Well At Least We Tried

The Seaport of Redondo Beach from 1888 to 1912

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Chapter 1: Building a Seaport

The Port of Redondo Beach, 1888 to 1912

Redondo Beach, California, was incorporated as a city in the County of Los Angeles on April 18, 1892. At the time of its incorporation, the city was known as a seaport of Los Angeles. Two events occurred in 1887 that initiated Redondo’s development as a community. The first was the sale of over four hundred acres of beachfront land, known to its owners (The Dominguez Estate Company) as the “ocean tract” for the sum of twelve thousand dollars. This land was intended for development as a beach resort town. (The ocean tract had been a vacation spot for the Dominguez family and friends before the sale.) The second of these events was the discovery of the Vicente Submarine Valley immediately offshore of the ocean tract. These two events marked the beginnings of Redondo Beach as a resort community and a short-lived sub-port of Los Angeles. Although Redondo Beach began its development as a beach resort town and a seaport concurrently, this essay focuses primarily on the creation and growth of the port spanning the years 1888 to 1912.[1]

It is difficult to separate the history of Redondo Beach from that of the larger city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, in turn, was influenced by the same forces that affected most cities in America during the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1860, one in every six Americans lived in cities. By 1890, the figure had changed to three out of every ten. Between 1860 and 1890, Los Angeles grew twenty-four times its previous size; as compared to Cleveland, which grew six times, and Kansas City and Detroit, which each grew four times. This urbanization of America led to changes in American society. As people moved to the city, they became interdependent in a way that had not existed in rural life. As they grouped themselves around each other, they also gathered around machines that made life easier: machines like railroads, providing greater mobility and allowing large populations to be supplied with fuel and food.[2]

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in Los Angeles on May 31, 1887, “...to the usual accompaniment of bands, speeches and beer.” Land speculators and developers well knew that the railroad would seek a shipping outlet to serve Los Angeles. The Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific Railroad (which had established itself in Los Angeles long before) found that their interests conflicted. Both railroads were looking for potential harbors to serve the rapidly growing Los Angeles area where they did not have to contend with already established competition. The desire to avoid competition (and establish a monopoly) was such that if the railroads had to build their own independent harbors, they would. In any event, the result was a rate war that reduced tickets westbound to such a degree that thousands of immigrants and Midwesterners poured into Los Angeles.[3]

Many factors were causing Midwesterners to leave their farms in the 1880s. The same industrialization that brought the railroad through their cornfields also brought labor saving devices to the farm releasing men and women agricultural workers in a mass exodus. Farmers were also hit by declining prices for their agricultural products through the 1880s and 1890s. A nationwide deflation during this period made it impossible for them to pay off their debts. Poor rainfall in the west from 1887 to 1897 made matters even worse. Many farmers were ruined. Desperate, they took refuge in the city hoping to find employment.[4]

Immigrants flowed into the United States on all sides through the 1880s filling this continent with a rich mixture: languages, religions, educational backgrounds, and customs. Most of the Europeans came by way of the eastern ports like New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. By 1890, New York City had half as many Italians as Naples and two and a half times as many Irish as Dublin. Immigration was also a fact on the west coast and many made their way to Redondo Beach, California.[5]

The influx of people and the approach of the railroad caused a real estate boom in Southern California in the 1880s. Among the many groups of speculators to make their appearance in Los Angeles during the boom was the Redondo Beach Company, with venture capitalization amounting to $3,000,000. This company bought the original 434-acre ocean tract from the Dominguez family and began promoting their project heavily in Los Angeles newspapers. Promotions continued through the summer of 1888. In the window of their downtown Los Angeles office (corner of Main and Court streets), the Redondo Beach Company displayed a sign saying “From Redondo Beach” made out of several thousand pebbles and seashells. The announcement in the Los Angeles Times invited readers to the office saying the artistic sign was well worth a visit to see.[6]

The Redondo Beach Company intended to build a resort city at Redondo Beach. Their plans included a million-dollar hotel named the Hotel Miramar, “a hotel of the most ample dimensions, picturesque effect, and perfect appointments.” To promote the pleasure resort idea, at least to English-speaking whites (indeed most of the lots sold were to white Midwesterners), the streets running north south were given Spanish girls names and those running east west were named after precious stones. As part of this community, the developers had plans to build an iron pier out from shore for small-scale commercial and recreational use. The Redondo Beach Company called in a state civil engineer to advise them about the project and to layout the original town site. William Hammond Hall advised that a sounding should be made of the underwater topography one mile out from shore to determine the nature of the pier project. This survey revealed the existence of a submarine canyon just a short distance from the shore about even with the middle of the tract.[7]

With Hall’s survey, they determined that deep-water craft could land at Redondo by means of the construction of a short and inexpensive wharf. The largest sailing ships of the time, the deep-keeled windjammers, as well as steamships, could be brought within two hundred feet of the shore. With the possibilities for commerce being greater than previously supposed, Hall recommended that the company change their plans. The development of Redondo Beach for its commercial interests as a port should be a primary project rather than one secondary to the pleasure resort.[8]

To investigate the possibilities of a harbor, the Redondo Beach Company consulted Colonel G. H. Mendell who at the time was commanding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Pacific coast. Mendell concurred with Hall’s findings and both engineers wrote reports in December of 1887. The Los Angeles Board of Trade heard about these hydrographical surveys and were very interested. In a letter to the Redondo Beach Company (printed in the Los Angeles Times), Eugene German, President of the Los Angeles Board of Trade, expressed keen interest in the possibility of a port at Redondo:

