by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Having been a key figure in the Bandini industrial and residential subdivision in what is now the City of Commerce, with schools in the Montebello School District, as well as assuming development of a tract now part of the Lincoln Park Historic District in Pomona, James B. Ransom (1885-1951), turned his attention to a much bigger and more ambitious project in February 1925, a century ago.
In an area known as South Montebello, though most of it falls within the southeast section of East Los Angeles, the five Babbitt brothers, 1880s transplants from Cincinnati to Flagstaff, Arizona Territory, where they built a mercantile and ranching empire—a descendant in the clan is former Secretary of the Interior and Arizona governor, Bruce Babbitt—purchased 433 acres for some $60 an acre around 1905.
Two decades later, the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News observed, in its edition of 27 February 1925, that, “for a consideration reported to exceed $2,000,000, the J.B. Ransom organization and O. Nicholas Gabriel,” this latter another key figure in the Bandini project, “and associates yesterday purchases the Babbitt ranch.” It was noted that the property had 6,500 feet of frontage along Whittier Boulevard and double that on both sides of East Ninth Street, while “the new owners, it is stated, plan to develop the tract at a cost of about $800,000.”
Stanley T. Switzer, real estate editor of the Los Angeles Express, in its edition of the next day, commented that the transaction was “presaging activity on a large scale in the industrial district of Los Angeles,” though technically most of the land was in the county. He added that the purchase, which was exactly $2,163,600 or exactly $5,000 per acre, an astounding increase in value in twenty years, “proved a real sensation in Los Angeles realty circles” because the deal “involved the largest cash payment on record for a raw land deal and, besides, was one of the largest realty transfers in the history of the county.”
Beyond its frontages mentioned above, the bounds of the ranch included the Union Pacific (formerly the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake) tracks to the south, Montebello city limits (which, again, are today partially within the tract) and units four and five of the industrial tracts owned by the Union Pacific (basically west of Gerhart Avenue and east of Goodrich Boulevard in Commerce). Switzer added that “thus the property is within the heart of Los Angeles’ potentially great industrial area.”
Ransom, Gabriel and their partners intended to immediately pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into streets and utilities, while “a large sum has been appropriated for the construction of many business buildings and homes” and “the property will be marketed in large tracts.” In its brief coverage, the Los Angeles Times of the 27th, remarked that, three years prior as the regional real estate boom neared its peak, the value of the Babbitt Ranch was deemed to be about $700 an acre.
The Pomona Bulletin of 6 March noted the importance of the East Ninth Street extension from Pasadena Avenue (probably Atlantic Boulevard) as the thoroughfare bisected the tract and was soon renamed Olympic Boulevard in anticipation of the 1932 summer games being held in Los Angeles. Also vital was the statement that the Union Pacific’s industrial areas were slated to have some 50 plants, while the new half-million dollar Montebello High School was just a few blocks away and other schools were expected to be in or near the tract. Ransom was quoted as commenting,
It is interesting to note that a recent government survey disclosed that Los Angeles is growing with unprecedented rapidity toward the historic Babbitt holdings. The pressure of population has been held back because this and other estates were, until recently, maintained intact by their owners.
Three days later, the Whittier News reported that the city’s realty board were schooled on the idea of “the syndicate method of buying and selling real property” and which involved earning “money back with interest and then three or four dollars for every dollar invested” with respect to “six other syndicate ventures in the near vicinity of the property under discussion,” this being what was said to be the 1,800 acres of the Babbitt property.
The realty board’s program committee chair was Grover T. Russell, who has often been cited on this blog because of his role as the tract agent for the North Whittier (Hacienda) Heights project, launched a dozen years prior near the Homestead and he introduced Ransom and another man, who told the group about “the plan under which half a million dollars worth of shares in the syndicate are to be sold.”
The highlighted artifact for this post is an unissued stock certificate (#2501) from the Montebello Park Corporation, which offered a million dollars worth of stock at a par value of $10 each. The vignette shows shirtless muscled men wielding hammers on an anvil with an industrial scene, albeit with a river as part of it, behind them.
