Most of the development on the ranchos of Southern California has just
happened—they, like Topsy, just grew. But not so the Rancho San Vicente
y Santa Monica. A careful plan, expenditure of great wealth and a
determination of purpose unequaled all sought to make a great seaport of
Santa Monica—and no city could have grown more contrary to the efforts
to guide it than has Santa Monica.
The rancho was granted December 20th, 1839, by Governor Juan B. Alvarado
to Francisco Sepulveda, officer of the Mexican army, and comprised
31,000 acres of mountain, mesa and ocean shore land. In the following
thirty-three years many changes came over California. The rule of the
United States supplanted the ruin of Mexico, California became a state
and Los Angeles a city. The wool of the lazy sheep became more
profitable than the hides of cattle.
In 1872 the heirs of Sepulveda, anxious to divide their inheritance and
believing that Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica had reached the peak of
its value, sold the same for less than $2.00 an acre to Colonel Robert
S. Baker, prominent wool grower of Kern County. Colonel Baker stocked
the rancho with herds of sheep and shortly thereafter sold an undivided
three-fourths interest in his property to Senator John P. Jones of
Nevada. Jones and Baker then conceived the plan of a great harbor at
Santa Monica and a harbor city on the rancho; the fortunes of both these
men were thrown into the project and Santa Monica was platted.
The Los Angeles & Independence Railroad with its terminus at the new
city and running to Los Angeles was built and operated. It had been
planned to extend the railroad into the mining district of Inyo County
and part of its name was derived from Independence, the county seat of
Inyo County. However, the line was never built beyond Los Angeles. In
connection with the railroad a large warehouse was built in Los Angeles,
and a long wharf at Santa Monica. Every preparation was made for giant
ships of the sea—ships which were never to come.
In 1886 the land boom which descended on Los Angeles and vicinity found
Santa Monica well prepared to receive it. Colonel Baker and Senator
Jones had hundreds of unsold lots and those previously sold when the
harbor city was budding were ready for resale. The Arcadia Hotel, a
handsome tourist resort located on the bluff, was built by Colonel Baker
and named for his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Baker, who formerly had been
Mrs. Abel Stearns. Mrs. de Baker, child of an illustrious Spanish
family, was famed for her beauty, and, as wife of Don Abel Stearns,
commanded an outstanding social position in Los Angeles. Upon Don Abel’s
death she inherited all of his ranchos. Shortly after the boom the
Estate of Colonel Baker, Senator Jones and the Santa Monica Land & Water
Company conveyed 300 acres of land along the east boundary of the rancho
to the United States and on this and adjoining land the Soldiers’ Home
was built.
Then another effort was made to create a harbor at Santa Monica—this
time led by Collis P. Huntington with the wealth of the Southern Pacific
Railroad behind him. This last great attempt was given up only when
threshed out on the floor of the United States Senate and the United
States had decided that the Harbor should be at San Pedro. Perhaps it
was the guiding hand of destiny that kept Santa Monica unspoiled as a
residence city.
[Illustration: “_The wool of the lazy sheep became more profitable
than the hides of cattle_”]