The Founding of Naplesby Arthur M Parsons
The first serious development at Alamitos Bay was begun in
1903 by Strong and
Dickinson and Robert March & Co., who purchased and subdivided the Alamitos Bay
peninsula into about 500 lots. A. M. and A. C. Parsons joined their sales
force, mowed into a canvas covered shack which they built on the bay shore, and
were soon busily engaged in selling lots in the new Alamitos Bay tract - which
attracted buyers right from the begining.
We were so much interested that we bought 50 to 60 of these
lots ourselves, on speculation besides selling that many more for the company.
Two of these lots we bought were situated in the center of the tract and
fronted the bay. To help popularize the place we organized a club of Los
Anqelcs business men, named it the "Channel Club" and built a fine Club House,
with large and wide porches, 15 guest rooms upstaris, large Dining Room,
Lounging Room, Card Room, spacious Kitchen, Bar and Liquor Storage Room, Etc.
This Club became extremely popular, and for a couple of years
was a favorite resort for young people, and many social events were held there
- such as dances, receptions, swimming parties, boating parties, duck hunting
parties, etc. We built on the San Gabriel River near Anaheim Road A Duck Club,
Club House, Blinds, Lakes with flowing wells, and bought a large launch for the
use of the members and many is the night this boat took a load of members to
the Duck club to shoot ducks in the morning.
All this time we were keeping a vigilant eye on the land
across the Bay, which had never -up to this time been considered suitable lor a
residential tract, owing to the fact that it was absolutely coveted at high
tide with overflow sea water, and it would be necessary to fill it up at least
six feet before it could even be considered for building purposes.
We secured the services of a former City Engineer, Frank A.
Olmstead, who immediately and secretly made a thorough test of the land by
boring and soundings and rendered a report which I still own. It says the black
mud on the surface is only on the surface a few inches, and the whole of the
land below is clean beach sand, and he highly recommended il for building
purposes.
As soon as we received this report we went before a meeting
of the owners of the land, the Alamitos Land Co., consisting of four of the
Bixbys, Jotham, George, Fred, and Llewellyn and J. A. Graves - and asked for a
price on this land, which was an Island intersected by bayous and sloughs. At
first they were
skeptical and looked on the whole scheme as being the chimerical dream of a
wild eyed real estate dealer. |