As a response to the corruption and inefficiency that grew in the 1930s, the current charter was enacted in 1946. 1850s Even the comparatively dowdy Miramar Hotel found new prominence with the many visits of President Bill Clinton. One well had a concentration of 600 parts per billion, while another rose from 14 parts per billion to 490 parts per billion within a year. Mrs. Nancy A. Lucas purchased 861 acres (3.48 km2) from the rancho in 1874 for $11,000. Third Street Promenade opens, welcoming up to 7,000 visitors daily. One says that it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), but her feast day is actually May 4. PEN was the first municipally operated BBS in the world. A public art installation, interpretive signage and education plan was developed as part of the Belmar History + Art project, which commemorate the site that was home to a thriving African American community in the 1950s and honors the legacy of the historic Belmar neighborhood’s contributions to Santa Monica life. 2010 Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan in Gaspar de Portola’s expedition party, names the area after Saint Monica. Together, they now welcome more than 8 … (The Santa Monica Mall, just prior to its conversion to the Third Street Promenade, is a location for some scenes in the movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure). The remaining property was sold to the State of California and leased as the private Sand and Sea Club. Cleanup of the site is ongoing at a current cost of $3 million per year, paid for by the responsible parties, principally: Shell Oil Company, Chevron, and Exxon. During the 1970s, a remarkable number of notable fitness- and health-related businesses started in the city. However, Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, one of those who opposed the Purple Line's extension, has recently reconsidered extending the Purple Line into Santa Monica. The total construction costs were roughly $30 million. The southwestern section of the city originally belonged to the Rancho La Ballona of the Machado and Talamantes families. Beach volleyball is believed to have been developed in Santa Monica during this time. 1828 1909 The United States Grand Prix was held in Santa Monica in 1914 and 1916, awarding the American Grand Prize and the Vanderbilt Cup trophies. Mexico, free of Spain, divides the area into three expansive land grants called Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, Rancho Boca de Santa Monica and Rancho La Ballona. Part of the attraction were the famous pipes handmade by Kolpin himself. Travel through time and explore the rich and cultural Santa Monica history, from the discovery of Santa Monica Bay to the expansion of the Metro Expo Line from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica’s shores. Pacific Ocean Park, the last of the great amusement piers, opened in 1958. The area around the pier was filled with poorly built and maintained buildings that housed seedy biker bars and head shops. Advertisement for first land sale in Santa Monica, 1875. The extensive Pacific Electric Railroad easily transported to the beaches people from across the Greater Los Angeles Area. Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in or near Santa Monica and Venice. A seemingly peaceful seaside city, Santa Monica is also a purgatory where the characters must face failure and … In 1959 Kolpin began a tobacco-store franchise, at first locally and then by the mid-1960s there were Tinder Box stores in malls across America. [2], Regarding the latter, Crespi did note in his diary that the group found a Tongva village at the springs (where the SE corner of the campus of University High School is today). Come Be a Part of Santa Monica History. One of those finalists, Santa Monica, is a finalist in the mid-size community category, and has a long history of implementing innovative sustainable practices. Perhaps one of the most widely rumored haunted spots in Santa Monica is The Georgian Hotel on Ocean Avenue. The shootings started at Zawahri's father's house, where he fatally shot his father and brother after a domestic dispute, and afterwards, he set the home on fire. It was capable of holding 10,000 dancers in its over 15,000 square foot (1,400 m2) area. At the northern end of Main Street adjacent to the still-declining Santa Monica Mall, a city block was levelled in 1980 to build a new mall, Santa Monica Place, designed by architect Frank Gehry. To defend against air attack set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared elaborate camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield. Davies sold the property in 1945 for just $600,000 to a failed attempt at a hotel. 1875 Within a year all five wells were closed, leading to the loss of 45% of the city's water supply. [11] From 1961 to 1968 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its annual Oscar awards ceremony there. It closed in 1968. By the 1980s it had become a blight. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings in the city, most notably City Hall. In the 1980s, the city put together the plan for turning the failed Santa Monica Mall into the Santa Monica Promenade. The town site fronted on the ocean and was bounded on the northwest by Montana Avenue, on the southeast by Colorado Avenue and on the northeast by 26th Street. More than $500 million of private money has been invested into the Promenade and the adjacent streets in the Bayside District Corporation business association. Another version says that it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs (Serra Springs), that were reminiscent of the tears that Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety. The Supergo bicycle shop (originally named Bikecology founded by Susan and Alan Goldsmith as a pro ten-speed bike shop opened in 1971, and was ranked the top grossing bike shop in America by the time it relocated from Wilshire Blvd to the corner of 5th and Broadway in 1995. American Grand Prix – includes map of racing route. It was also used as a shooting location, most notably in the TV show Beverly Hills, 90210, in which it was the Beverly Hills Beach Club. The project, completed in 1989 has proven to be a huge success and is a major regional shopping and entertainment center. Santa Monica is home to Hollywood “A-listers” and wealthy East Coasters; population soars to 37,000. The southern rim of the canyon is the oldest residential part of Santa Monica, while most of the canyon is in the City of Los Angeles. Our friends at CloverField.org put together some interesting historical documents about the beginning of the Santa Monica Airport. By 1885, the town's first hotel, the Santa Monica Hotel, was constructed on Ocean Ave., between Colorado and Utah in 1885. Elegant resorts were opened, including the 1925 Miramar Hotel and the 1926 Club Casa del Mar. Performers that have appeared over the decades include: Joan Baez, The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, David Bowie, Dave Brubeck, Buzzcocks, The Carpenters, Ray Charles, The Clash, Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Hope, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, André Previn, Public Enemy, Ramones, The Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, T.Rex, Jonathan Winters, and countless others. The Santa Monica College History Department is a community of instructors and scholars that seeks to understand the past and strives to introduce students to history and to develop in them a historical sense. The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769. Water taxis ferried patrons from Santa Monica and Venice. Abstract: The Santa Monica Mountain Range in Los Angeles County is the only major mountain range in the United States of America that divides a large city. Downtown saw a construction boom with many important buildings going up such as Henshey's Department Store (destroyed) and the Criterion Theater. 