by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Though generally little remembered compared to its antecedents, the first boom in greater Los Angeles, which occurred in the late 1860s and first half of the subsequent decade, modest as it was with respect to the many that followed, involved many important aspects for the time and those that came afterward.
As has often been noted here, one of our best sources of information are the Angel City’s newspapers, of which the Museum has a few hundred issues from this period from three of these, including the Express, the Herald and the Star. In the “Read All About It” series of posts, we’ve frequently shared editions of the trio of papers and featuring content that help elucidate boom-period material.
This entry looks at the 4 June 1874 edition of the Star and a major article relevant to the Homestead concerned what the paper headlined as “A Bloody deed. A DESPERATE ATTEMPT AT ROBBERY AND ASSASINATION.” A multi-part post on this blog goes into a significant amount of detail about it, but the article concerned an attempt to rob the store kept by William Turner at the Workman Mill, tucked away into the southwest corner of William Workman’s portion of Rancho La Puente.
As told by the paper, a Latino man known then only as Gordo, purchased some goods and then, while Turner was showing some boots, pulled out a knife and attacked the proprietor. Rebecca Humphreys Turner, William’s wife, was concerned about the presence of Gordo (for racial reasons, it turned out) and brought a pistol as she went on to see what was taking place as the attack commenced.
The Star account, provided by Constable Mark D. Hare, was muddled about the specifics of the incident, but the basic story was that Gordo got hold of the Turner gun and, as William ran into the house to get the weapon, not knowing Rebecca took it to the store, Gordo, before he fled, fired at both of them, one bullet striking Mrs. Turner, who was pregnant, in the shoulder, causing a miscarriage. Turner’s throat wounds were not life-threatening and a doctor was found to treat the couple.
In the meantime, a search was made for the attacker and the paper noted “the people in the vicinity are exasperated to the utmost” and added that “if apprehended he will most likely be punished,” which did not mean by the dictates of the law, but, clearly, an intimation that there would be a lynching. As the post mentioned above discussed, this was precisely what took place in subsequent days as, which was all too often the case in those years, crime was dealt with by crime.
In its coverage of final exams in the Angel City’s public schools for the 1873-1874 year, the Star noted that the testing for the first class of Los Angeles High School was ongoing, while it provided the schedule for the next week’s round for the other 14 classes in the city system, held at the varying schools. Among these, though not so specified, was the so-called “Colored” school, taught by a Mrs. Baker and in which there were about 16 pupils.
The Southern District Agricultural Society held a meeting at the end of May at the Clarendon Hotel, formerly the Bella Union, an early hostelry in the city, and later the St. Charles, with ex-Governor John G. Downey as president. The objects of the confab included determining dates for the upcoming annual fair, held at Agricultural, now Exposition, Park, southwest of town, establishing a program for horse races, which were the most prominent part of these events, and other Society business.
Six days of racing were agreed upon, starting on 26 October, including events for hurdling, pacing, running and trotting, with prize money determined, though the fifth day was dedicated to “an exhibition of California riding and sports “concluding with the picking up of three half dollars, 1 yard apart, the rider to have 75 yards start,” this appearing to be a version of the correr el gallo (run for the rooster) in which a rider on horseback was to snatch a rooster, buried to its neck, to demonstrate riding skill.
In the afternoon of that day, “there will be a grand exhibition of lady equestrianism” though entrants “must be accompanied by an escort [presumably, male] on the day of the contest” and which involved “graceful riding and daring equestrianism.” This portion of the Fair, the article continued, included “ten or more substantial and elegant premiums” and “will be open to all ladies and misses.” It was reported that the trotting races were to follow the rules of the National Turf Congress and the running events under those of the Sacramento State Agricultural Society. There was nothing said in the article, by the way, about actual agriculture!
In “LOCAL NEWS IN BRIEF,” a concert in two days at the Turnverein Hall was said to be “all the talk” sure to draw a “tremendous turnout” for “a grand musical feast” provided by a pair of touring women opera singers, Inez Fabbri and Anna Elzer. The Star told readers that “if we are not very much mistaken the audience . . . will be the largest and most fashionable ever seen in this city. Such performances, whether musical or theatrical, by those on tour was indicative of Los Angeles being a more common stop because of its growth.
The trustees of the Los Angeles Public Library, formed in 1872 and with Thomas W. Temple as a founding trustee, met and appointed a committee of a half-dozen, including Downey, as well as banker Isaias W. Hellman and lawyer and judge Robert M. Widney to lobby the Common (City) Council “for the establishment of a free public library,” as opposed to one with fees for use and not part of city government. It was added that “a full and complete statement of the present condition of the Library has been prepared” for the edification of city leaders.
Photographer Valentine Wolfenstein, known for his well-composed portraits, left Los Angeles for a return to his homeland in Europe, so the partnership of Tuttle and Lee leased his business and “have entered vigorously upon the work of catering to the public taste.” Moreover, they made improvements to the studio, including a new curtain to make light better and a better polish for the finished product, while a more powerful lens was acquired. The paper added that “Miss Wheeler, the well-known and popular artist, will remain with them and devote her attention to coloring photographs taken by the enterprising firm.”
