City Planning Division (310) 458-8341
Planning and Community Development Department www.santa-monica.org CITY OF SANTA MONICA – CITY PLANNING DIVISION
DESIGNATION APPLICATION
Landmark Structure of Merit
This part to be completed by City staff
L.C. Case No.: Amount Paid: $
Received By: Check No.:
Date Submitted:
Applications must be submitted at the City Planning public counter, Room 111 at City Hall. City Hall is located at 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401. If you have any questions completing this application you may call City Planning at (310) 458-8341. GENERAL INFORMATION PROJECT ADDRESS:
Land Use Element District: Zoning District:
Assessor Parcel: - - Lot Size:
APPLICANT
Name:
Address: Zip:
Phone: Fax:
Email:
CONTACT PERSON (if different) (Note: All correspondence will be sent to the applicant) Name:
Address: Zip:
Phone: Fax:
Email:
Relation to Applicant:
PROPERTY OWNER
Name:
Address: Zip:
Phone: Fax:
Subject improvement is generally known as:
Existing use(s) of site:
Rent control status:
Status: Occupied Unoccupied
Recognized in the Santa Monica Historic Resources Inventory: Yes No Condition: Excellent Good Fair Deteriorated Ruins Unexposed Threats: None Private Development Vandalism
Public Works Project Zoning Other:
NOTES TO
APPLICANT
Please complete all
applicable sections
of this application
and submit all
required materials.
Incomplete
applications will not
be accepted for
filing.
Landmarks
Commission meets
on the second
Monday of each
month.
The applicant,
representative, or
legal owner familiar
with the project
must be present at
the Landmarks
Commission
meeting.
A decision on
designation is
rendered at the
hearing. All
decisions by the
Landmarks
Commission are
subject to a 10-day
appeal period. An
official appeal form
and fee schedule is
available at the City
Planning Division
Public Counter.
Appealed projects
will be scheduled
for a hearing before
the City Council.
21ENT-0067
Scott Albright
03/18/2021
851.90
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
~ Please Note ~
The following property and historical information identified below must be provided in order for your application to be determined complete by the City Planning Division.
You may provide information on additional sheets of paper.
PROPERTY INFORMATION
Description of site or structure, note any major alterations & dates of alterations:
Statement of architectural significance:
Statement of historic importance:
NOTES TO
APPLICANT
For more
information on
designation
procedures, refer to
SMMC Section
9.56.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Person(s) of historic importance:
Local State National
Statement of other significance:
Documents and publications that relate directly to proposed improvement (bibliography):
FOR STRUCTURES ONLY:
Date of construction: Factual Estimated
Source:
Architect/Designer/Engineer:
Contractor/ Other builder:
Architectural Style:
Historic Use of Structure(s):
Present Use of Structure(s):
Is/Are structure(s) on original site: Yes No Unknown
Is/Are structure(s) threatened with destruction: Yes No Unknown If yes, state reason:
APPLICATOIN REQUIREMENTS
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS – all items must be provided
Completed Application.
Payment of Fee, if applicable.
Payment of Fee is WAIVED for Non-Profit Organizations. Documentation demonstrating Tax-Exempt Status must be included with this application and at the time of filing to be eligible for a Landmark/Structure of Merit Designation Application fee waiver.
Staff will confirm non-profit organization status prior to deeming this application complete.
Verification of Property Owner Outreach.
Property owner outreach and communication must be conducted prior to submittal of this Landmark/Structure of Merit Designation Application, if the filing party is not the property owner.
The purpose of this outreach is to ensure the following:
The property owner has been contacted and is aware of this Landmark/Structure of Merit Designation Application submittal;
The property owner is aware of why the property may be considered historically/culturally/architecturally noteworthy;
The property owner has been provided contact/website/printed information for the City of Santa Monica’s Planning Division, Historic Preservation Program, and Landmarks Commission.
Eight (8) sets of labeled Color Photographs of the building elevations or improvement on 8½" x 11" paper (Color photocopies are acceptable).
Any information you feel would be of assistance in reviewing the application, such as original plans, old photos, or other historical information.
For structures only: if applicant is requesting approval of modifications, please submit all materials requested for a Certificate of Appropriateness Application.
I hereby certify that the information contained in this application is correct to the best of my knowledge. ____________________________________________________
Applicant’s Name (PRINT)
_________________________________________________________ Applicant’s Signature Date
Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 1 PROPERTY INFORMATION
Description of site or structure, note any major alterations & dates of alterations:
The multi-family residence at 1665-1671 Appian Way is located at the northeastern terminus of the vehicular section of Arcadia Terrace, and adjacent to the lower (southwestern) entry portal of the Arcadia Terrace walk-street; the residential property extends southeast to Pacific Terrace (Figure 1). The graded, terraced terrain rises steeply on the property’s northeast side, with the resource’s northeast facades being below the level of the site of neighboring 24 Arcadia Terrace (Figure 2). Appian Way is a two-lane paved street with sidewalks on both sides that extend to the curb, with widely spaced mature Mexican fan palm trees on the southwest side. The buildings have a view toward the southwest across Appian Way and a surface parking lot to the beach and the ocean, framed on the corner diagonal to the west by the 1913 Purser Apartments (which was designated as a Santa Monica Landmark in 2017) (Figure 3).
