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How Manhattan got its
name - With transportation, development follows. Developers were plentiful and
several of the larger developers such as George Peck, who owned the northern
section of the area including north of Rosecrans, John Merrill, who was laying
out the southern section which was between First Street and Center Street and
just west of the Santa Fe tracks to The Strand, and Frank Daugherty, who had 20
acres from Marine Avenue to 15th Street and east of Highland Avenue to the
railroad tracks, agreed that only one name should be given to the area. George
Peck was calling his area Shore Acres after a Santa Fe junction sign. John
Merrill was calling his area Manhattan after his hometown in New York.
According to Frank Daugherty, a half dollar coin was flipped and
"Manhattan" won. It is believed that this occurred in 1902 because the
railroad changed the junction name to Manhattan.
Most of the early
buildings were beach cottages. Families would come from Pasadena and Los
Angeles on the trolley or Santa Fe train and a real estate agent would greet
them as they stepped off. Some liked what they saw and bought property.
Manhattan Beach was promoted as a place to vacation, a summer resort. A few
stayed year round but most stayed only for a weekend or a summer. It was hard
to count the full time residents but by the time of incorporation on December 7,
1912, there were approximately 600 permanent residents. Although the city
incorporation papers show Manhattan Beach as the correct name of the city, the
full name was not registered with the Washington, D.C. Postal Service until
Postmaster Virgil Wahlberg changed the name to Manhattan Beach to avoid
confusion with the 14 other Manhattans in the country.
In 1902, there were a few
houses built. As each year went by, there was more building. Some people stayed
in tents or rental cottages. Almost all of the early buildings were wooden
beach cottages ranging from 300 square feet to eleven-hundred square feet. They
appeared to be very alike and most were painted a rusty red. There was no gas,
electricity, or indoor plumbing. Water flowed in across the dunes through a
pipe that frequently broke.
Over the years, the
original beach cottages were torn down to build bigger and fancier homes. One,
however, sitting at 205 15th Street, looking down Manhattan Avenue, remained
virtually unchanged for 80 years. When its time finally came to be torn down
for new construction, the Manhattan Beach City Council stepped in and saved it.
The Manhattan Beach School district, owners of the Polliwog Park land, offered
a new home for the cottage often referred to as the "Little Red
House" in Polliwog Park.
The cottage was restored
by the Department of Parks and Recreation, with the help of the Neptunian
Women’s Club (founded in 1909), and the Manhattan Beach Historical Society.
Most of the labor and materials were donated by the community. It took more
than four years from the time of purchase to reach its present condition.
The cottage is now the
home of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society and represents life as it was
back in 1905 when the cottage was built. When stepping into the cottage, one
gets a sense of stepping back into time. Furnishings along with photographs,
written material, a 18 minute video reviewing the history and trained docents
are the teaching tools of the Society. There is a Reference Room containing old
newspapers, telephone books and yearbooks. In its new life, the beach cottage
is serving as a tribute to the spirited individuals who founded this community.
The grand opening was May 13, 1990.
One of the first structures built was a pier. It was
believed to have been 900-feet long. Pylons were made by fastening three
railroad rails together and driving them into the ocean floor. A narrow wooden
deck was supported by these pilings. A wave machine was installed at the foot
of the pier in order to generate electricity but the plan did not work. The
"old iron pier" as it was called, was destroyed by a major storm in
1913. Lack of money, lawsuits, storms, and debates about when and where to
build another pier delayed Manhattan Beach from having a pier completed until
1920. This time, it was a cement pier with a rounded end and it was 928-feet
long. The roundhouse at the end was not completed until 1922. In 1928, a
200-foot wooden extension was added but it was destroyed in a storm in 1940.
Storms and time were not kind to the pier and repairs were made but the
appearance changed. In 1991, a decision to restore it back to its 1920s
appearance was made. In 1992, a pier dedication took place. In 1995, the pier
was declared a state historic landmark. It is the oldest standing cement pier
on the West Coast.
Manhattan Beach is built
on sand. In the early days, old timers speak of walkways disappearing, small
structures sliding and the sting of the sand. The dunes were a major problem.
Some were 50 feet to 70 feet high. Leveling them off was difficult. In the late
1920s, developers from Hawaii made a deal with the Kuhn Brothers Construction
Company to supply Waikiki Beach with Manhattan Beach sand. The sand was loaded
onto the Santa Fe Railroad cars and transported to the harbor in San Pedro and
then onto ships or barges. This continued for almost ten years. Manhattan Beach
today is by no means flat. Sand dunes are particularly obvious in the north end
of Manhattan Beach where Sand Dune Park is located.
To learn more about
Manhattan Beach history, contact the Manhattan Beach Historical Society. The
Society has brochures, monographs and books about the history of Manhattan Beach.
Ask a docent to view the 18 minute film "The Lore of Manhattan
Beach."
Text written in April 2001 by Bonnie Beckerson
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