For years, the John J. Tomlinson lumber yard on Temple Street was a landmark and was formerly owned the street’s namesake, Jonathan Temple. It was also commonly used, because of its very strong wood beam at the entrance gate, as a place for vigilantes to commit lynchings on suspected criminals. After the Chinese Massacre of October 1871, however, the beam was taken down and the Star reported that another lumber dealer, John M. Griffith, who had a partnership with Tomlinson until the latter’s death and then with Santa Cruz business figure, Sedgwick Lynch, sold the place to a Mr. Stevens. The paper expressed the view that the purported new owner” would lose no time in removing the mud [adobe] walls which surround it, and erecting handsome buildings therein, one of many examples of the press promoting new structures to replace adobe.
Isaias W. Hellman was referred to again in the column, this time because he was “about to commence the erection of those three cottages” described in the paper a few days prior, with a corral at a corner of Second and Fort streets, the latter renamed Broadway in 1890. This led the paper to remark “good riddance to bad luggage” because “these old corrals are eye sores,” so it cheered “away with them!”
For just about the last three decades of the 19th century, Los Angeles’ water supply through wooden pipes and the old zanjas, or open ditches, was controlled by a private firm, the Los Angeles Water Company. Because city officials like Mayor James R. Toberman were unhappy with perceived egregious rates charged by the company, its board of directors issued a public notice, stating that it “does not acquiesce in any threatened infringement of its right and privileges and cited its 20 July 1868 agreement, in which it was stated that the City agreed “to make no other lease, sale, contract, grant or franchise . . . for the sale or delivery of water to the inhabitants . . . for domestic purposes” until the contract expired in 1898.
In the sole new advertisement of the day, the paper published a notice “TO BUILDERS” from architect W.J. Graham, who settled in the city from New York at the end of the prior year, in which it was announced that “to be let the various works required in the erection and completion of a villa residence, stabling and out-buildings fronting on Figueroa, Adams and Charity streets,” this last being today’s Grand Avenue. Graham had plans and specifications ready for viewing at his office in the Temple Block, where City Hall now stands and concluded that “no pledge is given to accept the lowest or any proposal.”
Elsewhere, the Star reported on “Another Magnificent Structure,” and told readers that,
C.A. Longstreet, Esq, late of New York, is about to have erected a beautiful residence on his handsome thirty-five acre lot on Figueroa street. The building will be in the modernized Gothic style, and will have three fronts, on Figueroa, Adams and Charity streets. The house will stand in the centre of the tract, which will be beautified according to the best rules of landscape gardening.
The piece went into some detail about the edifice, giving the sizes of first-floor rooms like the parlor, library, sitting room, dining room, hall and more, while the second level was to have seven bedrooms two dressing rooms, two bathrooms and four closets. At the roof level, a tower of 11 feet square was to have a dozen windows and be used as a smoking room, while a 9-foot high basement, an unusual feature in the area, was included and “only the best materials will be used,” including black walnut for the staircase.
A stable measuring 55×48 feet and with a half-dozen stalls, coach house, yard, poultry house and yard and cow shed among its features as part of what was a “donation lot” established by the City in the 1850s when surveying was done of the existing municipal limits, this lot being at the southwestern portion of town. The Star remarked that “in short, the whole will form a complete villa of rare beauty and excellence of design” and the endeavor expected to cost up to $12,000. With Graham’s notice, it observed, “our contractors will have a chance to try their mettle in the erection of Mr. Longstreet’s villa.”
The Longstreet Estate, as it was commonly known, has been said by some sources to have been built by Confederate Army General James Longstreet, but it was actually a distant relative, retired furniture maker Charles A. Longstreet, who came to Los Angeles because of chronic asthma and died of the condition at the end of 1877.
While the house was certainly a grand one and a standout for the era, what the Longstreet place, under the ownership and management of Longstreet’s widow Lucy, who lived there with three sons, was best known for was its remarkable gardens, until the property was sold and subdivided in 1886 as the Boom of the Eighties was in full swing and this section of the city became highly desirable for well-to-do Angelenos wanting a suburban feel with close proximity to downtown.
The landscaping was so well-known that it was photographed many times for stereoviews and cabinet cards sold publicly, while the house almost seemed like an afterthought in many of these images. The most famous and longest lasting elements of the estate were a row of palm trees, part of which still remains ensconced within the campus of the Luskin Orthopaedic Institute for Children, established on the site in 1911.
Lastly, there is one piece of news in the issue directly related to the Temple family, this being a brief notice that the Los Angeles Petroleum Refining Company, one of the early oil companies in the Angel City and prospecting in the mountains near today’s Santa Clarita, elected its officers the prior Sunday, including President F.P.F. Temple, his son Thomas as treasurer and Benjamin L. Peel as secretary.
Joining the trio as trustees were tinware merchant Marcus W. Childs, Dr. Vincent Gelcich, a major promoter of the project from its origins, the photographer Wolfenstein and Rodolfo Carreras, a Cuban-born claimant for a refining process that wowed many, including the others in the company, but which proved to be unworkable, if not an outright fraud, even when he tried to move from refining crude oil to olive oil. A refinery built by the company was partially used for another one that still stands and is a state historic landmark.
We have plenty more 1870s newspapers in our collection to highlight in the “Read All About It” series of posts on this blog and which help us to better understand the first boom in greater Los Angeles, so we’ll definitely be sharing those—please be sure to be on the lookout for them!