Consultant's Report - City of Santa Monica

83 Pages·2011·7.47 MB·English

2701-05 Main Street
Santa Monica, California
City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation Report

Prepared for:
City of Santa Monica
Planning Division

Prepared by:
PCR Services Corporation
Santa Monica, California

December 2011
2701-2705 Main Street
City of Santa Monica
APN: 4288-003-043
City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation
ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING
The subject property, 2701-2705 Main Street, is situated on the southeast corner of Main and
Hill Streets between 2nd Street to the east, Main Street to the west, Hill Street to the north,
and Ashland Avenue to the south. The one-story brick commercial building is located in the
Main Street Historic District. The property is located in the Santa Monica Tract on Lots 48,
49, and 50, Block A.
REGULATORY SETTING
The subject property has been identified and assessed under the City’s ongoing survey
process on two previous occasions. The commercial building was first identified and
recorded as part of a 1983 survey of Main Street.1 The subject property was recommended
eligible for the National Register as a contributor to the “Main Street District” and given a
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) status code of 5.
The commercial building was identified and recorded again as part of the 2010 “Santa
Monica Citywide Historic Resources Inventory Update.”2 The subject property was
identified “as a contributor to a district that appears eligible for local listing or designation
through a survey evaluation” and given a NRHP status code of 5D3. The building remained
eligible as a contributor to the Main Street District.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
The subject property consists of four commercial spaces located in one building. The
building is an excellent example of a single-story brick commercial building, which were
constructed all over Southern California during, roughly, from 1910 through the 1920s.
Specifically, the building is architecturally significant as it anchors the block with the slightly
heightened and architecturally distinguished corner unit that steps down to the southern two
units. Historically, the property set the scale for the block and now serves as a visual and
spatial connection to the past commercial streetscape that once encompassed much of the
Main Street streetscape.
The brick commercial building has many character-defining features of the early twentieth-
century commercial Renaissance Revival-`style including a brick parapet, white glazed brick
trim, tall storefront windows, and modest applied architectural ornamentation. The corner
unit has a recessed entranceway with black and white square and hexagonal tile flooring

1 M. Agelasto and P. Gleye, Main Street Historic Resources Inventory, March 30, 1983.
2 IFC International, Santa Monica Citywide Historic Resources Inventory Update Final Report, prepared for
the City of Santa Monica, 2010.
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(Plate 1). Low brick walls are topped by tall storefront glazing that rises to a horizontal black
painted wood lintel. Above the lintel, translucent glass panels rise to the ceiling. The walls
are brick and use the white glazed brick to form borders around windows, at the ground level,
and for decorative patterns on the walls bellow the parapet. Italian Mediterranean Revival
themed red clay tile awnings are surface attached to the parapet with decorative metal
brackets and span the entire western façade and wrap around the entrance to the north. A
smaller awning in the same style is at the rear of the corner unit (Plate 2). The rear, east
elevation of the entire building, has roughly ten double-hung sash windows set into the brick
wall and one door is set into the corner unit.

Left to Right: Plate 1. 2701 Main Street corner storefront, view to southeast (PCR 2011);
Plate 2. North elevation, view to south (PCR 2011)

Just south of the corner unit, there are two central units and one southern unit (Plate 3). The
middle and southern commercial units have highly altered storefronts, which is not
uncommon in commercial buildings of this period and style. In fact, it appears that the
single-story brick commercial building property type was designed to allow changes to the
storefronts, as variety of storefront designs could be placed between the vertical walls, the
floor, and the horizontally lined brick at the roof line. The middle and southern commercial
units are identical in design. Each unit has a recessed entrance on its north side with square
and hexagonal tile flooring. A low brick wall framed with glazed white brick supports the
storefront windows (on the northern central unit, it appears the Art Nouveau style inspired
storefront paneling covers the original wall). A thin strip of brick wall dividing the spaces has
a vertical row of glazed white brick that rises to a slightly higher section of the parapet where
there is a white plaster cartouche. Additional current photos of the subject property are
included in the appendix.
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City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation Report
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Plate 3. West elevation, view to east (PCR 2011)
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY AND ALTERATIONS
There are few building permits on record with the City of Santa Monica for the subject
property. On November 23, 1922, the designer/contractor, Joseph F. Rhodes, filed for a
building permit (No. B356) to construct a one-story commercial building located at 2701-07
Main Street. Originally, the 75 foot by 100 foot building was valued at $12,000. The
building permit stated the walls were constructed of brick and the materials of the front were
brick and terra cotta. Nineteen days prior, there was a demolition permit issued to remove a
one-story, two-room building.
After the building was constructed, the building permits on file involved interior
modifications, and storefront signs. In 1967, building permits were issued to construct two
interior wall partitions and erect two non-illuminated signs. The following table lists the
completed building permits filed for the property from 1922 to 1967.3
Permit#  Date  Address  Owner  Leasee  Designer  Contractor  Description 
Demolish &
remove from 
2701 Main  Whiting  lot 1‐story 
B285  11/4/1922          
Street  Wrecking Co  frame 
building  
(2 rooms)  
Construct 4‐
rm, 1‐story 
2701‐07  Geo  Joseph F.  Joseph F. 
B356  11/23/1922     store 
Main Street  Beidler  Rhodes  Rhodes 
building for 
$12,000 
2 wall 
2701 Main  partitions for 
B38936  1/21/1967           Ernest Jefferson 
Street  pool room 
snack bar 
2701 Main  Mr.  Southern  2 Signs  
B38988  3/10/1967       
Street  Palmer  California Signs  (5' x 18") 