A safe and convenient harbor for Los Angeles and vicinity has always been a question of importance to our community; but in view of the report of Col. Mendell, which shows that 800 miles in distance can be saved by turning Asiatic commerce through Los Angeles instead of San Francisco, the existence and establishment of a port of entry for deep-sea vessels at out immediate water front becomes a subject of new and increased public interest.[9]

The Redondo Beach Company sent both reports (Hall’s and Mendell’s), with other supporting materials, to the Los Angeles Board of Trade on January 9, 1888. In spite of Eugene German’s initial enthusiasm, the board did not take any immediate action. Neither did the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce organized just three months before. Consequently, it was up to the Redondo Beach Company to develop the project themselves. The first vessel to call at Redondo was the Pacific Coast Steamship Company (P.C.S.S.C.) steam lumber schooner Eureka (Figure 5) in order to land lumber for the pier project.[10]

After the discovery of the canyon, Redondo Beach was vigorously promoted as another potential harbor for Los Angeles. This was, after all, the nature of boom literature. It had the power to transpose simple open beaches like Redondo into landlocked, natural harbors like San Francisco, or San Diego. Horace Bell, in his memoirs, On the Old West Coast says that Redondo was advertised as “the safest harbor in the world” and that it had limitless possibilities as a safe shipping port.[11]

Colonel Mendell thought a harbor was a good idea, but in recommending that they develop a harbor, Mendell was not making the statement that Redondo’s possibilities were “unlimited” like the promotional literature implied. Rather, he simply recognized that there were possibilities that could be exploited. Neither was this a recommendation that the Redondo Beach Company seek government appropriations for the harbor project which would certainly be needed to make Redondo Beach the main port of call for Los Angeles. Mendell pointed out certain flaws in the Redondo Beach Company’s plans such as a lack of Wharf frontage. Even if the entire shoreline area of the submarine valley were used, there was still a limited area in which to build wharves. Mendell concluded the matter with this statement: “...as the accommodations are limited, it is essential for success that the outlay be limited.”[12]

In accordance with Mendell’s recommendation, the outlay was indeed limited, only sixty thousand dollars for the construction of a short wharf in the summer of 1888, “...and presently great quantities of freight from the north began to flow into Los Angeles by way of the new port.” The peculiar shape of this wharf, a “Y” with its open end to the sea, was intended to double the wharf frontage. This was not exactly the same “Y” shape shown in Hall’s original plan (Figure 3). The main part of the wharf was straight all the way out to the end and only a northern branch veered off at an angle (Figure 6). This shape was not to last. Soon after this wharf was built, the northern branch was wrecked in a storm. It appears nobody missed it however, because this branch was never rebuilt. The wharf continued to handle shipping as the port of Redondo Beach in this storm-altered condition for the next twenty-five years or so (Figure 7).[13]

The first train to Redondo over the Redondo Beach Railway arrived on April 2, 1888 with an engine and a special car carrying General Manager McCool of the Santa Fe Railroad, Mr. Thompson of the American Bridge Company who was building the wharf, and the directors of the Redondo Beach Company. The Railway was to be officially opened on April 7 carrying passengers to Redondo from the downtown Los Angeles Santa Fe depot located on First Street. When opened to the public, trains left at 9:30 a.m. and returned at 3:30 p.m. carrying 200 passengers each. The Redondo Beach Company offered special inducements for the first excursionists: those building houses costing $3,000 would receive a thirty percent rebate, $2,000 twenty percent, and 1,000 ten percent. They even offered lumber and building materials at cost, and of course, lunch at the beach was provided free.[14]

After subdividing the ocean tract into lots however, the developers could only manage to sell less than forty lots in four years. Their timing was a bit late: they had missed the boom. In late 1888, as the Redondo Beach Company realized they were not selling enough lots in order to make their payments to the Dominguez Estate Company, they decided to merge with another group of promoters under the name of the Redondo Beach and Centinella-Inglewood Land Company. This final attempt at survival was not to prove successful however. The boom of the 1880s was over; land values plummeted and the company was sold in 1889.[15]

The Redondo Beach Company had consulted an impartial surveyor, Hall, a state civil engineer, and Mendell, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Both reports fundamentally agreed. There could be a port built at Redondo Beach. At this time, there was a genuine need for a deep-water harbor to serve Los Angeles. San Pedro had always been considered the “Port of Los Angeles” or the closest thing to it. However, San Pedro was not a deep-water harbor and ships had to anchor some distance offshore. The problem was this; there was no truly protected harbor from San Francisco to San Diego. Both of these were landlocked harbors offering protection against winds and swells from all points on the compass. There was simply nothing like this near Los Angeles, so the harbor serving Los Angeles would have to be a manmade one.

An improved harbor that could accommodate foreign trading vessels and warships would surely involve federal funds. Colonel Mendell had conducted a survey of the coast in 1886 before the Redondo Beach Company had even been formed. In his report to the Secretary of War, Mendell appraised the situation on the west coast:

Although it is well known, it may be proper to state that there is no harbor for deep sea vessels on the California Coast except for San Francisco and San Diego. The distance between these harbors is about 600 miles. There are several roadsteads in the interval which afford protection to vessels from winds coming from a particular direction but none which covers from all winds. The bay of San Pedro is the best known of these roadsteads and is the only one which has now, or ever has had foreign commerce.