The resource’s lot was part of Carl F. Schader’s 1911 Seaside Terrace Development, and the property was purchased in 1911 by John S. Stotler. An April 12, 1914 article mentioned that J. S. Stotler was having plans drawn for “two modern double bungalows, which will be built at once in Seaside Terrace at Appian Way and Arcadia Terrace” (Los Angeles Times October 1, 1911; Los Angeles Times April 12, 1914; Los Angeles County Assessor 1911-1919 map book). The 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the two buildings built to the lot lines on the northeast, southeast, and southwest facades, with a narrow passage between them (Figure 4). The address shown in the 1918 Sanborn map for the northernmost unit adjoining the entry to Arcadia Terrace was 18 Arcadia Terrace, while the other units were designated 1601, 1603, and 1605 Appian Way. The three Appian Way units are shown with similar footprints in the 1918 Sanborn map, but the unit at 18 Arcadia Terrace had a recessed porch at its northwest façade toward the Arcadia Terrace entrance and concrete benches (the benches are no longer extant) (Figure 5). The 1601 and 1603 units had entrances in the shared passage way, and the 1605 unit’s entrance was on Pacific Terrace. Their original form is visible in a 1922 aerial image (Figure 6).
The one-story vernacular buildings are clad with weathered wood siding with an unusual pattern of wider and narrower boards (Figures 7-8). Wood framing and brackets at the southwest façade appears in the 1922 aerial image to have originally supported windowboxes, which are no longer extant. The building’s windows are not clearly visible in the historic image. While their rhythm of larger windows alternating with smaller windows is extant, some of the existing windows at the southwest façade have been replaced with glass louver units, and some with vinyl units. The flat wood window frames with slightly protruding headers appear to be original, with some of the framing exhibiting deterioration (Figure 9).
The entrance to the 1671 Appian Way unit is via a poured concrete stair with an updated metal handrail at the southerly building’s southeast façade on Pacific Terrace. Between the two buildings and located behind a deteriorated wood gate, poured concrete steps lead to a shared walkway and the entrances to the 1667 and 1669 units (Figures 10-11). The entry doors are updated units. The buildings’ flat built-up roofing has a low parapet, and vents with wood louvers through the parapet at the southeast façade (Figure 12; also see Figure 2). Lower vents at the Appian Way and Pacific Terrace facades indicate a crawl space beneath the southwesterly part of the units.
Digitized building permits at the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Department include only electrical and plumbing applications permits and inspection notices between 1961 and 1982, but not documentation for the circa 1960-1970s infill of the porch at 18 Arcadia Terrace (present-day 1665 Appian Way), an addition at the northern corner of the property with a rooftop deck, and the enclosure of a narrow Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 2 below-grade passage adjacent to the Arcadia Terrace stairway (which also enclosed part of the Arcadia Terrace’s entry portal) (Figures 13-15). These alterations to the 1665 Appian Way unit may have occurred as part of repairs due to fire damage, for which a building permit was obtained in 1973 (Figure 16).
Information about the building’s current function—whether as short-term beach rentals or long-term residences—is not known, however at least two of the units appeared to be occupied at the time of survey.
Statement of architectural significance:
The multi-family residence 1665-1671 Appian Way is eligible for designation as a Santa Monica Landmark under Criterion 4 as a rare example of an architectural historical type valuable for study: the double bungalow. Prior to this evaluation, the property was recommended eligible for designation by the City of Santa Monica and/or for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources and the National Register of Historic Places in the field survey conducted for the 2017 Draft Historic Resources Inventory update (Goodrich 2018). It was noted in the April 12, 1914 newspaper article referenced above that the form of the multi-family residences are two double bungalows. This form of housing was included in popular builders’ pattern books in the 1920s, but is now relatively rare; the Santa Monica History Museum had no information about historic double bungalows in Santa Monica (Crown 2018). One deteriorated example of a duplex bungalow was documented in a 1994 master’s thesis about historic preservation and land use in Ocean Park (Figure 17) (Wenzel 1994). The two duplexes that comprise 1665-1671 Appian Way are examples of a type of multi-family housing that was previously common in Santa Monica, but that has largely disappeared.
The double bungalow floor plan in the 1920 Deluxe Flats Homes catalog shows two linear residential units that are mirror images of each other (Figure 18). While the interiors of 1665-1671 Appian Way were not accessible for survey, the linear nature of these buildings suggest they may have a similar layout, and Stotler’s 1914 “To Let” ad stated the unit being rented had the same composition of “3 rooms, kitchen, bath, screen porch, and two double beds, all conveniences” as those shown in Deluxe Flats Homes’ Plan 500 (Los Angeles Times June 7, 1914).
Statement of historic importance:
In addition to the rarity of their double bungalow form, the multi-family residences at 1665-1671 Appian Way also represent one of the few surviving examples of small-scale rental housing on the beach from the 1910s. They exemplify elements of the social and urban design/architectural history of the City, and meet the requirements for Santa Monica Landmark Criterion 1. As a result of development and redevelopment in this beachfront area over time, no other extant examples from this period of similar small-scale duplex housing at Santa Monica’s oceanfront near the pier have been identified. The field survey for the 2017 Santa Monica Historic Resource Inventory Update also recommended the multi-family residences at 1665- 1671 Appian Way as eligible for designation by the City of Santa Monica and/or listing in the California Register of Historical Resources and the National Register of Historic Places (Goodrich 2018). 1665-1671 Appian Way is part of Carl F. Schader’s 1911 Seaside Terrace development on the site of the Arcadia Hotel on Santa Monica’s palisades. Contemporary with the construction of the 1909 Municipal Pier, Schader’s projects transformed the bluffs into terraces and created a middle- to upper-middle-class residential built environment extending south to present-day Pico Boulevard, between Ocean Avenue and Appian Way, that included the Arcadia Terrace walk-street. Located immediately adjacent to Arcadia Terrace’s western entry portal at Appian Way, the subject site is physically separate from adjacent Arcadia Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 3 Terrace, and differs stylistically and in scale from the other properties in the original build-out of Schader’s developments. In the Ocean Park area south of Pico Boulevard, modest affordable housing predominated between the turn of the twentieth century and the 1930s, with bungalows noted asthe most common housing type (Wenzel 1994:39, 43). However, the mid-twentieth century demand for redevelopment in Santa Monica, and the construction of denser housing, hotels, and tourist amenities in an Oceanfront district defined in the 1984 Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE) of the city’s General Plan, resulted in the removal of the majority of similar small-scale housing in Ocean Park and in the city’s oceanfront area south of the pier.
