Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-02
RED0ND0!
A Short History Of a
Great Enterprise.
The Work Of Capital, Pluck,
Brains and Business.
Magnificent g Results Accomplished in
Spite Of the Dullest Times.
A PERFECT HOTEL.
The Best Bathing Place in
All the World.
A Railroad to the Beach for
Business and Pleasure.
A Watering Place and Harbor Destined
to Become Famous as Far as the Sun
Shines and Men Live.
The Best Bathing Place in
All the World.
A Railroad to the Beach for
Business and Pleasure.
A Watering Place and Harbor Destined
to Become Famous as Far as the Sun
Shines and Men Live.

1t is now fully two years since the
great excitement of the boom came to
it's end, and one has heard little since
excepting about dull times and lack of
enterprise from large class of the peo-
pie. The impression has gone abroad
that Los Angeles was dead, and that no
progress was being made at any point in
the semi-tropics, with it's fertile fields
and sunny skies. Anyone who will read
the following short narrative of solid,
lndisputable facts, may learn how false
a view this is. Every statement made
below is capable of the fullest verifca-
ton, and if anyone will take the trouble
to investigate he will say at the end that
it is as it was in the days of Solomon,
the Magnificent, that the half of what
has been done was not embodied in the
lines of the narrator. 1t would be almost
impossible to cover in perfect detail all
that has been accomplished, and the pen
that would exaggerate the facts would
need to be guided by bright imagina-
tion.
1t is somewhat more than year since
Captain j. G.. Ainsworth, of Oakland,
and Captain R. R. Thompson, of San
Francisco, on a visit to Los Angeles, had
their attention attracted to a piece of
the ocean shore near the old salt works
at Redondo Beach. They saw the place
with the eyes of men experienced in
many things. The gentlemen's names
have been familiar to all the Pacific
Coast for generation. To them, more
than any others, was due the first enter
prises tending to the development of the
great latent resources of the great North
west. Their courage and insight had
stirred all the waters OF Oregon and
Washington at an early day with the
paddles of the steamboat, and the
whistle of their locomotives woke the
echoes along the grand banks of the
rivers and up to the peaks of the snow
capped mountains, of which Bryant
says:
where rolls the Oregon,
And hears no sound save its own dashings.
These men saw that where the
League-long rollers of the Pacific
Broke upon the shore might be built up
at once great entrepot of commerce,
and delightful seaside resort With
this in mind the property was bought,
and soonsthe work began of developing
the natural resources of the place. The
programme outlined at the beginning,
and followed without deviation to this
moment, has been diametrically the op-
posite of that known as "boom." No
lots were offered for sale. No advertise
ment was done of the place. 1t was by
hard and persistent effort that news
paper men were able to learn what was
4Io oIo D,,4
to time new movement was made of so
great magnitude that it spoke trumpet
tongued'' to the world of what it meant
First the Wharf.
The first thing done was to secure
facilities for doing a shipping business.
With this purpose in mind fine wharf
was built from the shore out into water
SO deep that deep-sea vessels of almost
any tonnage can lie alongside, and load
or discharge at pleasure. 1t will not be
the aim of this sketch to go into details
about all these matters, but rather to
reserve the most of the space for the
hotel. Suffice it then to say that this
wharf at once became the scene of busy
traffic. The Pacific Coast steamers
up and down the Coast. Lumber ves-
sells from all ports of the Coast began to
come and go laden with building ma
terial, railroad ties and other similar car
goes. 1t is no uncommon thing these days
to find at Redondo two or more steamers
loading or unloading; couple of lum-
Der vessels discharging cargoes, and per-
haps other craft from ports near and far.
More than 100 tons of freight a day are
handled at this wharf as an average of
business, with of course several times
that amount on days of unusual activity.
A Town Laid Out.
Here town was laid out; and a
charming place it is to build seaside
city. The shore is not fiat, but some
what bold at the waters age, and the
contour of the land slopes gently back
for miles, as if the ocean had rolled in
billow after billow, piling the waters
higher and then higher, and then be-
coming a mass of living green thickly
decked with the rainbow hues OF thou
sand flowers, SO that terrace lies
above terrace from the pebbly sands to
the high background couple of miles
inland. On these terraces broad streets
wereS laid out, backwards fgaln thc aen