It was mentioned that Montebello Park was to have 3,300 business and residential lots readied for sale the following month and the Bandini project was cited as offering the returns noted above. Added was the information that the Babbitt ranch was acquired on a trust basis giving Ransom, Gabriel and others eight years to pay the more than $2 million price. The account remarked that “as the property is sold, the owners receive their part of the selling price,” while the remainder of it was “set aside for selling costs, improvement charges and profits.”
Also of significance was the comment that “there is a movement underway to incorporate the Rancho with Montebello” and, if that should be accomplished, “the city would install the water system and street improvements, voting bonds for the purpose.” This, however, did not take place and only the eastern fringe of the tract remained within those city limits. It was also remarked that the Yellow Car (Los Angeles Railway) was to be brought in via Ninth Street (Olympic Boulevard.) Lastly, Ransom told the group that Russell was appointed the Whittier representative for the project.
In its 26 April issue, the Times reported that “announcement was made yesterday that plans are being formulated for the development of Montebello Park, formerly known as the Babbitt Rancho” and that the tract “is partially within the city of Montebello.” It was anticipated that “the community project will be well under way in May, when the property will be placed on the market,” by Ransom’s firm and Gabriel.
The landscape architecture firm of Wilbur D. Cook and George D. Hall, whose junior partner was Ralph D. Cornell and whose work included projects at Carthay Circle in Los Angeles and Cascades Park in Monterey Park, with Cook said to be the first trained landscape architect to work in Los Angeles, “have planned the development as a high-class industrial property with winding drives and thirty acres of parks in various portions of the holdings.”
The opening unit, comprising 100 acres, was “where restrictions will vary to meet the requirements of the individual buyer,” this perhaps being code for “restrictive covenants,” which were uniform through most of greater Los Angeles in terms of reserving ownership of lots to those of the “Caucasian” race. The account continued that “construction of a number of residences will be commenced under the direction of the [Ransom] firm as soon as possible” while “modern improvements will be provided residents of the tract.”
An advertisement from the same issue, the first located for the newly christened Montebello Park, featured a dramatic image of powerfully built industrial workers “Blazing Prosperity’s Trail,” and with some remarkable prose, even for the boosterism that was legion in greater Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties:
Los Angeles has been wooed and won by Industry. Today she stands in her wedding gown of palm trees and roses, arm in arm with Industry, at the altar of a new and bigger life. To the noonday music of her mission bells will soon be added the distant chorus of a thousand factory whistles.
Readers were invited to “look to the East Side” and bear witness as “already a hundred new industrial plants rear their heads and beckon with long fingers of smoke . . . calling their workers and the dollars to this great new field of opportunity.” In two years, it was added, “the big men of business know” what industrial development would mean for the region and some of these “studied the map of the industrial East Side” and knew where growth would center as they supposedly uttered, “here we must build a city where the thousands of workers can live.”
Another call was issued to “take a kodak picture of the Montebello Park district today” and then take another of the same area in 1927 because, “like a treasured picture of ‘Baby’s First Steps,'” there would be “an interesting record in black and white of Southern California’s first real steps as an industrial community.” The text went on that,
Montebello Park is the keystone unit of the great East Side industrial and residential development . . .
The story of what these developments have done and are doing, and what these and others will do is a forecast of what Montebello Park will mean to those who now become part of this great enterprise.
For those who wanted to know more, a book was available to those who went to the tract in person or called or sent a request by mail. The 2 May edition of the Express offered a major feature on “Montebello Park, The Beautiful,” with portraits of Gabriel and Ransom, a rendering of the tract map showing the distinctive street layout including curved ones at the ends and photos of Union Pacific shops, a residence in Montebello’s “nursery section,” and the $500,000 high school.