3 City of Santa Monica, Department of Building and Safety.
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Santa Monica
In 1875, the original townsite of Santa Monica was surveyed, including all the land extending
from Colorado Street on the south to Montana on the north, and from 26th Street on the east
to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Between 1893 and the 1920s, the community operated as a
tourist attraction, visited mostly by wealthy patrons. Those areas located just outside of the
incorporated city limits were semi-rural in setting and populated with scattered residences.
The City’s commercial district was established between Wilshire and Colorado, at Second,
Third, and Fourth Streets. A deep arroyo south of the commercial district divided north and
south Santa Monica. The southern section of Santa Monica remained fairly undeveloped
during the late and early nineteenth century, while northern Santa Monica burgeoned.
The close proximity to the ocean was no doubt a strong attraction to prospective year-round
residents. As early as 1896, a reliable interurban rail line had made it possible to commute to
Los Angeles, but it was the dominance of the automobile which gave significant momentum
to the building boom which Santa Monica experienced in the 1920s. Following the
widespread acceptance of the automobile in the 1920s, Santa Monica experienced a
significant building boom, with homes being constructed in the tracts north of Montana and
east of Seventh Street for year-round residents.
A postwar building boom began in 1946, with the construction of whole residential tracts of
single family residences. Multi-family housing became a major factor in planning and
zoning issues as the City's population continued to grow. Within the past decades, the area
north of the Santa Monica freeway, constructed in 1966, has been transformed as many of the
modest single-family houses have been replaced by larger homes or modern condominium
units. Neighborhoods south of the freeway have also experienced a construction growth of
multiple housing types, ranging from high-rise towers to the two- and three-story
townhouses, which continue to be developed today.
Ocean Park Area
Ocean Park’s early history developed somewhat independently from the rest of Santa Monica
due, in part, to the separation of the areas by an arroyo now occupied by the Santa Monica
Freeway. A neighborhood of the City of Santa Monica, Ocean Park is bounded by
downtown Santa Monica on the north and Venice, a neighborhood of the City of Los
Angeles, on the South. Separated from the City of Santa Monica’s commercial core by an
arroyo, travel between downtown Santa Monica and Ocean Park was very difficult. The
sketch of Santa Monica below (Plate 4) from 1877 shows the arroyo and the commercial core
of Santa Monica to the north, while the land to the south of the arroyo is sparsely developed.
In the late 19th century, the arroyo functioned as a track bed for the Southern Pacific
Railroad (SPRR) and the Pacific Electric Railway.
Ocean Park was initially oriented toward the beach and the neighborhood’s history is closely
tied with its early twentieth-century development as an amusement and recreation
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City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation Report
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destination, as a result of the construction of pleasure piers, amusement parks, bathhouses,
tourist attractions, and recreational facilities.

Plate 4. Sketch of Santa Monica showing the railroad in the arroyo, 1877
(Santa Monica Public Library (SMPL) Images)

The initial residential development of what would become Ocean Park occurred in the mid-
1880s when land owned by the Lucas and Vawter families was subdivided into residential
tracts clustered on streets between the ocean and the 4th Street hill, a natural inland
boundary.4 The settlers found the “land was fertile and water was easily obtained by putting
down wells and some prosperous little ranches were established here.”5 The housing boom
in Southern Santa Monica continued with considerable force until the sudden rise in values in
1887 and 1888 and later the depression abruptly halted this areas development progress.

