Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-19
L. A. A. c. WILL
HAVE BIG TASK
BUILDING NEW CLUB HOUSE A
GIGANTIC AFFAIR
NOTED FAVoRITES OF FORTUNE
TO PROMOTE ENTERPRISE
Interesting Biographical Bits Concern
ing J. F. Sartorl and Others Who
Will Assume Responsibility
for Success

Nowhere in the commercial history
of the United States has there ever
been recorded an instance where any
business organization ever attempted
as gigantic proposition as now lies
before the Los Angeles Athletic club, |
and where that organization had at its
head such a representation of the |
whole city behind it.
The task is in the building of the |
new club house which is to be erected |
at Seventh and Olive streets in the
near future, and the head referred to |
is the board of directors of the club |
which formally was increased last |
week from seven to eleven directors.
| Although the four new members |
have been serving on the board for
some time they were never formally
| elected until last Wednesday afternoon
when the board met at the club.
That the erection of the building is
a gigantic task is not doubted by any
one familiar with the plans of the
proposed structure which will be the
| finest athletic club in America, it is
said. That it will be erected is not
doubted by anyone acquainted with the
| board of directors.
| Leaders all, in their respective pro-
LESSONS and businesses, and represent
| tatiyes of the highest interests in Los
! simultaneously of the great
west-they are men who came here
when young and it Is largely due to
these men that Los Angeles is what
| it is and yet will be.
The first on the list of the new direc-
tors Is j. r Sartori, president and
founder OF the Security Savings bank
In the banking world anything over
his name is sanctioned. In appearance
and habits he resembles Napoleon,
short in stature, rarely smiling and
always to the point,
History of Sartor
Mr. Sartori was born in a little town
in Iowa, where he spent mis- boyhood
preparing for college. He graduated
from the law department of the Uni
versity of Michigan when in his early
twenties, and after practicing law in
his native state for a few years came
to Los Angeles in 1887. Two years
later he organized the Security Saw
ings bank and has been president of
that bank ever since. He is well
known clubman and is prominently
identified with the Los Angeles Coun-
try club, the California club and JON
athan club, in addition to which he is
a prominent member and director or
the Los Angeles Athletic club, where
he spends much of his time.
Milo NJ Potter another of the new
directors, was born in Michigan in the
year 1854, graduated from the law de-
partment of the University of Michi- !
gan in the class of ~ and went TO
Florida, where he invested all his
money in cotton. At the end of five !
years he had acquired large fortune.
He took a big portion of 1t and built {
a beautiful residence, said to have
been the largest in the state at that
time He put the rest of his money I
into cotton, and about a year later the !
government stopped the growing OF
cotton in that part of the state {
He lost all of his money through this
move on the part of the government,
and then attempted to sell his beauti-
full residence, but on account of its
immense size he was unable to even
get an offer for it. :
1t was then that he first started in .
the hotel business by turning the man.
sion into a boarding house After
about a year here he moved to At r
lantic City and started a hotel, in |
vesting all of his money in the build
ing, and egain lost his money through
fire which ragged over the city dur
ing the spring of 1888.
Comes to Los Angeles
He came to Los Angeles in 1888 and
soon afterward entered the employ of
o. T. johnson in the capacity of man
ager of the Westminster hotel, at that |
time the aristocratic hotel of Southern
California. While in this position he
received the highest compensation ever |
paid to any other hotel manager in the
west, before and since, the sum of $685.
900 a year and expenses. He later |
built the Van Mugs hotel and about |
six years ago built the Potter at Santa
Barbara.
Another of the new directors is Will t
liam NJ. Garland of the real estate firm ]
bearing his name. He was born in {
Westport, Me-, on a little island about a '
quarter of a mile off the mainland of |
that rocky New England coast, and l
still retains physically and mentally a {
certain ruggedness peculiar to the s
natives of the pine Tree state. He
received his early education in the high I
school at Waterville, Me-, and in 1891 {
came to Los Angeles. 5
Shortly afterWard he was made a l
director in the former City Gas COM I
pany and then established his present S
business For three years he was
prominently identified with the old
Pacific Railway company, entering the
concern in 1895. He was elected to the
position of president of the California {
club in December, 1906, and still retains '
the place.
He is a prominent director of the {
First National bank of Los Angeles.
Since 1906 he has been one of the most I
prominent members of the Los An
geles Athletic club and takes az active
interest in everything pertaining to the
elSNdLllS VI Tie CluD SldhudidS. |
One of the best known oil men in
the United States is c. A. Garfield, who {
controls large percentage Of the crude {
oil of Mexico and is prominent direc-
tor of the Mexican Petroleum company.
His own oil interests in this country
extend throughout the country. In adj
dition to being one of the prominent
directors of the Los Angeles Athletic
club he is a director of the Citizens
| National bank of this city.
| The last of the new directors is e. s.
R1wley, prominent capitalist and
| owner of many of the largest buildings ,
of Los Angeles. He was born in Osh-
kosh, Wis, in 1857.
| After fifteen years of banking and
real estate experience throughout the
middle west during which time he was
vice president of the Union National
bank of Omaha, Neb., he came to Los
Angeles in the year 1883.
| In the early spring of 1889 he or
ganized the present real estate firm of
which he is president. He has handled
some of the largest real estate tran
sactions in the west.
Although on the shady side of life he