1924 1872 The plant produced 600 million ballpoint pens in 1971 and closed in 2005. Early street names consisted of both numbers and the names of western states; however Utah eventually became Broadway and Oregon became Santa Monica Boulevard. The 1909 Santa Monica Pier is the last remaining amusement pier on the north bay. The Santa Monica Track Club, founded in 1972 by Joe Douglas, has helped the careers of many Olympians, such as Carl Lewis. On December 10, Elfie Mosse was appointed City Librarian. It became his first amusement park and residential project. It has largely remained the controlling political organization since then. He was then shot by responding police officers after engaging them in a gunfight, later dying after being taken outside. The new, adjacent Colorado Esplanade opens concurrently, connecting the Expo Line Downtown Santa Monica station to the Pier, Ocean Avenue and Palisades Garden Walk Park. Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. A decade passed before the site was redeveloped into an office park. The earliest part of the current Santa Monica Pier, which is now the last remaining amusement pier, was built in 1909 on what was referred to as the North Bay. Read 3 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply. The Santa Monica Municipal Pier opened to the public on September 9, 1909 after 16 months of construction. Its population soared to more than 83,000. September 21, 2018 News How To. 1888 The Newcomb Pier was privately owned until it was acquired by the city in 1974. The city of Santa Monica is incorporated – all 8.3 square miles. The name for the springs has since reverted to Kuruvungna ("the place where we are in the sun"), which is what the Tongva People have called them all along. 1955 The seaside sanctuary’s population grows to 1,000 in nine short months. Our Mission: To form loving disciples who will transform the world . The landmark Santa Monica Pier debuted on September 9, 1909, and Pacific Park opened on May 26, 1996, becoming the first amusement park on the Pier since 1930. Santa Monica struggled during the 1930s Depression and the 1940s war years. Looking south across the bluffs, the Arcadia Hotel sits at the end of the pier, 1888. The engine-less ship surrendered after nine days in what newspapers called The Battle of Santa Monica Bay. History — Santa Monica Pier. Humorist Will Rogers acquires 345 acres in Rustic Canyon and builds a horse ranch and polo field for fellow players that included: Spencer Tracy, Robert Montgomery and Walt Disney. Further south on Main Street, the mixed-use museum, retail, and restaurant complex, Edgemar – also designed by Frank Gehry – opened in 1988. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt. The storms destroyed more than a third of the pier, along with stores, bars, cars, and a large crane brought in to begin repairs. For a short period of time until the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the City operated the site as a public beach facility. William Randolph Hearts builds Marion Davies a palatial, Georgian-style mansion on Will Rogers State Beach. Stretching along Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica Canyon and the Santa Monica Pier it became fashionable in the 1930s for beach homes of discrete celebrities. The proposal to extend the Purple Line has been described colloquially as the Subway to the Sea. 1926 Jones and Baker subdivided part of their joint holdings in 1875 and created the town of Santa Monica. Upon arriving at Santa Monica College, Zawahri shot and killed a woman outside and then fired 70 shots inside the college library, hitting no one. In 1983 major winter storms, part of the El Niño weather pattern, struck Santa Monica on January 27 and again on March 1. This proved to be very weak, especially since the police commissioner was poorly paid and had no accountability. The city put off repairing the breakwater that protected the pier and the so-called "yacht harbor" immediately north. Bandini was the daughter of Juan Bandini, a prominent and wealthy early Californian, and was the widow of Abel Stearns, once the richest man in Los Angeles. The Sepulveda family sold 38,409 acres (155 km2) of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica for $54,000 in 1872 to Colonel Robert S. Baker and his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker. A new charter was adopted in 1914 that converted the city government to a commission form. (Later KCRW became a popular and innovative NPR affiliate.). --Eric Wasserman, author of The Temporary Life Read more. Architect Julia Morgan oversaw the construction of what ultimately became the $7 million, 5-building, 118-room Ocean House. In a more modest show of entrepreneurship, Merle Norman founded her cosmetic business, Merle Norman Cosmetics in 1931 by making creams and cosmetics on her kitchen stove. The rail line down to Santa Monica Canyon was sold to the Pacific Electric Railway, and was in use from 1891 to 1933. Colorado Place, Water Garden, and other nearby office developments on the east side of town attracted MGM, Sony, Symantec, and other corporations. The Santa Monica Pier celebrates its centennial anniversary. 1920 Santa Monica also was booming in business at the time. The population increased from 15,000 to 32,000 at the end of the decade. An engrossing first book by a writer whose voice we can expect more from in the future. The DC-3, which first flew from Clover Field, was a terrifically successful airliner that transformed the air transportation business and brought needed jobs to the city. It is Santa Monica's oldest extant structure. The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. 2016 A Japanese fishing village was located near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in both Santa Monica and Venice. 2009 Following the expiration of the 30-year lease in 1990, management of the property was turned over to the City of Santa Monica. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. founded the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1921 with his first plant on Wilshire Boulevard. 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