In fact, the government had already provided funds for the improvement of San Pedro harbor as early as 1870 when $200,000 was appropriated for a 6,700-foot long timber and stone breakwater. These remarks by Mendell indicate that the Cleveland administration was primarily interested in foreign trade. Any appropriations therefore, would be awarded to improve a particular roadstead’s potential on this basis. The United States government valued foreign trade. In their view, foreign, rather than coastal trade had a greater affect on the nation. Aware of this, the people of Redondo Beach were encouraged when two big foreign trading ships arrived with freight for Los Angeles in June of 1889. The Times reported that the citizens of Redondo believed they would soon be getting a portion of the china trade providing enough money to build their own artificial harbor without government help. They even boasted that the port of Redondo Beach would surpass that of San Diego.[16]

Industrialization led to a change in American foreign policy. This was a reflection of a world change as industrialization led to a demand for markets and raw materials. Raw materials were imported and manufactured goods were exported. These could best be sold in what the Western powers viewed as “under-developed” countries such as China and Japan. China traders established a commercial treaty with the United States in 1844 and Commodore Matthew Perry “opened the door” to Japan for American trade in 1853. American capital investments abroad increased from nothing in 1870 to $500,000,000 in 1890. United States foreign trade increased from $400,000,000 in 1865 to 1,600,000,000 in 1890. By 1890, the United States of America had a new role in the world and foreign trade was crucial.[17]

Nevertheless, when the Redondo Improvement Company, as the new owners called themselves, took over in 1889, they developed Redondo Beach much as their predecessors had seen it. This is to say, with a local and regional view, not necessarily an international one. The new Redondo Beach Company was headed by two Oregon lumber and shipping masters named Captain J. C. Ainsworth and R. R. Thompson who developed facilities that would attract tourists and settlers.[18]

The Hotel Redondo was opened May 2, 1890. It was located on the bluffs above the beach not too far from the wharf. Tourists could walk up the walkway from the wharf or ride in from the city by rail and step off the train right in front of the hotel. The 225-room Hotel Redondo was similar in style to the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey and the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. One of the deed restrictions regarding the operation of the hotel was that no liquor was to be sold on the premises. Nevertheless, bars were always to be found within a short distance of the hotel.[19]

This type of stipulation was not uncommon in the United States during the Victorian period. Organizations were formed such as the Prohibition Party and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union that led an attack on the liquor traffic. Their prime objective was, of course, prohibition and by 1890, seven states had passed “dry” laws. California was not one of them however. (A law like this would decimate the California wine industry.) In spite of the efforts of these reformers, the per capita consumption of liquor trebled in the U.S. between 1860 and 1890.[20]

The Anti-Saloon League in Redondo Beach wanted the sale of liquor prohibited anywhere within the city limits, not just the Hotel, and the issue came to a vote 1910. The headline of the May 21, 1910 issue of the Redondo Breeze read, “Redondo Beach Votes Wet by Big Majority.” The majority was in fact 347 “wet” votes to 257 “dry” votes, and the Breeze described the victory this way:

It was an avalanche of votes [90 to be exact] which declared in no uncertain way against the prohibition agitators who infested our fair city during the campaign and sought to bring about a victory for the Anti-Saloon League by mocking the entire community, and making personal and vicious attacks upon the business interests and captains of industry who alone, by the expenditure of millions, have placed Redondo Beach in it’s proud and distinctive position of the leading commercial points of the Pacific Coast.

It appears the members of the local press were drinkers. The Breeze possessed a certain magnanimity too, “Let us hope that the knocking was but the feeble out crying of strangers, who knew not what they said.”[21] In the view of the Redondo Breeze, their paper existed “for Redondo’s interests first, last and all the time.” Also on the front page of every issue of the Breeze was this catchy saying, “The Breeze boosts, do you?” In the opposite corner, one is told how to boost. “Patronize the local merchants.” The Redondo Breeze was competing for the patronage of the local merchants with Redondo’s other paper, the Redondo Reflex. These merchants included local “sample rooms” such as the Columbia, the Casino, the Eagle’s Nest, and Murphy’s Hotel and Bar. The Breeze concludes the article by saying, “the big majority for the wets adds additional proof to our claim to being a city of boosters.” In Redondo Beach, a “booster” was the thing to be.[22]

Ainsworth and Thompson’s plan was for the railroad and steamship lines to bring tourists to the hotel. Enchanted with the sun, ocean and beach, they would be inspired to buy lots, build houses and start businesses. Hence, coastal trade and passenger transport would be more important to Redondo’s development than foreign trade. Very important to Redondo’s coastal trade was the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Their ships, which included the Santa Rosa, Pomona, Harvard, and Corona, stopped at Redondo every three to four days bringing cargo, passengers, and dollars.[23]

Redondo’s tourist trade was growing rapidly. Mendell, in his “Report on the Natural Conditions of Redondo Beach” stated on the topic of passengers:

Steamers from San Francisco, landing first at Redondo, would doubtless there discharge their passengers who would reach Los Angeles some hours earlier than they can do now, or they could do if landed on the piers in San Pedro Bay.