Arcadia Hotel (1877 – 1909)
The Arcadia Hotel opened in Santa Monica in 1887, at the conclusion of a tremendous real estate boom in Southern California, but also in excursion trains traveling to California during the winter months, bringing wealthy visitors from New England and Chicago, and creating a demand for high-end hotels. J.W. Scott, the proprietor of Santa Monica’s first hotel, the 1876 Santa Monica Hotel at present-day Ocean Avenue and Colorado Avenue, partnered with the Pacific Investment Company (associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad), to build an impressive hotel on Scott’s Addition at the edge of the palisades south of an arroyo (the present-day location of the Santa Monica Freeway’s transition to Pacific Coast Highway) (Figure 19) (Marquez 2004:16-17, 23).
Although very popular, the Arcadia Hotel was short-lived due to financial problems, rapidly changing development, competing tourist amenities, and outdated plumbing and heating systems (Marquez 2004:23).
Real estate and mining investor Carl F. Schader formed the Schader-Hellman syndicate and purchased the property in 1909, and then demolished the hotel, its bathhouse, and adjacent cottages (Los Angeles Times June 20, 1909; Los Angeles Times July 3, 1910; Oxnard Courier July 22, 1910). To realize a grand plan that included “the great development of that fine, slightly, but hitherto neglected section of Santa Monica extending south from the Arcadia to Ocean Park,” Schader purchased additional property adjacent to the former hotel site and formed the Schader Seaside Terrace Company, with plans to develop the land in connection with the construction of a new municipal pier (built in 1908-1909) (Figure 20).
Carl F. Schader and the Seaside Terrace Development
Envisioning the conversion of the palisades into “ornamental courts and terraces leading by easy grades to the beach” with a variety of updated amusement and entertainment features, Schader’s plans foresaw on the terraced sites “numerous bungalows and cottages of unique design, for the accommodation of summer and winter visitors, or for permanent homes. These little seaside homes are to be equipped with all modern conveniences and luxuries.” In addition to single-family homes, apartment houses, spacious grounds, and beautiful lawns were promoted (Los Angeles Times April 25, 1911).
Schader’s development also included the construction of Appian Way through the middle of the Seaside and Vicente Terrace tracts. The road was intended to continue north to “skirt the foot of the cliffs all the way to the entrance of Santa Monica Canon,” and a wide concrete esplanade was built in 1910 southward from the new pier at Colorado Avenue to connect with the Hollister Avenue terminus of a concrete walk to Venice. Also projected was the construction of a thoroughfare extending from Fremont Avenue to Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, to provide easy access to Santa Monica from the center of the city. In 1910, the “air line flyer” branch of the Los Angeles-Pacific railroad began service on the former Southern Pacific right of way (which was incorporated into the Pacific Electric system in 1911), and Seaside Terrace was Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 4 promoted as being a 35-minute ride from downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles Times July 3, 1910; Los Angeles Herald July 31, 1910; Los Angeles Times September 26, 1915). In 1915, the Los Angeles-Santa Monica Beach Company, headed by R. P. Benjamin and B. M. Moss, announced plans for the former site of the Southern Pacific’s terminal at Ocean Avenue on the north side of Schader’s Seaside Terrace, including the grading of the slope on the south side of the municipal pier, the re-routing of the Pacific Electric’s “air line” under Ocean Avenue to the beach promenade, and construction of a second pier adjacent to the municipal pier as part of a “gigantic pleasure resort” of the “better class” that would be a “‘second Atlantic City rather than a new Coney Island,’” in reference to Abbott Kinney’s development of Midway-type attractions at the popular Venice development 3 miles to the south (Los Angeles Times September 26, 1915).
After the bluff was scraped to create “a gentle terraced incline from the trolley tracks on Ocean avenue to the broad concrete promenade along the ocean front,” Schader had two private residential courts laid out:
Arcadia Terrace and Kensington Terrace (now Seaview Terrace). Both included one-, one-and-one-halfand two-story single-family and multi-family residences, with a central cement walk and “broad, easy cement staircases leading up from the Appian Way to the top of the bluff” (Los Angeles Times April 3, 1910; Los Angeles Times March 15, 1914). The entry portal and stair to Arcadia Terrace are located near the southern edge of the former Arcadia Hotel’s footprint. A July 1911 newspaper display ad noted that Arcadia Terrace Private Court’s entrances at Ocean Avenue and at Appian Way included “two imposing entrances, each flanked by massive concrete pillars,” which were noted to have attracted “no end of attention in the beach city, owning to their unique and beautiful design…. The style followed in this entrance treatment is that of the ancient and almost extinct architecture of Yucatan, the pillars being copied from those found in ruins in that mysterious and inconceivably antique country. The whole is worked out in reinforced concrete” (Los Angeles Times July 30, 1911).
