by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With 1923 being the peak of the latest development boom in greater Los Angeles and just around the time that Walter P. Temple was launching his Town of Temple (Temple City) project in the San Gabriel Valley, along with others in that region, as well as commercial buildings in downtown Los Angees, Charles F. DeWitt and John H. Blair were among those riding the crest of the wave to great success.
Having formed their partnership less than two years prior, they already had three fast-selling subdivisions under the belt at Wilshire Boulevard Heights, west of downtown Los Angeles, and the Moneta-Main-and Florence Avenue and Goodyear Park tracts to the south, in an area that was at the center of a huge industrial expansion and accompanying working and middle class residential section.
Goodyear Park was named because of its adjacency to the massive plant of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (formerly the site of the first Ascot Park race rack), while William H. Daum, whose namesake commercial real estate firm still operates, was launching his Southwest Industrial Gateway Terminal project, next to the plant, as well.
Further, much emphasis was placed in promoting the location between downtown Los Angeles and the growing Port of Los Angeles, as well. A Los Angeles Express article from 4 November 1922 observed that,
“Central Avenue to the Sea!”
That is the slogan rapidly being adopted by residents of the southeast following recent statements from the Harbor and Planning Commissions that another through traffic artery in that district is “the city’s most pressing need.”
The argument for extending the thoroughfare four miles further south (it was a dirt road for two miles south of Manchester Avenue) was based on existing heavy truck congestion and Central’s direct route to the port, including a city of Los Angeles bridge being built to tie Terminal Island to the mainland, while “because from it side streets extend to practically every factory, and warehouse in the city, making it easily accessible to shipping.
Of course, this was well more than two decades before the freeway planning that led to state routes 7 and 11, now interstates 710 and 110, providing for heavier traffic volumes. While Central was eventually pushed through and paved most of the way as intended, it terminated and remains so at Del Amo Boulevard in Carson, with massive Shell Oil refinery and terminal property below that.
The next subdivision opened there was Greater Goodyear Park, on the west side of Central Avenue, south of the tire factory across Florence Avenue, north of 79th Street, and west of South Park Avenue, now Avalon Boulevard. A map in the Homestead’s collection is of the tract, comprised of a hefty 930 lots, though the name is the official one filed with the city, No. 6097.
The earliest local advertisement for the subdivision is from the Express of 24 March, which referred to its predecessor and “THE GREATEST RECORD in HISTORY” with respect to how much was sold at Goodyear Park since it opened the previous October, while also mentioning the Daum tract, the proposed $1.25 million combined Fremont High and Grammar School, though only the former was completed there. A massive hand with two fingers outstretched pointed to Central and South Park (Avalon) with the notation that “THESE TWO HIGHWAYS WILL BE PUT THROUGH TO THE HARBOR.” Unlike Central, Avalon does now extend to the port at Wilmington.
A map show the tract situated near all of the mentioned surrounding industrial and residential subdivisions and school site, while it was mentioned that a $5,000 house was to be given away. George J. Kuhrts, the vice-president and general manager of the Los Angeles Railway, was quoted as saying that his firm would extend a Yellow Car line down Central to 77th Street at the center of the tract.
Also noted was that the property was on a knoll, sloping on the east, south and west, while, when it came to commercial lots, offered at $1,300 and up with residential sites as $950 and up, in the subdivision, DeWitt and Blair “have underpriced these business sites to move them rapidly, for we are land merchants and must turn out stock, just as the grocer does.”
A week later, the Express reported that, “Indicating a possible renewal of construction activities to care for the city’s growth, the Los Angeles Railway will extend the San Pedro street car line . . . southward on Central Avenue. This car line now ends in front of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company factory, at Seventy-first street and Central avenue. It will “be extended southerly to Seventy-seventh street.” Kuhrts, in a letter to DeWitt-Blair Realty, added that it would be up to 10 months before work could start because of the availability of materials, though he noted that bus service could be provided until completion of the extension.
The article also referred to a survey which revealed that the area was the fastest growing in the Angel City and, with anticipated industrial expansion, including in Daum’s tract, this would be the case for another decade. Moreover, it was pointed out that east of Central Avenue from Slauson Avenue to Nadeau Street (this was and is 79th Street west of Central), north of 200 structures, including residences and commercial buildings, were completed since the start of October and construction was average a unit daily. The piece concluded by pointing out the opening of Greater Goodyear Park.
In his “Impressions” column in the 7 April number of the Express, George E. Rice marveled,
The returns are in. March did what we predicted and then some. Twenty-two million dollars in building permits! Wow! A grand total of nearly forty-three million for the first quarter of 1923 looks like one hundred and fifty million [for the year]. Midwest papers please copy.
In harmony with the spirit of things, individual accomplishments were equally remarkable. Industrial districts and residential subdivisions established new records.
The DeWitt-Blair-Greater Goodyear Park project met instant favor.
An ad in the Times of the 19th asked if potential buyers would spent $1,300 for a business lot in an area where $210,000 was expended monthly and, if so, suggested readers look at frontage on Nadeau Avenue, again, 79th Street west of Central, at Greater Goodyear Park, calling it and its predecessor “the record breaking subdivisions of Los Angeles,” with above $3,650,000 in house and commercial lots sold there since October.
Moreover, it was declared that, with Daum’s project in mind, “Greater Goodyear Park will be built SOLID from Manchester to Florence Avenues, from Central to South Park, and NADEAU AVENUE IS THE VERY HEART.” It was anticipated that 1,400 families would reside in the subdivision and, because their average spending was said to be $1,500 a month, that’s where the $210,000 was derived.