Right away, the port of Redondo Beach began to enjoy certain advantages. Coastal vessels working their way down the coast from San Francisco, Portland, or other west coast ports, would encounter Redondo first instead of San Pedro when approaching Los Angeles. Foreign sailing vessels coming around Cape Horn would head out into the Pacific to catch the trade winds for San Francisco. From San Francisco, it was a comparatively short trip to Redondo Beach. This was a far easier passage for a windjammer than to try to work their way up the coast of South and Central America arriving first at San Pedro.[24]

This trade route was changing however, as steam vessels were rapidly replacing sail in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In addition, as early as 1850 the United States and Great Britain had signed an agreement providing for a canal across Central America. With the building of the Panama Canal (completed August 15, 1914), ships would reach San Pedro first and not Redondo.[25]

At the time of Redondo’s beginning the only ports serving Los Angeles County were the shallow-draft harbor at San Pedro and the wharf at Redondo. Cargo discharged at San Pedro from deep-keeled ships had to be conveyed to the shore by the use of lighters, flat-bottomed vessels that could get to the dockside without running aground. Everything took longer to reach Los Angeles via San Pedro as opposed to Redondo. This was not only because Redondo was geographically closer to the city but also because it allowed trains to connect with deep-draft steamers and windjammers without the extra expense of lighters. Soon however, there would be the construction of another wharf to rival these already established ports.[26]

The Southern Pacific Railroad in San Pedro realized they were loosing some business to the Santa Fe in Redondo. This was not only due to Redondo’s advantages, but also because of competition with the Terminal Railway Company, which had been established in San Pedro in 1891. As the Southern Pacific viewed it, it could take years before the government provided the funds necessary to improve San Pedro. Until they did, the Santa Fe would be carrying much of the Los Angeles traffic. Rather than wait, the Southern Pacific constructed a new wharf just north of Santa Monica. If the Southern Pacific had been outflanked at Redondo, the Santa Fe was now outflanked at Santa Monica.[27]

The wharf was named (conspicuously) “Port Los Angeles.” It extended 4,700 feet into Santa Monica Bay making it the world’s longest wharf. The underwater topography was such that deep water could not be reached any other way. The “Long Wharf” had two sets of tracks that branched out into seven sets of tracks at the 130-foot seaward end. The docking area could accommodate three coal ships at once. Still, as at Redondo, there was only limited wharf frontage. Port Los Angeles now presented an even shorter steamer passage from the north than Redondo, and a baggage room and restaurant were constructed right on the wharf for the passengers. Once the “Long Wharf” began operations in 1891, both San Pedro and Redondo suffered from the competition.[28] To this, those San Pedro interests not affiliated with the Southern Pacific said:

Of course we of this place can understand why Mr. [Collis P.] Huntington makes a bid to the Harbor Committee for an appropriation for Santa Monica, or, as termed “Port Los Angeles.” It is a business proposition based on purely selfish and personal grounds, his company having invested a million dollars near there in building a wharf, which is largely dependent upon ocean vessels for passengers and freight business. It remains to be seen whether his influence with Senators and Representatives will have more weight than the several reports of the government engineers, which favor San Pedro, giving it the preference as the location for a deep-sea harbor.[29]

Redondo was still competing however, and in 1895 a second wharf was built just south of the first wharf located in about the center of the head of the canyon. This second Redondo wharf, named “Wharf No. 2” (Figure 15), was 160 yards long and had a separate walkway for passengers on the southern side with railroad tracks running off to the northern side. Another wharf was built in 1903 at the southernmost part of the canyon, curving 460 feet long and named “Wharf No. 3” (Figure 16). In 1909, Wharf No. 3 was extended by the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway Company for a cost of $50,000 providing thirty-three percent more frontage. [30]

By the early twentieth century, even with all three wharves working, (Figure 17) vessels still had to wait their turn to discharge their cargo. Mendell stated that there would be a lack of wharf frontage at Redondo, and this proved true throughout Redondo’s career as a sub-port of Los Angeles.

The amount of cargo unloaded at Redondo usually exceeded the amount that was shipped back to the north showing the rate of building that was going on in Los Angeles County. The Record of Entrances and Clearances of Vessels Engaged in the Coastwise Trade for the port of Redondo Beach shows that building materials, chiefly lumber, were in constant demand. Industrialization, urbanization, problems on the farm, and the real estate boom of the 1880s all combined to bring a great amount of people into Los Angeles County creating a need for new housing.[31]

The massive importation of lumber for the building of the city of Los Angeles led to the development of a large Redondo lumber industry. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say a lumber reshipping industry, because most of the lumber passed through Redondo Beach on its way to Los Angeles. “The Redondo Milling Company, the Redondo Planing mill, the lumber yards of the Montgomery & Mullin Lumber Company, and the C. Ganahl Lumber Company are among our industrial establishments.” The Redondo Reflex continues:

The Monsanto Lumber and Manufacturing Company’s wholesale yards have been established during the last few months, and they are now putting up a mill to handle their own business. In addition to this they operate an independent line of steamers, which supplies them with stock from their northern forests.