J. S. Stotler’s “modern double bungalows” on Appian Way Lot number 43 on the southern side of the walk-street’s western portal was purchased by John S. Stotler in September 1911 (Los Angeles Times October 1, 1911). Six months later, a 1912 newspaper display ad for Schader Realty Brokers showed the three-story Seaside Terrace Hotel and Selkirk Apartments built on opposite corners at the intersection of Seaside Terrace and present-day Ocean Front, providing a supply of visitor accommodations (Figure 21).
In April 1914, J. S. Stotler had plans prepared for “two modern double bungalows, which will be built at once in Seaside Terrace at Appian way and Arcadia Terrace” (Los Angeles Times April 12, 1914). A June 7, 1914 “To Let” ad was placed by Stotler in the Los Angeles Times, but it does not state whether the building’s units were being rented for a specific term, month-to-month, or as shorter-term vacation rentals; and Stotler himself was listed as a resident at 18 Arcadia Terrace through 1917 (Los Angeles Times June 7, 1914; 1915-1916, 1917 Santa Monica city directories). Images of Santa Monica’s beach and promenade south from the municipal pier at the turn of the twentieth century show a density of modest vernacular housing together with larger homes, some of which were used for daily, weekly, and monthly rentals (Figures 22-23). However, only a few small-scale buildings are visible in a 1924 aerial of the Seaside Terrace development south of the pier of the pier, with some being used as business, cafes, or suppliers of take-out foods (1925 Santa Monica city directory) (Figures 24-25). There were few if any other bungalowtype rentals on this section of beachfront.
Influence of the Looff Pleasure Pier on the Appian Way neighborhood, 1910s–1940s Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 5 A series of piers were built, expanded, and re-built between Santa Monica and Venice during the first three decades of the twentieth century, rivaling each other for amusements and attractions. With convenient transportation via the Pacific Electric railway (in addition to regular scheduled service, the extremely popular full-day “Balloon Route” excursion train featured stops at Santa Monica and Venice’s beaches), the piers became a driver for the local economy and the area’s physical development (City of Santa Monica Draft Historic Context Statement 2017:26-27); a 1911 newspaper display ad, probably placed by Schader, illustrated Seaside Terrace and Vicente Terrace’s location on the five passenger-packed streetcar lines to Santa Monica (Figure 26). The Looff Pleasure Pier opened in 1916 and included the hippodrome with its hand-carved carousel and the pier’s first roller coaster, with the La Monica Ballroom opening on the pier in 1924, and attracting visitors and prospective residents to the pier area (see Figure 24, above). The wide concrete esplanade between the Santa Monica pier and those in Venice – sequentially named Ocean Front Promenade (through 1920), Promenade (through 1940), and Ocean Front Walk – became lined with bath houses, small-scale commercial buildings, single-family and multi-family residences ranging from one to three stories in height, beach clubs, and parking lots (1915-1940 city directories; Gershenhorn 2016:11).
During the 1920s, the population of Los Angeles more than doubled to 1.2 million, while Santa Monica’s growth exceeded 140 percent with 37,146 residents by 1930 (U.S. Census Bureau). The steady volume of visitors supported numerous restaurants, lunch counters, and concessions along the Ocean Front Promenade adjacent to Schader’s Seaside Terrace tract (Figure 27). Beginning in the early 1920s, upscale beach clubs began to open along Santa Monica’s beaches, with the Casa Del Mar at Pico Boulevard (the southern end of Schader’s developments) being one of the most successful, and grand homes (some for celebrities) were built on the “Gold Coast” north of the pier (Basten 1974:110). A number of modest apartment buildings, tenements, and lodgings were constructed on the east side of Ocean Avenue through the 1920s and 1930s, and the Seaside Terrace Apartments advertised hotel and guest rooms, in addition to apartment suites (1918 Sanborn map; Los Angeles Times January 26, 1919). Of the tenants of the Ocean Front Walk apartments who were listed in the city directories, few remained from year to year (1918, 1919-20, 1923-1924, 1925 Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Venice, Sawtelle and Westgate Directories; 1927, 1928 Bay Cities Directory).
John S. Stotler was still listed as a resident of 18 Arcadia Terrace when he died in 1931; Carl F. Schader died in 1934 (although he and his wife were not listed as living in the Selkirk Apartments or on Arcadia Terrace after 1931) (City of Santa Monica 2017:84; Find A Grave n.d.a). Street addresses on Appian Way were renumbered in the mid-1930s, with the former 18 Arcadia Terrace listed as 1665 Appian Way in the 1938 city directory.
Business declined at the Santa Monica pier and nearby beach area amusements during the Great Depression.
The Santa Monica pier’s operating company was foreclosed a number of times in the 1930s, before being purchased by Walter Newcomb in 1943. The Pacific Electric’s rail line to Santa Monica and Ocean Park was abandoned in 1953 due to competition and traffic congestion from private automobiles and buses, resulting in a decrease in the residents from inland Los Angeles who visited the pier area on weekends and holidays (Marquez 2004:46).
Impact of development and redevelopment in Santa Monica and the Appian Way Neighborhood, 1940s– 1970s
During World War II (WWII), Santa Monica-based Douglas Aircraft was a major defense contractor and the city’s largest employer (Santa Monica Airport Association), which resulted in an influx of defense Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 6 workers to Santa Monica. The resulting housing shortage continued after the war, with the city’s population increasing almost 34 percent between 1940 and 1950. As a result, single-family homes were “doubled-up” to be used by as many as four families, some as boarding houses or with additional units constructed at the rear, and vacation trailers were used as year-round housing (Storrs 1974:37-38). When building materials became available again after the war, there was a building boom for commercial structures, homes, hotels, and particularly apartments. A significant number of minimal apartment buildings were built across the city using funding under the multi-family Section 608 of the federal government’s Housing Act of 1949, adding to the number of new and transient residents in the area (Basten 1974:180; Storrs 1974:41). In addition, in the years after WWII, more than 100 units of temporary veteran housing were assembled in the block between Ocean Avenue and City Hall, south of Seaside Terrace, using surplus Army buildings (Storrs 1974:43; 1918-1950 Sanborn maps).