In the early 1890s, Abbott Kinney, who would later create Venice of America, formed a
partnership with Francis Ryan to purchase and develop over one mile of land south of Front
Avenue (now Pico Boulevard) along the Pacific Ocean. Recognizing that a rail link to Los
Angeles would be the key to development of the area, in 1893 Kinney donated land for the
right of way and a depot to the Santa Fe railroad. Because the railroad ran down Lucus
Street, a block west of 2nd Street (Main Street), the west side of the street was the railroad
right-of-way and remained undeveloped.6 A passenger depot was constructed at the
northwest corner of Lucus Street and Hill Street.
Upon completion of the rail line, the partners began subdividing and selling small parcels.
Abbott Kinney and Francis Ryan persuaded the Railroad to construct an amusement pier to
enhance the area’s resort potential. A 500-foot concrete pier was constructed approximately
200 feet south of Hill Street, by 1895 the Railroad began running seven trains daily to the
new resort during the summer season. The community was given the name Ocean Park in
1895, and the Santa Fe depot station name was changed from South Santa Monica to Ocean
Park.7 By 1901 Ocean Park contained approximately 200 dwellings (Plate 5), an auditorium

4 Luther A. Ingersoll, Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities (Santa Monica: L. A. Ingersoll,
1908), p. 246.
5 Luther A. Ingersoll, p. 245.
6 Sanborn Maps, 1902.
7 “The Southside Depot Changed,” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1895, p. 11.
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(Plate 6), a bathhouse, a racetrack, the Ocean Park amusement pier, a casino (restaurant), and
some agricultural plots of land. The adjacent Pier Street became one of the area’s early
commercial streets.8

Left to Right: Plate 5. First houses constructed along the boardwalk in Ocean Park, circa 1900 (SMPL
Images); Plate 6. Ocean Park Auditorium and the Casino Cafe, Santa Monica, Calif. 1900 (SMPL Images)

With new business partners Alexander Fraser and several others, Kinney formed the Ocean
Park Improvement Company in 1902. The partners invested in a sewer system for the
community, extended the boardwalk south to the end of their tract, increased the
development of the Company’s land south of Rose Avenue, and, finally, made plans for the
construction of a large bathhouse. Due to disagreements with his associates, however,
Abbott Kinney quit the partnership in January 1904, taking the swampy southern portion of
the Company’s land for his imagined and soon to be conceived Venice project. Prior to
relocating his business interests further south, however, Kinney had set in motion the
incorporation of the partnership’s property south of Marine Avenue (now Marine Street). On
February 12, 1904 a successful vote created a new 6th class city called Ocean Park.
Without Abbott Kinney, Alexander Fraser and the remaining partners invested $185,000 in a
colossal Ocean Park Bath House (Plate 7) located near Navy Street south of the existing, but
relatively modest, Ocean Park Pier. The Ocean Park Bath House opened on July 4, 1905, the
same weekend as Kinney’s Venice of America. Access to Ocean Park from Los Angeles and
other southern California communities via the Pacific Electric Railway soon became a key
element of the area’s success, its growth promoted by the influx of newcomers from the mid-
western states, and a boom in home construction.

8 Fred E. Basten, Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea: a Pictorial History of Santa Monica, Venice,
Marina del Rey, Ocean Park, Pacific Palisades, Topanga & Malibu (Hennessey + Ingalls: Los Angeles,
1997).
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Plate 7. Ocean Park Bath House, circa 1905 (SMPL Images)

The driving factors behind Ocean Park’s growth and development as a beach community
were the large piers, bathhouses, boardwalks, plunges, and various pier amusements that
were constructed along the beach and into the Pacific Ocean in the first few decades of the
twentieth century. Abbott Kinney’s Pier in Venice erected in 1908 was so successful that
Alexander Fraser formed the Fraser Million Dollar Pier Company with the intent of building
the world’s largest amusement pier. Located between Pier and Marine Streets at the foot of
the Ocean Park Bath House, the Million Dollar Pier (Plate 8) with its dance hall, Vaudeville
Theater, roller coaster, sideshows, and exhibits extended 1000 feet into the ocean when it
opened in 1911. Fire, which would prove to be the most destructive of the natural forces that
would afflict the piers in the coming decades, destroyed Fraser’s Pier and all of the
surrounding amusement buildings in 1912, only 15 months after the Piers opening. The pier
was rebuilt on a smaller scale at the same location in 1913 under the management of Ernest
Pickering and was soon known as the Pickering Pier (Plate 9). Another large amusement pier
constructed during the decade was the Looff Pier located south of and adjacent to the Santa
Monica Municipal Fishing Pier at the west end of Colorado Avenue.

