Thursday, May 12, 2011

Alternative fuel vehicles not new to Santa Monica









Santa Monica's first electric public transportation was called the Santa Monica Air Line, built in 1875 and intended as a steam railroad from Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The first train of this electric rail line ran in October 1875 and was known as "The Los Angeles & Independent RR." The Ocean Park: Substation No. 40 was built in 1896, had four motor-generator sets of 3250 kw, housed in a brick building. Later a Santa Monica via Sawtelle Line, built in 1896 where you could catch a car and travel from Santa Monica to Ocean Avenue and Trolleyway to Windward Avenue in Venice. (Electric Railway Historical Association of southern California website http://wwwerha.org/index.htm A few electric automobiles were spotted in Santa Monica early on, as depicted in the photograph of an electric car from 1919 parked in the alley behind 435 Georgina Avenue in Santa Monica. Digital photographs courtesy of the Santa Monica Image Archives http://digital.smpl.org/

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lots for Sale!





This notice appeared in the The Outlook on March 29, 1876, offering lots for sale in Santa Monica.

The photograph appeared in the special centennial edition of the Evening Outlook, May 17, 1975. The caption reads: "EAGER TO BUY -A crowd has already gathered in the background as these bidders arrive in their horse-drawn buggy for the first auction of lots in Santa Monica. Wooden stage in rear was occupied by auctioneer Alfred W. Noyes, who took bids ranging from less than $100 to around $500 on choice homesites"(187?). The first real estate boom happened in March of 1887, when an auction sold $42,000 worth of lots between Ocean Avenue and 20th Street, according to Charles S. Warren, editor of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook, in his book History of the Santa Monica Bay Region (1934).