The southern part of Santa Monica and the Ocean Park area, south of Pico Boulevard, which had been built out with modest homes by the 1930s, stagnated after WWII. Its orientation toward pier amusements was obsolete, with beach cottages sold at depressed prices (Wenzel 1994:43). In the 1940s, Ocean Park’s residential area west of 4th Street was described as “densely built-up second class residential,” and was included on a 1953 map of blighted areas in the city, with its narrow streets, high density, and modest homes described as substandard structures.
The Muscle Beach area, adjacent to the south side of the Santa Monica pier, became a site for impromptu gymnastics shows about 1934 and the free entertainment began to draw crowds of spectators (Figure 28).
Although acrobatic/gymnastic and fitness exhibitions increased there during the 1940s and 1950s, the pier’s condition declined prior to pier owner Walter Newcomb’s death in 1954 (Marquez 2004:46). Some criminal activity involving body builders contributed to the closing of Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach in 1959 (it was subsequently relocated to Venice Beach), with the Santa Monica pier area seen as attracting hustlers and petty criminals (Stanton 1990).
A Modern-style City of Santa Monica Lifeguard Headquarters building was constructed in 1955 at 1642 Ocean Front, adjacent to the Muscle Beach area; this building has been recommended eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources, as well as a City of Santa Monica Landmark. Winter storms damaged the pier in the late 1950s, and after serving as a roller skating rink beginning in 1958, the La Monica Ballroom was demolished in 1963 (Basten 1974:147). Changing pier attractions drew a low-end audience to the carousel, a bumper car ride, pinball arcade, and carnival games, and a number of drug abuse and overdose incidents were reported on the beach (Verge 2007:94). Yet as was the case in other California cities during this period, the unique atmosphere and low rent at the pier attracted artists and musicians, with seven unheated apartments above the carousel rented by artists, actors, and writers; additional inexpensive apartments were located above the stores on Ocean Front Walk adjacent to the pier (Stanton 1990) (Figure 29). Whether the units at 1665-1671 Appian Way experienced similar transience cannot be determined because reverse city directories are not publicly available after 1960-1961. What is clear is that the older densely built environment along the Ocean Front to the north of 1665-1671 Appian Way was not well maintained in this period, and the buildings and public amenities became weathered and deteriorated (Figure 30).
The movement toward urban renewal, begun in 1950, led to the 1958 designation of 25 acres of Ocean Park as a redevelopment district, the demolition of the majority of low-income homes and structures in this area in 1961, and the subsequent construction of condominiums (Scott 2004:130; Storrs 1974:44; Wenzel 1994:44-50). In 1957-1958, the Ocean Park Pier was reconstructed as Pacific Ocean Park (POP), which Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 7 was intended as a competitor to the new Disneyland theme park, but POP closed due to bankruptcy in 1967 and was demolished in 1974. The Newcomb pier was sold to the City of Santa Monica in the early 1970s, and due to physical deterioration, the Santa Monica City Council voted to demolish both the municipal pier and the Newcomb pier in 1973. The concrete esplanade/Ocean Front Walk between the Santa Monica pier and Venice was relocated and reconfigured along nearly its entire length, evolving from a boardwalk mostly lined with buildings to a meandering two-lane concrete-paved bike path across the beach (Gershenhorn 2016:12). Throughout the city, older single-family homes were replaced by medium-density apartment buildings in this period (Wenzel 1994:54).
Construction of the Santa Monica Freeway, which was completed in 1966, also removed historic neighborhood fabric through the center of the city. Surviving older areas in Ocean Park began to attract students, political activists, and young urban professionals, who represented the precursors of gentrification (Wenzel 1994:63-64). In 1979, the Santa Monica Rent Control amendment was passed, intended to address the city’s housing shortage and stabilize moderate rents to ensure that multi-family property owners received no more than a fair return (City of Santa Monica Rent Control Board). However, the implementation of rent control increased the demand for, and shortage of, affordable housing in Santa Monica. Writing about the long-term effect of Santa Monica’s 1929, 1937, and 1948 zoning ordinances, Storrs (1974:43) noted that the pattern of land use they encoded resulted in four out of five residents of Santa Monica being apartment dwellers by 1974.
1984 Santa Monica Land Use and Circulation Elements and redevelopment near Appian Way In 1984, the City of Santa Monica adopted updated Land Use and Circulation Elements to its General Plan.
Its findings for the city’s Oceanfront area noted that it had “dramatically declined since its early days when the Promenade and Pier were lined with hotels, bathhouses, ballrooms, and restaurants” (City of Santa Monica 1984:42). The multi-family residences at 1665-1671 Appian Way are part of this Oceanfront area, a special purpose district combining visitor-serving uses with existing residential, public recreation, and cultural uses (City of Santa Monica 1984:64-65). As a guide for the city’s future growth, the Land Use Element’s Plan Principles described the Oceanfront as a “unique and valuable resource which can become an extraordinarily attractive site for visitor- and recreation activities,” and noted the potential of its development for visitor-serving uses to enhance the City’s future revenue position, as well as providing an amenity to city residents and creating entry-level or low-skilled jobs (City of Santa Monica 1984:51, 75).