With over half of the total virgin lumber in the United States in three Pacific coast states, people viewed the lumber trade as one of Redondo’s most stable businesses.[32]

Redondo people considered the business at their port to be very significant. Throughout its history as a port however, the volume of shipping handled at San Pedro was seldom less than at Redondo and often several times greater. As large as the lumber business was at Redondo, it was greater at San Pedro. The coal business was the same story. San Pedro received nearly all the coal bound for Los Angeles, and coal was important to the U.S. government for a variety of reasons. For one, coal fueled warships. Most of the coal that arrived at Redondo, on the other hand, was used by the Santa Fe Railroad.[33]

The kind of success that some Redondo interests envisioned for the port (i.e., making it the main port of Los Angeles) was unlikely from the start. The potential for development, in spite of what promotional literature had to say about it, was decidedly limited even if federal funds were appropriated. As for improvements, the idea of building the necessary breakwater was unworkable because the wharves extended into a canyon where the ocean floor was too deep. Furthermore, federal funds were very likely not to be awarded since only an occasional foreign ship called there. The Record of Entrances and Clearances of Foreign Vessels shows that the principle imports from overseas into Redondo were building supplies such as cement, glass panes, and brick. Occasionally small amounts of coal were brought in (usually from Australia) for the daily operation of the railroad. The majority of Redondo’s trade was a rather specialized coastal trade that was associated with the development of the city and county of Los Angeles but did not necessarily affect anything outside Southern California.[34]

Because of the specialized nature of this coastal trade, only two companies were the major source of business to the port: the Pacific Coast Steamship Company and the Santa Fe Railroad. The P.C.S.S.C. carried the bulk of Redondo’s cargo and passengers to the wharves and from there, the Santa Fe Railroad carried them into Los Angeles. The P.C.S.S.C. had no particular interest in Redondo Beach. It operated, as all companies do, purely in its own self-interest. When the P.C.S.S.C. found it to their advantage to avoid using lighters at San Pedro, it changed to Redondo. As Port Los Angeles in Santa Monica presented a shorter steamer passage from the north the P.C.S.S.C. began making regular stops there. As soon as it became advantageous for the steamship company to change back to San Pedro, once facilities were improved, the P.C.S.S.C. did so (Figure 21). The Santa Fe was at Redondo simply because the Southern Pacific was already at San Pedro. This was a precarious situation for the Redondo interests. Either of these companies could pull out leaving the port with no business to take up the slack.[35]

On March 1, 1897, the Los Angeles Harbor Board sent a report to Washington D.C. stating that there was a preponderance of physical advantages in favor of San Pedro. The report compares two locations, San Pedro Bay and Port Los Angeles with scarcely a mention of Redondo Beach. The actual comparison was between San Pedro Bay and the Santa Monica Bay as a whole which included Redondo and Santa Monica as one location.[36] The battle continued between the two locations until April of 1899 when the first of the government-sponsored improvements began at San Pedro. In a long article published in the Los Angeles Times, Colonel Mendell said:

The struggle for the creation of a free deep-water harbor at San Pedro, which has been waging for eight years, and has now happily come to a close in the actual commencement of work on a breakwater, is in many respects the most remarkable and important contest for a public improvement that has ever been fought out to a finish in this country, between a community and adverse private interests.[37]

The “Free Harbor” celebration in San Pedro, including a huge barbeque, lasted for three days.

The fact that the decision for the development of the Port of Los Angeles ultimately went to San Pedro did not change any of the factors that gave Redondo its start as a port of call. Money was still made without an enormous outlay of capital as Mendell had said in 1887. Albert S. Karr, in his thesis “The Port of Redondo Beach (1887 – 1926)” summarizes:

According to available figures, the total capital outlay in wharves, together with moorings and appurtenances was under two hundred thousand dollars for all three wharves. Yards, tracks, storehouses, and other facilities were, for the most part, built and maintained by the companies using them. Considering the amount that was invested, the port of Redondo was an exceptionally successful venture from the day it opened in the summer of [1888][38] until approximately 1912 when business started to decline.

Indeed, business did start to decline shortly after 1912 when the Pacific Coast Steamship Company pulled out of Redondo Beach altogether.[39]

As a sub-port of Los Angeles after 1912, Redondo gradually became a nonentity along with “Port Los Angeles” at Santa Monica. Building supplies, lumber, coal, and just about everything else came to Los Angeles by way of San Pedro. In 1911, ground was broken for the Standard Oil refinery in El Segundo that effectively ended Redondo’s oil trade. The Santa Fe Railroad began receiving coal and railroad ties at San Diego, and the Southern Pacific Railroad was operating stronger than ever at San Pedro. The port of Redondo Beach was left with nothing but a limited passenger trade.[40]

The tourist trade flourished at Redondo in the early twentieth century. It had been the original intention of the developers to create a resort town on the Pacific Ocean that was connected to Los Angeles by rail. Access to Redondo Beach by rail proved to be one of the most important factors in its development. Indeed, advances in transportation during the latter half of the nineteenth century contributed to the development of not just Redondo Beach, but also the American city in general. The Los Angeles & Redondo Railroad abandoned steam in favor of electricity in 1902. In 1905, Henry E. Huntington (Collis P. Huntington’s nephew) bought the railroad making it part of the Pacific Electric Railroad allowing residents of Los Angeles County to ride the Pacific Electric’s “Red Cars” out to the beach to enjoy Huntington’s other attractions. Tourists could swim in the ocean or in the $150,000 bathhouse having their choice of warm or cold water. Walking along the beach collecting moonstones and shells, fishing from the wharves (and later, the pleasure pier), listening to band concerts, and dancing at the pavilion were all favorite pastimes among Redondo tourists.

