeles to Huntington Beach is to begin. Forces are to be at work on both ends of the line within sixty days, and cars, with at least hourly service, are to be running by January 1904. Present plans contemplate the completion of the road by September.
The line to Pacific City will likely branch from the Long Beach line at Signal Hill, six miles above Long Beach, and after skirting the Anaheim slough, strike the coast near the game preserves of the Bolsa Chica Gun Club, passing thence direct to Pacific City along the shore. This line will ultimately extend to Newport Beach, and so connect with Santa Ana by the projected Santa Ana and newport Beach road. It is confidently expected that with the building of the beach roads will come the direct line from Santa Ana to Los Angeles by way of Garden Grove and Artesia, thus completing a circuit from Los Angeles to the beaches and through Santa Ana and back to the starting point. l
29 MAY 1903 – LA Times. Pacific City Now Huntington Beach, Big Transfer of Seaside Land in Orange County. Trolley magnate to extend Line to Town and create Fine resort
SANTA ANA- May 29. Papers were filed with the County Recorder today transferring from the West Coast Land and Water Water Company to the Huntington Beach Company property at Pacific City, in the southwest part of Orange County, for a consideration named at $95,000. The old Pacific City Company reserves about 150 lots from its holdings, the remainder of the beach property going into the possession of the Huntington Beach Company, of which H.E. Huntington is the leading figure.
According to report, the beach town is to be developed by the early construction of an electric railroad, and transformed into one of the leading beach resorts in the South. Surveyors now in the field between Santa Ana and Newport Beach are expected to work eventually toward Huntington Beach. The place which has been known as Pacific City, is situated between Long Beach and Newport. It will in the future be called Huntington Beach.
10 JUL 1903 (LA Times) – Work on the Pacific Electric Railway Company’s Alamitos Bay extension is about to commence. The route, it is understood, will run from the end of the present Devil’s Gate line (Devil’s Gate referred to a natural bridge near 39th Place, near the present Belmont pier) along the beach to the mouth of the bay, a distance of about a mile. The railroad is to run along a line a little back from the beach so as to give space for cottages. The low sand dunes along that part of the shore are now being graded for building sites.
2 SEP – 1903 – Susan Bixby, Fred H. Bixby and S.P. Bixby grant to P.A. Stanton. Notarized in San Francisco. Lot B2 of the Partition – white post of the SW corner of the SE quarter of Sec. 11, containing 119.40 acres, more or less. (OC Archives, Grantor-Grantees book)
2 SEP 1903 – LA Times, pA2. INCORPORATED: Bayside Land Company, capital stock $200,000; subscribed: $25. directors: P.A. Stanton, I.A. Lothian, George E. Pillsbury, W.R. Bacon, E.M. Mansell
Pillsbury was the Chief Engineer of the Pacific Electric
W.R. Bacon was the city attorney for Los Angeles, President of the Los Angeles Historical Society and Board Member of the Southwest Socety of Architects.
18 FEB 1904 – LA Times – Quicksand retards road
Quicksand is retarding the development of the road __ Alamitos Bay. A bed of it has been encountered, which is swallowing ___ by the carload. The unexpected development will make the cost of the road greater than anticipated.
4 JULY 1904 – As PE red cars enter Orange County at Bay City (Seal Beach), LB papers report Anaheim Bay land boom is on. Of course, what the papers reported and what actually was taking place were often not the same thing
DEC 1904 — After Huntington continued to build and even got into banking with his founding of the Redondo Land and Beach Company, a disgusted Hellman sells out his group’s remaining shares in the PE to Harriman, giving the latter control of the PE. The Hellman group maintains its share in the LARY – which also owns the Pacific Light and Electric subsidiary. This act effectively ends the friendship between Huntington and Hellman.
At the same time, Harriman, who owned the Wells Fargo Company whose express division was a cash cow which allowed him to invest that money in railroad improvements, divested himself of the Wells Fargo Bank, selling it to Hellman’s Nevada Bank.
15 JAN 1905 – SF Chronicle runs headline “Big Bank deal has been made” re: Wells Fargo-Nevada Bank merger.
Bank of Wilmington is Incorporated February 2, 1905. Capital stock, $25,000; paid in coin, $25,000. President, P. E. Hatch; Vice-president, Jotham Bixby; Cashier, F. S. Cary; Directors, P. E. Hatch, Jotham Bixby, F. S. Cary, W. J. Horne, J. A. Graves, W. T. Wheatley, E. C. Denio, Geo. C. Flint, I. W. Hellman, C. H. Thornburg, H. C. Downing.
In 1907 the Naples Co. became part of the Huntington Land Co. The Huntington interests were later sold to Warren McGrath and Samuel A. Selover, who finished the project
In 1907, the Interstate Commerce Commission commenced extensive investigations into E.H. Harriman’s railroad activities. During the California portion of these hearings, led by the commissioner from California, Franklin K. Lane, the public was finally apprised of just how thoroughly Harriman dominated the promoters and managers of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake city Railroad. Under oath, J. Ross Clark and Thomas E. Gibbon reluctantly divulged that Harriman held the ultimate control in all essential matters. The key agreement was that the Salt Lake Company was prohibited from dealing with any other carriers on better terms than it got from the Southern Pacific-Union Pacific. This was interpreted to mean, in the words of the Los Angeles Examiner, “that the quality of the service over the Salt Lake was not to be any better than that of the Southern Pacific line, or that the Salt Lake was not to give any quicker service from Los Angeles and Salt Lake City than could be made over the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific by way of Sacramento.” Thus the possible twenty-four-hour savings in running time by the new route was nullified by the dictates of one of the most domineering of business monopolists.48
http://www.wemweb.com/arduous-road/build_railroad.htm