Its recommendations included allowing new hotels on Ocean Avenue, devoting the Oceanfront District primarily to visitor accommodations and commercial recreation while protecting the existing residential mix (City of Santa Monica 1984:87-88). In 1988, the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel was built on Ocean Avenue at Pacific Terrace, followed in 1999 by the neighboring J.W. Marriott Santa Monica Le Merigot.
Multi-family housing of a similar scale, the SeaCastle Apartments, was built in 2001 on Appian Way.
Integrity
Although the two Appian Way multi-family buildings’ exterior finishes are weathered with some deteriorating elements, and an inappropriate addition has been built on the 1665 unit, they maintain their overall integrity of design, materials, and workmanship. This analysis is in part based on aerial images of the buildings from the 1920s, in which it is evident that the essential form, features, and materials of the buildings have not been altered. The building is still in its original location, as such, retaining integrity of location. While there has been some diminishment to its setting with the construction of the nearby hotels and multi-family housing, enough of its historic setting remains for sufficient retention of integrity of Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 8 setting. The buildings still convey a strong association of feeling and association—they would be easily recognized today by someone who lived there in the 1910s or later through their period of significance (1911-1940; beginning with the date of construction, and ending with the build-out of similar modest housing in southern Santa Monica and the changing housing trends during and after World War II.) Person(s) of historic importance:
The property has been owned by eight individuals, siblings, and spouses/partners, one family trust, two corporations, and one limited partnership. However, none of the previous owners are known to be considered persons of historic importance.
Table 1. Chain of Ownership
Date Grantor Grantee
1911 John S. Stotler*
1938 John S. Stotler Kate and Amos Travis
1942 Kate and Amos Travis Homer D. and Virginia Gray
April 1956 Homer D. and Virginia Gray** Ralph H. Osborne et al., 1700 Ocean Ave. Corp.
August 1956 Ralph H. Osborne et al., 1700 Ocean
Ave. Corp.
Harry Resnick and Beatrice G. Salans
1961 Harry Resnick and Beatrice G. Salans George E. Shaw 1976 George E. Shaw Florence J. Baker
1984 Florence J. Baker Norman Goldman
1988 Norman W. Goldman Glenn Goldman
1989 Glenn Goldman Glenn L. Goldman Trust
2005 Glenn L. Goldman Trust Glenn L. Goldman, Alan Kapilow, and Michael J. Sarlo
June 2014 Glenn L. Goldman Trust Security FSE One Hundred September 2014 Security FSE One Hundred Shyle LP
* In the 1926-1938 L.A. County Assessor map book, John Stotler is noted as Heirs of Arthur B. Hutchason (Adm.) ** In 1961, a City of Santa Monica building permit for the repair of termite damage shows Mrs. V. Grey as the owner John S. Stotler
Its first owner was John S. Stotler, who was a native of the Penn Township (now Penn Hills) area of western Pennsylvania, a coal and limestone mining area on the Allegheny River adjacent to Pittsburgh that had been established in the 1860s (WTAE 2012). His father is shown in the 1870 and 1880 censuses as a farmer.
Another Stotler family is shown nearby, with their neighbors listed as farmers and coal miners (1880 10th U.S. Census). In 1898, John Stoner Stotler registered to vote in Ballarat in Inyo County, and by 1908, he was noted in a Los Angeles Times article about Inyo Mine producers as being the general manager of the Resting Spring Mining Company, developed in connection with the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, that included investors in Los Angeles and in Pittsburgh (Los Angeles Times November 22, 1908). It is possible that Stotler first became acquainted with Carl F. Schader through their common mining interests. When first mentioned in one of Schader’s ads as having purchased a lot in the Seaside Terrace development, Stotler is noted as being from Hollywood (although he and his wife Clara are shown in the 1910 census living on West 39th Street in Los Angeles) and his occupation was listed in the census as “mining” (Los Angeles Times August 13, 1911; 1910 13th U.S. Census).
Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 9 Like Schader, Stotler invested in real estate although at a smaller scale, including a 10-acre orange grove in Ontario and a lot in Rancho Cucamonga in 1912, a lot in Schader’s Kensington Terrace development in 1915, and a residence in Huntington Beach by 1923 (Los Angeles Times January 7, 1912; San Bernardino County Sun January 28, 1912; Los Angeles Times March 28, 1915; Santa Ana Register August 2, 1923).
The Stotlers were mentioned in a 1915 Society column in the Los Angeles Times as attending a party given by the Schaders at the Selkirk Apartments on Ocean Front (Los Angeles Times May 23, 1915), and J. S.
Stotler was part of the “Beach Sands” committee when Schader became the president of the Santa MonicaOcean Park Chamber of Commerce in 1922 (Los Angeles Times December 31, 1922). He was also part of Schader’s syndicate which in 1923 purchased a 90-acre walnut grove at Washington and Centinela Boulevards (in present-day Culver City) for subdivision into a business and residential subdivision. The 1930 census listed J. S. Stotler, still living in his unit on Appian Way, as a stock investor, and his household included a 59-year-old servant/nurse. He died the following year (1930 15th U.S. Census; Los Angeles Times December 10, 1931).
No information was located about significant contributions made by John S. Stotler to the Santa Monica community or its built environment.
Kate and Amos Travis
The next owners, Kate and Amos Travis, were siblings, and descendants of the prominent Yorba family.