Switzer wrote the piece, which began with the observation that the “developers . . . acclaim it a subdivision of perfect balance” as the tract “is in the midst of a mighty industrial development,” with the new Union Pacific shops to be soon joined by the Santa Fe’s plans for a machine shop, roundhouse and a classification center that would employ up to 6,000 workers, on 50 acres south of Bandini and southwest of Montebello Park acquired for $550,000.
He added that this purchase “has lent a decided stimulus to the realty market in this locality, and in the case of Montebello Park it has virtually guaranteed it success just on the eve of its being opened to the public.” Consequently, Switzer observed,
Montebello Park will be primarily a great home-place for the thousands of families whose support now is and will be dependent upon the growing number of enterprises east of Los Angeles river.
That Montebello Park will possess many advantages as a residential community over the ordinary tract is assured by the announcement of Messrs. J.B. Ransom and O. Nicholas Gabriel, executive heads of the strong financial syndicate behind it, that they will expend almost $1,000,000 improving the property.
The “highest types” of such investment included “30 acres of parkways, an artistic arrangement of straight and circular drives and two spacious sites for schools, among other features.” After also noting that two bus lines provided adequate transportation access to Montebello Park, Switzer wrote that, “development of this property makes the cutting up of perhaps the last large piece of desirable residential property between Los Angeles and Montebello, the latter a thriving young city whose population has more than doubled in the last three years.”
Its strategic site meant that the tract was considered “one of the ‘keys’ to the expansion of the east side of Los Angeles” and the “harmonious, balanced” layout by Cook and Hall were lauded. Finally, the columnist concluded,
Messrs. Ransom and Gabriel express themselves as highly gratified with the reception which Montebello Park has received at the hands of the public and announce that many reservations already have been made by shrewd investors.
An ad in the Express of 6 June offered another vivid visual of the tract office with crowds out front and the words “A RECORD” emblazoned across the scene and “The Real Estate Event Of The Year” as a purported quote with the remark of “that’s what everybody said who attended the Pre-Opening of Montebello Park last Sunday.” Thousands attended the event and sale during the first week “evidenced the most discriminating buying as the highest priced lots were bought.” Even for experienced realty figures, it was claimed, “it was the most successful subdivision opening in more than a year.”
As it was said to be “filling a long-felt need” for “a high-class residential subdivision” on the East Side, the tract was near where most of the industrial facilities were located that propelled Los Angeles to eighth in the nation in manufacturing, while it was anticipated that the Angel City would rise to the ranks of Chicago and New York City “as one of the outstanding manufacturing centers of the American continent.”
The pre-opening was to last one more week with lot prices from $995 to $1700, but these expected to increase by 5%, while choice business and residence lots were still available. Whittier Boulevard was already the most heavily traveled thoroughfare in southern California and the extension of Ninth Street and the work being done on Garfield Avenue were also integral to Montebello Park’s development.
A separate article, with a photo of the hordes of folks in front of the office, observed that “in a very few days what was formerly a cabbage patch” was the bustling residential subdivision in the making. Even though the national convention of the Shriners fraternal order was taking place in Los Angeles, hundreds visited the pre-opening event and the lot on which the tract office stood fetched $45,000. Streets, curbs and sidewalks were underway, water was being delivered, and trees were planted along some of the roads, as well, while double-standard street lights illuminated Whittier Boulevard “and many comments were heard on this added beautification of the eastern thoroughfare.”
We will return with part twelve continuing with the development of Montebello Park, so join us for that!
The land price inflation of the Babbitt Ranch as noted in this post, which was sold for the development of Montebello Park, was truly remarkable – rising by over 7,500% from 1905 to 1925, including an abrupt spike of 6.5 times in just the final three years. However, when compared to broader real estate trends in the Los Angeles area over the past century – even the often-cited case of Beverly Hills, which saw a sevenfold increase from 1970 to 1980 – this surge appears unusually steep. It’s hard for me not to suspect that such a dramatic rise was artificially driven. There are reasons developers might inflate land values, including boosting resale prices, leveraging bank loans, establishing a benchmark for nearby properties, attracting investors, securing larger bond funding, and many others.