Also emphasized was the payment plan, with a small amount down and the remainder due on easy terms. With improvements provided, a 5% cash discount, “reasonable building restrictions,” and “perpetual race restrictions,” limiting ownership to white people only, it was remarked that purchasing a house from the company was “like rent.” Notably, it does not appear that any businesses were built along Nadeau/79th, though they certainly were on Central and South Park (Avalon) as mentioned.
Progress was such that, on 19 May, the second unit of Greater Goodyear Park was opened between Nadeau/79th and Manchester, so that the 930 units on the featured map were already sold out in under two months. An advertisement in the Los Angeles Record was headed with “CASH FROM ALL OVER AMERICA is POURING INTO LOS ANGELES” while readers were informed that “Never Again Will An Investment Opportunity With a Future So Certain Be Offered You.”
This was because “A City of 14,000 Is Building, With GREATER GOODYEAR PARK at Its Heart” and those aforementioned facts relating to industrial growth, location between the downtown section and port, the streetcar line extension, four main thoroughfares as boundaries and the new school plant, were cited. Sales since 25 March at the tract topped $1.3 million and homesite prices were dropped to $850, while business lots remained at $1,350 for the second unit.
A series of eleven statements on what looks like torn extracts was also included in the ad, with the first two relating that,
All over America men are toiling and saving for the day when they can take their storied wealth and move to Los Angeles. Thousands of others who have already acquired wealth are arriving weekly. By railroad, steamer, motor vehicle they are arriving—and with them comes money to be cheerfully spent in Los Angeles.
As a result of their coming—and their spending—things are happening so rapidly in Los Angeles that the entire Nation is amazed. The retired men who come here “to die” inhale new vigor from the climate and go into business. They change their cash into factories, real estate, buildings, mortgages, etc., and find that their profits are amazingly big.
The piece referred to land as a crop and asserted that “Los Angeles is ‘harvesting’ a crop of gold grown in every State of the Union.” With “wave after wave of successful captains of industry” and others migrating to the Angel City, it was proclaimed that they did so because “of all the places in America, they prefer to live here.” It was deemed typical that those coming from elsewhere investigated the area for a few months before buying.
Also highlighted was the statement that “bank deposits in Los Angeles are doubling almost yearly,” while it was reiterated that the growth of industry and the port meant “employment for workers who, as well as manufacturers and farmers, are attracted by the climate. For the promotion of the tract, it was added,
Homes which may be purchased on easy terms in Greater Goodyear Park and elsewhere close to their work make living easy. Gardens which can be grown all year round cut the high cost of living in half.
This latter claim was also the basis for subdivision promotion in the region, including for raising poultry, as at Runnymede at Reseda in the San Fernando Valley, or doing that or growing vegetables in “garden plots,” such as at the Town of Temple.
A week later, the Express published another ad with a striking graphic, situated under the banner of “Never-ending Streams of Payrolls and Population,” with a map of the two units separated by the Nadeau/79th street boundary and a quintet of arrows pointing to them and illustrated with ships, cars, factories, trains and streetcars, representing that key elements of growth for the south Los Angeles section.
Another of the “torn paper” graphics cited Los Angeles County Assessor Edward W. Hopkins who told a realty group that in a year from winter 1922 to winter 1923, 102,000 new edifices were built countywide, while 11,000 subdivisions, comprising 31,000 [though one wonders if this figure should have been 310,000?] lots, were put on the market. Hopkins, in his position for close to a quarter-century, added that, in 1908, the assessed value of all county property was $400 million, but was currently some $1.1 billion.
A second such image cited a 22 May newspaper article concerning streetcar line extensions including the one to Greater Goodyear Park. DeWitt-Blair trumpeted the sale of north of $4.5 million in property at the two Goodyear tracts, as it reiterated those key reasons for their mammoth success, concluding that they were “Some Reasons Why, of ALL the Tracts in the City, the Public Has Chosen This as the “Best Buy.”
A separate article in the edition ran a headline of “31 HOMES STARTED IN GREATER GOODYEAR PARK,” while it was remarked that 43 companies acquired industrial sites. The piece reported that the Board of Public Utilities approved the LARY extension application for the Yellow Car line to Central and 77th. It was commented that,
Besides extension of the car line, [the] erection of eight store buildings, with a housing capacity for 17 retail concerns, and building of approximately 435 houses and [bungalow] courts marks the amazing growth of Greater Goodyear Park and Goodyear Park.
Some $1.5 million was stated to have been expended in these projects, while DeWitt-Blair was said to have plowed some $600,000 for curbs, sidewalks and more. The prior week saw the beginning of work on those 31 residences at Greater Goodyear, indicating “that it will build up as rapidly” as its predecessor, with Goodyear Park “60 per cent solid today, despite the fact that it was placed on sale only eight months ago.”
With the general remark that builders were embarking on construction work under the presumably watchful eye of city building inspectors, the piece reminded readers of the low down, easy payment plan and the “less than rent” mantra that was a key selling point for the subdivision. Moreover, DeWitt was quoted, with respect to the view that approval of the Central Avenue streetcar line reflected recognition that the area was “one of the future congested districts of the city”:
That it will be, no one can doubt when they stop to think that 43 concerns already have purchased sites on which to build industrial plants in Southwest Industrial Gateway Terminal. These factories will call for homes for thousands of employes [sic].
Speaking of stopping, this is a good place to do so, because June was a very busy month for promotion of Greater Goodyear Park, with more dramatic and eye-catching advertisements as well as articles about the tract and the context of the boom rushing and racing around it. Check back for that tomorrow!