The family of their father, J. Coleman Travis, had relocated from Alabama to Los Angeles in 1869, and bought an 800-acre ranch near present-day Orange in 1871. In 1898, their father married Zoraida B. Yorba, the granddaughter of Bernardo Yorba who had received a 180,000-acre land grant in 1835 and built the family homestead in Santa Ana Canyon (Armor 1921:320-325; FamilySearch n.d.a). J. Coleman Travis was the superintendent of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and also owned a 60-acre orange ranch near Orange, where he was shown in the 1900 census as a fruit grower (1900 12th U.S. Census).
Kate Travis was born at the ranch in 1902, and Amos Travis was born in 1906. J. Coleman Travis subsequently bought the 249-acre Esperanza Ranch in the Yorba township of Orange County, which had previously belonged to his father-in-law Prudencia Yorba, but by 1910, the family was living in Santa Monica. Their 1910 census location is noted to be on “Arcadia Beach” and J. Coleman Travis’ occupation was listed as “own money” (1910 13th U.S. Census). In 1917, the family moved back to the Esperanza Ranch, where J. Coleman Travis died in 1919 (Armor 1921:325). The four children appear in the 1930 census living in Santa Ana Canyon, and Amos and his older brother J. Coleman Travis are shown as a laborer and a foreman, respectively, on a citrus ranch (1930 15th U.S. Census). Zoraida Travis died in 1933.
J. Coleman Travis apparently owned Lots 37 and 38 of Carl F. Schader’s Seaside Terrace tract (located at Arcadia Terrace and Ocean Avenue, where the Langdon Motel/Hotel California/Sea Blue Hotel would be built in 1947) at the time of his death; an announcement of their sale to the highest bidder by the guardian of Amos Travis’ estate was listed in the Los Angeles Times in 1923 (Santa Ana Register July 25, 1923).
Kate and Amos Travis were not listed in the Santa Monica city directories during the years they owned the 1665-1671 Appian Way property; they appear to have spent the remainder of their lives in Santa Ana. No other information about this Amos Travis (his grandfather had the same name) or Kate Travis was located, and they are not known to have made significant contributions to Santa Monica.
Homer D. and Virginia Gray
Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 10 No biographical information could be located for Homer D. Gray or Virginia Gray. Mrs. V. H. Gray was listed in the city directory as living in the 1669 Appian Way unit in 1947-1948, and Homer D. Gray was shown as the occupant of 1665 Appian Way from 1952-1953 until the last available reverse directory in 1960-1961. No information was located about significant contributions they made to the city.
Ralph H. Osborne and 1700 Ocean Avenue Corporation
1700 Ocean Avenue Corporation was a California corporation whose main asset was the Surf Rider Inn Motel in 1960, when the corporation was in Chapter XI bankruptcy (Court Listener n.d.). Listed in the city directories as the Surf Auto Hotel at 1704-1712 Ocean Avenue from 1947-1948 through 1954, it became the Surf Rider Inn by 1958, with Ralph H. Osborne listed as owner (1947-1948, 1952-1953, 1954, 1958- 1959 city directories). Osborne’s name was among those listed as the property owners of Lots 38-40 on Arcadia Terrace (the Langdon Motel/Beach Auto Hotel, present-day Sea Blue Hotel) in 1956, as was Resnick (Los Angeles County Assessor 1956-1960 map book). In the 1960-1961 city directory, the Surf Rider Inn’s address was listed as 1700 Ocean Avenue, and its owner as C. P. Chryss. The 1700 Ocean Avenue property is now occupied by the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. No biographical information was located about Osborne, and there was no documentation of his having made significant contributions to the Santa Monica area.
Harry Resnick and Beatrice Salans
No definitive biographical information was located for Harold or Harry Resnick. Resnick’s name was listed as the owner in a 1948 application for a building permit for the six-unit multi-family building at 36 Arcadia Terrace, at the east end of the walk-street; Resnick’s home address was shown on the application on Hollister Avenue in Ocean Park. The 36 Arcadia Terrace building became part of the adjacent hotel at 1670 Ocean Avenue, then named the Langdon Motel, of which Resnick was shown in the Los Angeles County assessors’ records as one of the owners in 1956. By 1958, the hotel on Ocean Avenue was renamed the Beach Auto Hotel, and continued under that name in directory listings through 1991. No additional digitized building, electrical, plumbing, or inspection records for the 1670 Ocean Avenue property are available at the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Department.
The California Death Index for Beatrice Grade Salans (1893-1957) notes her mother’s family name was Resnik, suggesting that she was related to Harry Resnick. The Find-A-Grave website lists Beatrice’s husband as Max Salans (1888-1948), and a 1942 draft registration card for Max Salans indicates he was a native of Poland and lived in Ocean Park (FamilySearch n.d.b; Find A Grave n.d.b).
From the information available, Harry Resnick and Beatrice Salans are not known to have made significant contributions to Santa Monica.
George E. Shaw
As George and Shaw are both common names, no definitive biographical information was located for the individual who owned the 1665-1671 Appian Way property between 1961 and 1976. Digitized electrical, plumbing, and building permits at the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Department indicate maintenance and upgrading work was done in the multi-family units, including the repair of termite damage, replacement of water heaters, and installation or relocation of outlets. A 1973 building permit notes it is for Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 11 the repair of fire damage, apparently at the front of the 1665 Appian Way unit, with no structural damage having occurred (see Figure 16). George E. Shaw was not found to have made a significant contribution to the city.
Florence J. Baker
Due to Florence and Baker both being common names, no definitive biographical information was located for the individual who owned the 1665-1671 Appian Way property between 1976 and 1984. An electrical permit was obtained in 1982, but no additional information appeared on the permit application.
Norman W. Goldman, Glenn L. Goldman, Glenn L. Goldman Trust Because Norman, Glenn, and Goldman are common names, no definitive biographical information was located for the individuals who owned the 1665-1671 Appian Way property between 1984 and 2014.