Left to Right: Plate 8. Fraser's "Million Dollar Pier," 1910 (SMPL Images); Plate 9. Pickering Pleasure Pier
and Dome Theater, 1916 (SMPL Images)

The rapid growth of Santa Monica during the 1920s generated an increased need for
transportation connectivity and the Main Street Bridge, circa 1926, created a link, via Main
Street, between the city’s growing commercial core and Ocean Park. Upon completion, the
Main Street Bridge extended Main Street across the arroyo. Traveling south, Main Street
bisected the mostly vacant area owned by the SPRR until it reached the former Santa Fe
Railroad’s right of way and a small residential pocket that occupied the southeast corner of
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City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation Report
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the quadrant. From there, Main Street turned diagonally southwest to connect with the
existing segment of Main Street in Ocean Park.9 The Pickering Pier was destroyed by fire in
1924 (Plate 10) and rebuilt in 1926.

Plate 10. Ocean Park Pier Fire, Ocean Park, Calif. 1924 (SMPL Images)

Ocean Park assumed its modern identity during the 1930s as a year-round community.10
This change shifted the focus of commercial centers from Pier Avenue to Main Street; and
commercial establishments of the period appear to have catered to Ocean Park residents,
rather than tourists.11 Main Street became the commercial corridor of the developing Ocean
Park community, servicing both permanent residents and visitors who lived in the cottages,
bungalows, and courts that sprang up as far east as Lincoln and beyond. By the close of the
teens, a substantial portion of Ocean Park was improved. By the 1930s, buildings occupied
most of the available parcels in the area and older improvements were removed to provide
space for newer development.

Following World War II, few new amusement piers were constructed. Soon the familiar
cycle of destruction by fire in conjunction with changing economics and new recreation
choices led to the demise of the great amusement piers. A short-lived exception to this trend
was Pacific Ocean Park (formerly the Lick Pier) which opened in 1958 as a competitor to
Anaheim’s Disneyland but closed eleven years later in 1967 (Plates 11 and 12). During the
early 1970s, local surfers utilized the graveyard pier structure for their daring surfing
maneuvers. When Pacific Ocean Park Pier was demolished in 1973/1974, the Santa Monica
Municipal Pier became the last remaining amusement pier along the southern California

9 Portions of this section were adapted from the “Historic Resources Technical Report Santa Monica Civic
Center Specific Plan: Historic Resources Survey, Evaluation, and Analysis of Project Impacts,” prepared by
PCR Services Corporation for the City of Santa Monica, March 2004.
James W. Lunsford, The Ocean and the Sunset, The Hills and the Clouds: Looking at Santa Monica, 1983.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, City of Santa Monica.
Paula A. Scott, Santa Monica: A History on the Edge, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
10 Myers, William A., and Ira L. Swett, Trolleys to the Surf; The Story of the Los Angeles Pacific Railway
(Glendale: Interurban Publications, Inc., 1976).
11 Leslie Heumann, “Department of Parks and Recreation series 523 form, 2000-2100 Blocks of Third Street
District.”
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Coast.12 A reason for the failure of Pacific Ocean Park was because the neighborhood was in
decline. During this period, Santa Monica began its urban renewal project and identified the
southwest corner of Ocean Park as its first redevelopment district.13 By 1966, Santa Monica
demolished an urban district between Ocean Park Boulevard and the Venice Border.
However, also during this period, Ocean Park became a center for bohemian culture and
political activism.

Left to Right: Plate 11. Aerial of Pacific Ocean Park Pier, 1967 (SMPL Images); Plate 12. Entrance to POP
Pier, 1965 (SMPL Images)

In the early 1970s, fire destroyed the remaining remnants of the Pacific Ocean Park Pier
erasing the last physical evidence of what had been one of the defining features of the Ocean
Park community and the catalyst for its early growth. By this time, however, the importance
of the piers to filling vacancies in apartment courts, had long past as occupancy by seasonal
tourists was replaced by tenants attracted to beach areas for retirement, employment, or other
reasons. Today, Ocean Park boasts a broad mix of turn-of-the-century cottages, various
styles of single-family bungalows, revival-style apartment courts, multi-story postwar
apartment buildings, and contemporary condominiums.

The Development of Main Street and the Subject Property (2701-2705 Main Street)
Early 20th Century 2nd Street (Main Street)
During the early twentieth century, 2nd Street (Main Street) was scattered with residential
development with interspersed commercial businesses. The earliest map available of Main
Street is from 1902, which shows the portion of Main Street from Front Street (Pico
Boulevard) to the south city limits. The Southern California Railroad tracks ran down the
center of 2nd Street (Main Street) from Front to Hollister, and then veered west towards
running south towards Neilson Way. In 1902, 2nd Street (Main Street) was sparsely
developed and residential in character. However, there was a small commercial district

12 Earnest Marquez, Santa Monica Beach: A Collector’s Pictorial History (Santa Monica: Angel City Press,
2004).
13 Historic Resources Group, Historic Resources Survey Update Ocean Park, Prepared for City of Santa
Monica, June 2004, 26.
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