Santa Monica: The Archeology of Crazy Dreams

Pullman cars, boosters and boomers best describe the founding of Santa Monica, the little town that has grown from its meager 417 residents in 1880 into a city of 90,000. The completion of the Santa Fe line in 1886 was the spark that ignited the real estate explosion in Southern California and attracted both the speculative and adventurous class-men like Col. Robert S. Baker and Sen. John P. Jones. Having already made their fortunes, Baker in cattle and sheep ranching, and Jones in silver, they turned their attention to development, which they hoped would be spurred on by establishing Santa Monica as the main port of Los Angeles. Despite the two men’s politicking and arm-twisting in the 1870s, their dream of a port city ultimately failed and they turned to developing tourism and recreational opportunities. By 1874, the ‘bubble of expectation’ was full-blown. The township of Santa Monica was founded in 1875 and centered around Second and Third Streets. The first commercial buildings appeared on Second Street and moved up to Third Street by the early 1890s. While Santa Monica was still a town of unpaved streets, and deflated by overripe economic fancies by 1887, a rate war between the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads precipitated a flow of new residents rushing madly to Southern California and setting off a real estate boom. According to California historian Carey McWilliams, the railroad-inspired land booms attracted an unusual type of settler. ‘Unlike other western settlements, Southern California drew settlers from diverse and distant places rather than from neighboring states and territories since they came in Pullman cars instead of covered wagons, they came from cities as well as rural areas and they were merchants, bankers and the uprooted professional man. Many were drawn west by the excitement and novelty of a train trip at cheap rates.’ The Santa Monica Conservancy, an advocacy and education organization founded in 2002, has developed a weekly walking tour researched and designed by Ruthann Lehrer and Carol Lemleim, that traces the history of the city through clues revealed in the commercial buildings intermixed in the four-square blocks between Second and Fourth and Broadway and Arizona. The town’s first business district was initially centered around the current Third Street Promenade. Early street names consisted of both numbers and the names of western States; however Utah eventually became Broadway and Oregon became Santa Monica Boulevard. Logically, the walking tour begins every Saturday at the Rapp Saloon at 1438 Second, the sole survivor from the year Santa Monica was born in 1875. This 250-sq.-ft. brick ‘miniature’ building was constructed by William Rapp, and promoted as a ‘Los Angeles Beer Garden with fresh Los Angeles beer always on hand.’ Although this one-story utilitarian building was made of locally available materials, the ‘architecture’ reflected an incoherent choice of styles with no relationship to the unique subtropical environment of Southern California. The Hotel Carmel, across the street at 1451 Second, reflected the Beaux Arts style, popularized by the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, which took Classical, Renaissance and Baroque traditions as design models. Rising from street level, the four-story edifice is sectioned into three parts: base, midsection and cornice. The stucco cladding is scored to simulate cut stone, and the cornice at the roofline is accented with terracotta lion heads. Still a popular hotel today, in its heyday the Carmel was a favorite retreat for Hollywood film stars. A hint of this elegance is still visible in the lobby, which retains the original 1928 Spanish Baroque fireplace and columns with their highly elaborated surfaces featuring plaques, helmets and curlicues characteristic of the style. Another popular turn-of-the-century architectural style, Romanesque Revival, inspired by early medieval European churches and castles, is splendidly well preserved in the 1893 Keller Block, 1460 Third Street. A major milestone in the downtown’s development, it was the largest building at three stories and helped to establish Third Street as the heart of the commercial center. The original owner H. W. Keller inherited the Malibu land grant from his father, Don Matteo Keller, and built his home on Ocean Avenue. Shops and a restaurant were on the ground floor, with the 45-room Hotel Jackson upstairs. Its brick and rusticated stone corner tower and arched windows are hallmarks of the Romanesque Revival, while the rich detail in the brickwork and the tall narrow windows reflect Victorian tastes. One of the most flamboyant buildings on the tour is the 1927 Builder’s Exchange on Fourth Street, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard. Designed by Eugene Durfee, the Builder’s Exchange beautifully displays the skills of the building tradesmen professionals noted in the highly decorative Churrigueresque style. Churrigueresque is a variant of Spanish Revival named for a family of Spanish architects who transformed the Spanish Baroque into a style of exuberant, abundant and dense ornamentation that became very popular in Mexico. During the restoration of the building, following the 1994 earthquake, the original plans were discovered and indicated the use of ornamental wrought iron, which had never been added to the original facade. So restorers completed the original by adding the wrought-iron decorative touches above the storefronts. Santa Monica’s first true skyscraper with its distinctive clock tower has been a striking landmark since it first rose over the city in 1929. A classic example of Art Deco, the Bay Cities Guaranty and Loan Association, 221-225 Santa Monica Blvd., soars upward 12 stories to a vertical clock tower. Stylized zigzag geometric decoration occurs in the upper portions of the building between the piers, and is restated in the cornice. The building was designed by prominent Los Angeles architects Walker and Eisen, who also designed numerous landmarks such as the Oviatt and Fine Arts Buildings in downtown Los Angeles. Improvements in transportation helped establish the western parts of Los Angeles. In the 1890s, rail service from down L. A. to Santa Monica was about 20 minutes, certainly an improvement over the five- to-six- hour ride by oxcart. By 1911, the Pacific Electric became the largest operator of interurban electric railway passenger service in the world, with more than 1,000 miles of track. Cyclical economic setbacks continued to plague Santa Monica, most notably during the Depression and again in the mid-1960s, when the Santa Monica Freeway dispersed consumers away to outlying shopping centers. But the city remains a mecca for both residents and businesses drawn by the benign climate and the Pacific Ocean. The Third Street Promenade public space with its mix of entertainment, restaurants and retail has made Santa Monica a model for cities everywhere. Walking tours of Santa Monica are held every Saturday at 10 a.m. To make a reservation, call (310) 496-3146 or visit dwt@smconservancy.org. Payment ($5 for Conservancy members, $10 for nonmembers) can be made at the start of the tour.