References
Armor, Samuel
1921 “Mrs. Zoraida B. Travis.” In History of Orange County, California, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California. Available online:
https://books.google.com/books?id=yhMVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320&lpg=PA320&dq=%22histo ry+of+orange+county%22+california+zoraida+yorba&source=bl&ots=znt0Q4EHpc&sig=kqbM EfJC5aYtICa31FdKLJm8RT8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjzwoS705TZAhVMQ6wKHZH2B 50Q6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=%22history%20of%20orange%20county%22%20california%20 zoraida%20yorba&f=false, 320-325).
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1974 Santa Monica Bay, the First 100 Years. Douglas-West Publishers, Los Angeles, California. 2001 Santa Monica Bay, Paradise by the Sea. Hennessy+Ingalls, Santa Monica, California.
Chattel, Inc.
2016 Historic Resource Assessment: 1601-1619 Ocean Front Walk, Santa Monica, California.
City of Santa Monica
1984 Land Use and Circulation Elements (LUCE). Revised 2002. 2017 City of Santa Monica Draft Historic Resources Inventory Update, Historic Context Statement (Revised). Architectural Resources Group and Historic Resources Group, Pasadena, California. 2018 “Pier History,” Office of Pier Management,
https://www.smgov.net/Departments/OPM/content.aspx?id=30821, accessed February 6, 2018. n.d. “Overview.” City of Santa Monica Rent Control Board website, https://www.smgov.net/Overview.aspx, accessed February 13, 2018.
Court Listener
n.d. 1700 Ocean Avenue Corporation, a California Corporation v. GBR Associates, a Foreign Corporation. Available online, https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/270260/1700-oceanavenue-corporation-a-california-corporation-v-gbr-associates/, accessed February 7, 2018.
Santa Monica Landmark Application for 1665-1671 Appian Way 12 Crown, Sara
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n.d.a “California, County Marriages, 1850-1952.” Online database with images, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8DN-3FY, accessed December 10, 2017. n.d.b “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.” Online database with images, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4DC-9B1, accessed November 8, 2017.
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n.d.a “Carl Francis Schader, Sr.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31844938/carl-f-schader, accessed February 28, 2018.
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____. “New Beach Front Plans for Newer Santa Monica.” July 3. 1911 “Building Active at Beach.” April 25.
____. “Entrance Is Unique.” July 30.
____. “Arcadia Terrace Private Terrace.” August 13.
____. “Fine Hotel Is Rumor.” October 1.
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April 12.
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WTAE Pittsburgh’s Action News 4
2012 “Penn Hills Then & Now.” Available online, http://www.wtae.com/article/in-photos-penn-hillsthen-now/7399823, accessed February 6, 2018. 1665-1671 APPIAN WAY FIGURES
Figure 1: 1665 Appian Way at Arcadia Terrace, view to east‐northeast.
Figure 2: 1665 Appian Way at Pacific Terrace, view to north‐northeast.
Figure 3: 1665 Appian Way view to south‐southwest with Purser Apartments on right side.
Figure 4: 1918 Santa Monica Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, page 19.
Figure 5: Illustration of lower Arcadia Terrace entrance, Los Angeles Times July 30, 1911.
Figure 6: 1922 aerial view of Arcadia Terrace.
Figure 7: 1671 Appian Way wood siding at southeast façade.
Figure 8: 1665 Appian Way wood siding pattern.
Figure 9: 1665 Appian Way window trim, view to east.
Figure 10: 1665 Appian Way gate at passage between buildings, view to east.
Figure 11: 1665 Appian Way, stair between double bungalows, view to northeast.
Figure 12: 1665 Appian Way roof, view to south.
Figure 13: 1665 Appian Way roof deck, view to west.
Figure 14: Passage between NW facade of 1665 Appian Way and Arcadia Terrace stair, view to southwest.
Figure 15: 1665 Appian Way, fencing around Arcadia Terrace south entry portal, view to east.
Figure 16: 1665 Appian Way, fire damage sketch from 1973 building permit.
Figure 17: Duplex bungalow at Fifth and Bay Streets in Ocean Park.
Figure 18: 1920 double bungalow plan.
Figure 19: Scott’s Addition in 1902‐1910 Los Angeles County Assessor Map Book 327 index.
Figure 20: Seaside Terrace in 1919‐26 Los Angeles County Assessor Map Book 327 Index.
Figure 21: Schader’s “Seaside Terrace… Look At It Now” display ad, Los Angeles Times April 14, 1912.
Figure 22: 1890 south Santa Monica beach in front of Arcadia Hotel. (Photo: Water and Power Associates, Early Views of Santa Monica)
Figure 23: Ocean Park cottages on the beach looking toward Santa Monica, 1898‐1909, detail. (Photo:
Huntington Digital Library 489989)
Figure 24: 1924 aerial view of Santa Monica pier. (Photo: Huntington Digital Library 487585) Figure 25: 1924 aerial detail of Santa Monica pier, detail. (Photo: Huntington Digital Library 487585) Figure 26: Los Angeles Times display ad showing Pacific Electric lines to Schader’s developments, June 4 1911.
Figure 27: 1920s Santa Monica beach, north of the pier. (Photo: Santa Monica Public Library Archives, Adelbert Bartlett, Carolyn Farnham Collection C162.)
Figure 28: Undated crowds watching Muscle Beach.
Figure 29: 1950s former hotel and apartment building.
Figure 30: Circa 1950 Ocean Front Walk at Seaside Terrace, view of buildings north to pier.