by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Abbot Kinney is best known in greater Los Angeles for his development of “Venice of America,” which, in 1926, was annexed to the Angel City, though there was much more of interest about his four decades in Los Angeles and prior to his arrival here in 1880. A New Jersey native, Kinney studied in Europe and his travels included a visit to the famed Italian city that was the inspiration for his seaside community.
In the 1870s, he was a member of a team working for the United States Geological Survey, including at what became Yosemite National Park before joining a brother’s tobacco company, for which he traveled in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. This was followed by an extensive three-year tour of Europe and much of Asia, which he took because the business provided him a significant amount of wealth.
In early 1880, he arrived in San Francisco and, finding his train eastbound delayed by bad winter weather, decided to come to this area, which he thought would help with his chronic asthma. He, accompanied by an African-American servant, checked into the Sierra Madre Villa hotel and was enumerated there in the federal census of that year.
Delighted with the San Gabriel Valley and the incomparable climate, Kinney purchased more than 500 acres nearby and established his “Kinneloa” ranch, on which he built a substantial Italianate house. Another fascinating, if lesser-known aspect of his years in the region, was his collaboration with writer Helen Hunt Jackson, soon to be famous for her novel Ramona, on a federal report concerning the indigenous people of southern California. Their assessment from 1883 was not printed for five years, but it has been the subject of a prior post on this blog.
Another notable aspect of Kinney’s early years in greater Los Angeles was his purchase of property on the southwest corner of Hope and 8th streets that included a large structure, designed by architect Robert B. Young for the Presbyterian minister Daniel Webster Hanna (1836-1919) for his Los Angeles College for young women. Hanna, a native of Ohio, completed a college education at 19 and worked for his father’s paper manufacturing business while also dabbling as an inventor.
In the late 1870s, he ran a ladies’ “seminary” or school in Monroe, Michigan on the shores of Lake Erie roughly halfway between Detroit and Toledo, Ohio and then, in 1881, moved to Napa in northern California, where he ran the McDonald Seminary for women. He migrated to Los Angeles in 1884 to take charge of the newly established Ellis Villa College, again for ladies, in the recently founded Crown Hill neighborhood west of downtown, that building becoming the Belmont Hotel, destroyed by fire just a few years later.
After a year, though, he resigned to open his own Los Angeles College, also known as Hanna’s Los Angeles College for women, on the northwest corner of Olive and 5th streets, cater corner to Central, or Sixth Street, Park (now Pershing Square). After two years, he acquired the parcel at Hope and 8th and the structure designed by Young opened in March 1888, though there were concerns that it was a firetrap and changes had to be made before the Los Angeles Fire Department and its Board of Commissioners would allow occupancy.
While the opening of the new school building took place amidst the ferment of the Boom of the Eighties, which brought enormous changes to the Angel City and the region, the resulting bust and the heavy outlays by Hanna for his structure, which had accommodations for about 100 boarding students and another 300 day attendees, put him into deep financial trouble. This led to the purchase of the edifice by Kinney, while Hanna went on to be the superintendent of the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged in Boyle Heights.
Kinney put in thousands of dollars for the renovation of the structure with the Los Angeles Express of 2 September 1893 observing,
The southwest corner of Eighth and Hope streets presents a busy scene just now. This is the site of the old Los Angeles College. Hon. Abbot Kinney, owner of the property, is converting the building into a hotel, which for convenience will be modern throughout. Forty-five workmen have been engaged for the past five weeks remodeling the structure, which is expected to be ready for occupancy by October 1. The improvements when completed will cost $12,000.
The article went on to record that the three-story hostelry would contain 100 rooms with heating by a grate fireplace or steam radiator, gas and electric lights, and restrooms with cold and hot running water. Moreover, “the rooms are so arranged as to be singly or en suite, with two doors closing together for each opening, thus forming a perfect partition, impervious to sound,” making the Abbotsford the only hotel on the Pacific Coast to have this novelty.
The dining room comprised 2,400 feet, entered from Eighth Street, while the kitchen was behind the space. A separate dining area for children was also provided “where the little ones are served, without disturbing the [adult] guests of the house.” Another notable element was a second-floor veranda fronting on Eighth, though this was later removed as it does not show on the photo.
A “Social Hall” was at the center of the ground level and was akin to a court and was “brilliantly lighted by electricity and heated by grates and steam radiators,” while a parlor for women and the hotel office were also on this floor. Modern plumbing systems and a a 3,000-gallon water tank on the roof, with attached pipes and hoses placed throughout the structure so that “every floor could be submerged simultaneously” within a few minutes once a fire alarm was sounded, while fire escapes were plentiful.
Lastly, a roof garden was installed and was shaded with awnings, with rare plants grown in these areas, as well. It was noted that there would be fine views of the Angel City from this section of the hotel, not to mention the surrounding countryside. A $25 prize was to be offered in a contest to provide a name for the establishment and a quartet of entrants shared the money when they all played off the owner’s name and suggested “Abbotsford.”
An early ad from the 12 December edition of the Express promoted the Abbotsford as “the most Attractive, Sunny, Comfortable, Family and Tourist Hotel in the city” with the all-new rooms outfitted with “superior furnishings.” Operating on the American plan, which involved the provision of breakfast, lunch and dinner as part of the rate, the hotel had “transient rates” of $3 per day with special weekly rates.