In 1907, Huntington would replace the first pavilion with a much grander, Moorish style pavilion with arches and domed roofs. The Bathhouse would also be replaced in 1909. The new structure was built next to the pavilion in the same Moorish style. It was advertised as the, “largest indoor saltwater heated pool in the world” (Figure 25).[41]

Even though the city of Redondo Beach began its development as a beach resort town and a seaport simultaneously it ultimately developed into a suburban beachfront community. It was intended to be a resort town and became exactly that, the seaport simply proved not to be as long-lived. The building of residential and pleasure resort facilities was constant throughout the community’s development, and those interests that wanted Redondo to be the main port of Los Angeles were a select few at most. From the outset, the port had limited possibilities and served only a local purpose. Still, money was made for the limited time available to many Redondo Beach opportunists.[42]

Gradually the wharves were taken down or wrecked in storms. Heavy rainfall and high winds created conditions severe enough to destroy Wharf No. 1 in March of 1915. Wharf No. 2 was the next to go having been damaged in a previous storm (possibly the same one that destroyed Wharf No. 1), and was torn down in 1916. Wharf No. 3 was not wrecked in a storm but dismantled by its owner, the Pacific Electric Company, who did not renew their lease on the Redondo waterfront and removed the wharf in 1926. (For more on the dates the three wharves were built and dismantled, see Chapter 4: The Mystery of the Wharves.) Those marine structures that were built after 1912 at Redondo Beach, as well as the neighboring beach communities to the north, Santa Monica and Venice, were built solely for entertainment and not commerce. Redondo’s “Endless Pier” was built in 1916 between Wharf No. 1 and Wharf No. 2. The Redondo Beach pier has undergone many changes since 1916 being wrecked, rebuilt, expanded, burned, and rebuilt. By 1912, Redondo’s career as an international port of call for Los Angeles was substantially over. In his memoir, On the Old West Coast, Horace Bell sardonically remarks:

…on a calm day the water looks pretty smooth and in such weather the eminent engineers and other eminences would say: ‘You see, there is a submarine oil well in the offing that spouts oil perpetually. This keeps the waters off Redondo as calm as a millpond. It will be the great harbor of the Pacific Coast.

After 1912, however, the oil seepage, always in very small amounts, served only to irritate bathers and surfers who collected tar on their feet.[43]

[1] Robert Cameron Gillingham, The Rancho San Pedro, (Los Angeles: Dominguez Estate Co., 1961 rev. edition, Museum Reproductions, 1983), pp. 274-277; and Judson A. Grenier with Robert C. Gillingham, California Legacy: The Watson Family 1820 - 1980, (Los Angeles: Watson Land Co., 1987), pp. 268 - 272. The “Ocean Tract” was part of the vast Rancho San Pedro. The sale of land included a provision whereby the three sisters, who had inherited the land, Guadalupe, Susana, and Maria de los Reyes Dominguez, remained a controlling interest in all land sales (lots), the money being equally shared.

[2] Ray A. Billington, History After 1865, 7th ed. (Totowa, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1974), pp. 71-72.

[3] Horace Bell, On the Old West Coast: Being the Further Reminiscences of a Ranger, edited by Lanier Bartlett (New York: William Morrow & Co., pp. 268-269; Albert S. Karr, “The Port of Redondo Beach (1887-1926)” (Thesis, University of Southern California, 1947), p. 2. Some were disappointed in 1886 when the Santa Fe got as far as San Bernardino and then branched off to San Diego, delaying the L.A. connection for one year. Tickets from Missouri River points to L.A. were sold at prices ranging from one to fifteen dollars.

[4] Billington, American History, pp. 86-87.

[5] John M. Blum et al., The National Experience: A History of the United States since 1865, 4th ed., 2 vols. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1977), pp. 446-447: Bernard A. Weisberg, Many People, One Nation, (Boston: Houghton Miffin Company, 1987), p. 183.

[6] “Beach Railroad”, Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1887, p. 2. According to Karr, the line to Redondo Beach was opened by way of Inglewood, another new development, on August 12, 1888: Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 2. Venture capitalists and stockholders in the Redondo Beach Company were: D. McFarland, Judge Charles Silent, N. R. Vail, Senator L. J. Rose of Los Angeles, W. N. Monroe of Monrovia, E. C. Webster of Pasadena, L. T. Gernsey, F. C. Garnett, J. R. Farrell, A. McFarland, William H. Bensall, Hon. S. O. Houghton, and Judge Alexander Campbell of Los Angeles. The board of directors included Silent, Rose, D. McFarland, Vail, Gernsey, Houghton and Webster. “Redondo Beach”, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1888, p. 17.

[7] “Redondo Beach”, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1888, p. 17; Chris J. Schaeffer, “A History of Redondo Beach,” Redondo Beach, 1931. (Typewritten.) pp. 3- 4; Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 7-8; Grenier, Legacy, p. 268.

[8] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 8. The existence of inshore deep water off Redondo had been discovered prior to Hall's survey. The United States Coast Survey Soundings had been taken a couple of years before but had not been published. Few people, even mariners, knew how close to the shoreline the canyon really was. It was only when there was a vital interest in port developments near L.A. that its importance was realized. Karr cites the Los Angeles Herald, Jan. 11, 1888.

[9] “Harbors Wanted”, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1887.

[10] Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 10-11; Grenier, Legacy, p. 272. Hall's report, “Report on the Natural Commercial Advantages of Redondo Beach” and Mendell's report, “Report on the Natural Conditions of Redondo Beach” were compiled along with some samples of correspondence and drawings of projected harbor developments in a pamphlet entitled Natural Advantages of Redondo Beach for the Accommodation of Deep Sea Commerce. It was a promotional piece and was shown to the Los Angeles Board of Trade. Karr says the Board “represented the business interests of the members rather than those of the city as a whole.” The board took no action.

[11] Bell, Old West Coast, p. 270.

[12] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 15, citing Mendell's report (see footnote 10), pp. 36-42.

[13] Karr “Port Redondo,” p. 16. Karr cites the Redondo Reflex, May 7, 1906, for the figure $60,000. Dwight Charles Willard, The Free Harbor Contest at Los Angeles, (Los Angeles: Kingsly-Barnes & Neuner Company, 1899, p. 64. This explanation of the shape of the first wharf at Redondo is my best guess. See Chapter 4: The Mystery of the Wharves for more on the building and dismantling of the wharves.

[14] “Down by the Sea”, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1888, p. 8.

[15] Gillingham, Rancho, p. 274; Grenier, Legacy, p. 270; Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 6. Grenier says L.A. newspapers (he cites the L.A. Times, Aug. 7, 1887) announced the purchase of land from the Dominguez family by a syndicate. It was a company headed by Silent, McFarland and Vail. This company bought 400 of the 434 acres of the ocean tract for $12,000 (the papers said, “$400,000 deal,” and “1400 acres of the finest land in Southern California.”) It was to be a winter and summer resort. For more information on the land boom, see Glenn S. Dumke, The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1944).

[16] G. H. Mendell, “The Great Fight for a Free Harbor and How it was Won”, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1889, p. A4. By Mendell's remarks, it appears San Pedro had always been regarded as the harbor (or landing at least) for Los Angeles. Richard Henry Dana refers to San Pedro as such in his book Two Years Before the Mast, 1911; Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 13-14. Karr cites Mendell's report to the Secretary of War, 1888.; “Ship and Rail”, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1889, p. 2.

[17] Billington, American History, pp. 99-100; Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 22. Foreign trade at Redondo was not very significant, as Mendell had predicted. The first ship to call at Redondo Beach from a foreign port carried a cargo of window glass and cement arriving on January 30, 1892, from Antwerp, Belgium, according to the Redondo Reflex, Aug. 10, 1905.

[18] Gillingham, Rancho, pp. 274-275; Grenier, Legacy, p. 272; Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 11.

[19] Ken Johnson, “Fun, Frustration and Fulfillment,” Redondo Beach, 1965. pp. 48-49; Dennis Shanahan, Old Redondo: A Pictorial History of Redondo Beach, California, designed by Wm. Fridrich (Redondo Beach: Legends Press, 1982), pp. 36-40. Johnson and Shanahan (who appears to have taken it straight from Johnson) both describe the hotel interior. “In the subsequent decade the hotel was the Mecca of fashion.” Grenier, Legacy, p. 272; Gillingham, Rancho, p. 274.

[20] Blum, National Experience, p. 514; Billington, American History, p. 79.

[21] The Redondo Breeze, May 21, 1910.

[22] The Redondo Breeze began publication in 1894 and continues in publication as a daily paper today (The Daily Breeze). The Redondo Reflex was published as a weekly from 1906 to 1964. There was another Redondo Beach paper: the Compass, which was published from 1892 to 1894. The “sample rooms” are listed in the Redondo Beach City Directory, 1910, in the collections of the Redondo Beach Historical Commission.

[23] Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 6, 22-23, 44; Shanahan, Old Redondo, p. 36; Schaeffer, “History,” p. 13; Port of Redondo Beach, “Records of Entrances an Clearances of Vessels Engaged in the Coastwise Trade,” Bureau of Customs, Record Group 36, National Archives, Los Angeles. Ca. All of these vessels would be wrecked somewhere along the coast of California: Santa Rosa 1911, Pomona 1901, Harvard 1931, Corona 1907. The California coastal trade was a hazardous one and the P.C.S.S.C. took its chances.

[24] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p .9 and 21, quoting Mendell; Billington, American History, pp. 134-135.

[25] Billington, American History, pp. 134-135.

[26] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 9. Mendell mentions lighters in his report to the U.S. Secretary of War.

[27] Remi Nadeau, Los Angeles: From Mission to Modern City (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1960), pp. 84-85.

[28] Fred E. Basten, Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years (Los Angeles: Douglas-West Publishers, 1974), p. 24; Nadeau, Los Angeles, p. 87. Basten's book is a well-illustrated account of the “Long Wharf” though the text is very brief.

[29] “Harbor Question: Pertinent facts for Congress to Consider” Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1894, p. 6. This letter to the editor was signed by D. W. Weldt, Edward Norman, Henry Baly, James Dodson, M. Levy, George W. Lecompton, A. Eisen, F. J. Weldt, George H. Peck, W. A. Weldon, H. D. Williams, Thomas R. Brent, B. W. Edelman, Julius Platt, H. Jacoby, M. Mayer, and Julius Seick.

[30] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 44; “Redondo Gets Greater Pier”, Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1909, p. II8. The dates given for the building of the wharves are my best guess since various Redondo histories differ. See Chapter 4: The Mystery of the Wharves for an analysis.

[31] Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 22. Karr says imports exceeded exports by a ratio of “five to one.” He cites the Redondo Compass for May and June of 1892. His ratio may not be very accurate as it is based on only two months in the same year. In any case, more was coming in than was going out and almost all of it was building supplies. Imports were merchandise, lumber, and oil. Exports were general merchandise, fruit, and oil.

[32] Redondo Reflex, “Souvenir Fleet Edition,” April 1908; Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 21. Schaeffer says the Montgomery & Mullin Lumber Co. was established in the community before C. Ganahl, p. 13.

[33] Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 19-20.