Problems, however, soon arose with the financial viability of the hotel. How much of this was the economic climate, with a national depression breaking out in 1893 following the bust that inevitably came after the boom of the late 80s; the hotel’s distance from the central core of Los Angeles, with most prominent hotels being north and east; or from other causes, is not known.
The 12 August 1896 issue of the Los Angeles Times reported on the closure of the Abbotsford, noting that “the guests . . . were treated to an unwelcome surprise” at midday a couple of days prior, when they found “written notice that, owing to the dullness of business,” the hotel was to be closed the following morning and remained shuttered for three months. As guests made their plans for other lodgings, rumors swirled and it was assumed that “it is simply a case of poor business and possibly poor management.”
While the structure and its furnishings were owned by Kinney, operations were conducted by the Abbotsford Inn Company (Limited) with a pair of active owners and a silent partner, J. Philip Erie, who, in 1897, achieved notoriety for introducing the first horseless carriage (that is, an automobile) in Los Angeles. While occupancy was low, it was also observed that “an unusually good table was set” for guests and a large number of workers employed, though all were dismissed save for a housekeeper.
An owner told the paper that creditors extended the time to pay debts through November, but there was dissension with the hotel’s clerk as to whether the Abbotsford was actually closed, as half a dozen guests who paid for the summer, remained, though without the benefit of staff to assist them in their needs and wants. Some creditors expressed their unhappiness with the proprietors continuing to buy from them on credit even as it was clear the establishment was financially foundering. In March 1897, Charles Jacobs, one of the owners, declared bankruptcy with under $200 in assets, these being clothing and accounts due from guests, while owned six times that for supplies, advertising, utility bills and rent owed to Kinney.
In November 1899, Kinney, who had other lessees operate the Abbotsford after the 1896-1897 debacle, decided to take over management directly with the Los Angeles Record of the 15th reporting “Kinney Has A New Fad”:
Abbot Kinney has gone into the hotel business . . . After repeated attempts to get out of the property enough [money] to keep up the furniture sinking fund [funds set aside to pay debt], he stopped trying and has boldly plunged into a new field of business as a boniface [proprietor of a hotel, nightclub or restaurant] . . . Mr. Kinney’s standing as a good fellow is established. As a manager of a hotel, his future is all before him. But he never failed in anything.
One new component to the hotel was a “flag room” with a large suite devoted to social events decorated with “silken flags of all nations” along with bunting and banners “arranged artistically and with some regard to the relative juxtaposition of the countries they represent.” The account concluded that “as a ball room, the hall will have unique advantages, for in it the dancers may make love under any flag they please and show their patriotism even at the altar of Eros.”
There were occasional accounts of events held at the hostelry and its “flag room,” including musicales and a “fancy dress party” to welcome the year 1900. For this latter, the Record of 6 January proclaimed “seldom have so many beautiful costumes been seen at one time in Los Angeles as were displayed” at the gathering. Reflecting a fascination with the exotica of Japan, decorations were geared toward an evocation of that nation, with abundant displays of smilax and fern typical of the era.
The paper added that “many of the characters were unique, while all were attractive and well sustained.” Attendees were dressed as American Indians, geisha, Madame Pompadour from 18th century France, Spanish cavaliers, clowns, a “swell coon” (meaning a stereotyped Black man), Anne Boleyn (one of the eight wives of Henry VIII of England), an Italian fishmonger, a cowboy, Uncle Sam and a “Filipino officer,” this latter referencing the recent Spanish-American War and America’s imperialist seizure of the Philippines.
Kinney’s tenure as a hotelier was brief, as, by 1901, a new operator was listed in ads. When he decided to embark on his “Venice of America” venture, he sold, in August 1905 for $65,000, the Abbotsford. Another sale at the time was his “Flatiron Square,” a pie-shaped parcel where Main and Spring terminate between 8th and 9th streets (on either side of 8th, Walter P. Temple and associates constructed two commercial buildings in the 1920s).
The hotel was sold a couple more times in succeeding years with the Methodist Episcopal Church acquiring it in 1913 for $340,000, a price reflecting the dramatic surge in values in downtown generally, but especially in that southwest section. The Church continued leasing the Abbotsford during the next several years and, when, in 1919, it sold its First Methodist edifice at Hill and Sixth to David and Sid Grauman for their Metropolitan Theatre, plans were launched to move the church to the Abbotsford site.
In summer 1921, the Abbotsford fell prey to the wrecking ball and the new First Methodist Church, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by the prominent architect, John C. Austin, was started soon afterward with a cornerstone dedicated later in the year. Rich with ornamental terra cotta on the exterior, abundant use of stained glass including a massive skylight in the interior and plenty of space for services, classes and events for a growing congregation, the church was dedicated in July 1923.
This photo of the Abbotsford, with the card mailed from Long Beach to the San Bernardino Steam Laundry in that inland city, though with a message that did not refer to the hotel, was taken by the prominent photographer, Charles C. Pierce and it is representative of multiple uses of the structure as a ladies’ college and hostelry as well as the site of a major Angel City church. Today, the location is the 8th and Hope Building, a 22-story apartment structure with ground-floor retail completed a decade ago and also known as Josephine DTLA.