[34] Port of Redondo Beach, “Record of Entrances and Clearances of Foreign Vessels,” Bureau of Customs, Record Group 36, National Archives, Los Angeles, Ca.; Karr, “Port Redondo,” p. 14; Willard, Contest, pp. 87-89. Willard describes the arc of exposure at Redondo (90 degrees), Santa Monica (101 degrees), San Pedro (102 degrees), and Ballona Creek (104 degrees), saying that they were all about the same. Some proposed the idea of a floating breakwater at Redondo Beach but it was dismissed as “costly and doubtful.” Shanahan, Old Redondo, p. 45.

[35] Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 22-24.

[36] “Report of the Harbor Board”, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1897, p. 23.

[37] G. H. Mendell, “The Great Fight for a Free Harbor and How it Was Won”, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1899, p. A4.

[38] Karr, “Port Redondo”, pp. 24-25. Karr says the port opened in the summer of 1889, yet the first wreck report for the port of Redondo Beach is dated July 9, 1888, the American bark D.C. Murray had been lying at anchor off the wharf (Wharf No. 1) that had only just been built.

[39] F. S. Haynes, “City of the Piers,” Redondo Beach, 1972. (Typewritten.) p. 2; Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 24-25.

[40] Basten, Santa Monica, p. 32. The long wharf was reduced to half size as a fishing pier in 1916, and then removed entirely in 1921. Port of Redondo Beach, “Entrances and Clearances”; Karr, “Port Redondo,” pp. 71-72.

[41] Shanahan, Old Redondo, p. 48, 54-58; Billington, American History, p. 72.

[42] Other works providing background material for this essay are: Frank P. Donovan Jr., “Memory Port,” Westways, January, 1943, pp. 18-19; and Charles Elliot Jr., “A History of Redondo Beach From Earliest Times to the Founding of the City,” Redondo Beach, Undated. (Typewritten).

[43] Shanahan, Old Redondo, pp. 62-68; Witt Family. The Witt Family Archive. February 16 , 2002. Internet. Available from http://www.sanonofre.com/witt_family_archive/. [April 15, 2003].

"But nothing came of the great commercial project which furnished the basis for the ridiculous valuations on property there and the place lapsed into the status of an indifferent bathing beach."

Horace Bell, On the Old West Coast

 

Figure 1: Beginning development of the “Ocean Tract.” (Watson Land Company)

Figure 2: Locomotive #13, (built 1882) of the California Southern Railroad in the Arroyo Seco area around 1887-89. The California Southern Railroad would become the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad. (Los Angeles Public Library)

Figure 3: Plan of Redondo Beach town site by William Hammond Hall, state civil engineer. (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 4: The Vicente Submarine Valley (United States Geological Survey)

Figure 5: The Pacific Coast Steamship Company steam lumber schooner Eureka. The first vessel to call at the port of Redondo Beach. (The Bancroft Library)

Figure 6: Wharf No. 1 in 1888 before the storm, showing its “Y” construction. (The Huntington Library)

Figure 7: A post card showing Wharf No. 1 after the northern branch had been destroyed by the storm. (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 8: A map of Santa Monica and San Pedro Bays showing the Vicente submarine Valley at Redondo Beach. This map accompanied Mendell’s Report in 1892. (From Willard’s, The Free Harbor Contest)

Figure 9: San Pedro harbor in 1908. The sandbars shown in this picture indicate the amount of dredging that would be necessary to make San Pedro accessible to deep-keeled ships. (The Bancroft Library)

Figure 10: A view of the Hotel Redondo and the Bathhouse (on the beach) from the wharf. (John McGhee Collection)

Figure 11: Men lounging in front of the Hotel Redondo. (The Author’s Collection)

Figure 12: The Santa Rosa alongside Wharf No. 1 with another ship at anchor. (Los Angeles Public Library)

Figure 13: The State of California. Both the Santa Rosa and the State of California called at Redondo every few days as shown in Appendix B: Port Records on page 112. (The Bancroft Library)

Figure 14: “Port Los Angeles” or the “Long Wharf” built in 1891 at Santa Monica. (Strangeman Collection)

Figure 15: Wharf No. 2. (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 16: Wharf No. 3 in 1910. (California Historical Society)

Figure 17: A View of all three wharves at Redondo. (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 18: The C. Ganahl Lumber Yards in Redondo Beach. (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 19: The lumberyards at San Pedro in 1906. There was a large volume of lumber shipped to Redondo Beach, but it was larger at San Pedro. (Los Angeles Public Library)

Figure 20: The Proposed Harbor at San Pedro, published in the Los Angeles Times, 1897. (The Bancroft Library)

Figure 21: The Santa Rosa calling at San Pedro in 1910. One of her smokestacks had been removed in 1904. (Los Angeles Maritime Museum)

Figure 22: The “Free Harbor” Jubilee Celebration, April 1899, San Pedro. (Los Angeles Public Library)

Figure 23: Passengers disembarking on Wharf No. 1. (The Huntington Library)

Figure 24: Henry E. Huntington (The Huntington Library)

Figure 25: The inside of the saltwater Plunge (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 26: Bathers at Redondo Beach (Redondo Beach Historical Commission)

Figure 27: The Harbor at San Pedro toward the end of Redondo’s career as a port of call. (The Bancroft Library)

Figure 28: George Freeth surfing next to Wharf No. 1. Freeth introduced surfing to the continental United States in 1907 when Henry Huntington recruited him from Hawaii to give demonstrations at Redondo Beach. (The Witt Family Archive)