History of Santa Monica, California
[3] The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769.
[5] Regarding the latter, Crespi did note in his diary that the group found a Tongva village at the springs (where the SE corner of the campus of University High School is today).
As is also recorded in his diary, Crespí named the place San Gregorio,[4] while the expedition soldiers called it "El Berendo" after a deer they wounded there.
Senator Jones built a mansion, Miramar, and his wife Georgina planted a Moreton Bay Fig tree in its front yard in 1889.
The Long Wharf was built in 1893 at the north end of Santa Monica to accommodate large ships and was dubbed Port Los Angeles.
A Japanese fishing village was located near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in both Santa Monica and Venice.
The Los Angeles firm of Walker & Eisen designed the art deco Bay City Building, a 13-story skyscraper topped with a huge four-faced clock that was finished in 1930.
From 1958 to 1962 the ballroom became one of the largest roller-skating rinks in the western U.S. Comedian Will Rogers bought a substantial ranch in Santa Monica Canyon in 1922.
More recent residents of Santa Monica Canyon have included Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hayden (the last two who previously lived in Ocean Park).
In 1928, Will Rogers sold a parcel with two large houses on the beach at the base of the bluffs to William Randolph Hearst, who then gave it to Marion Davies.
Muscle Beach, located just south of the Santa Monica Pier, started to attract gymnasts and body builders who put on free shows for the public, and continues till today.
After state Attorney General Earl Warren got a court order to shut the ships down as a nuisance, the crew of the Rex initially fought off police by using water cannons and brandishing sub-machine guns.
The DC-3, which first flew from Clover Field, was a terrifically successful airliner that transformed the air transportation business and brought needed jobs to the city.
To defend against air attack set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared elaborate camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield.
[12][13] In 1945, Santa Monica City College started the Community Radio Workshop (CRW) to teach returning GIs broadcasting and used the call letters KCRW.
The Sears building was built in 1947 at the south end of the retail district and has retained architect Rowland Crawford's original late-Moderne styling.
Performers that have appeared over the decades include: Joan Baez, The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, David Bowie, Dave Brubeck, Buzzcocks, The Carpenters, Ray Charles, The Clash, Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Hope, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, André Previn, Public Enemy, Ramones, The Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, T.Rex, Jonathan Winters, and countless others.
Adjacent to Pacific Ocean Park was the rock and roll club, The Cheetah, which featured early performances by such acts as The Doors, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Love, The Mothers of Invention, The Seeds, Buffalo Springfield and others.
(The Santa Monica Mall, just prior to its conversion to the Third Street Promenade, is a location for some scenes in the movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure).
Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR) formed in 1978 and was led by Ruth Yannatta Goldway, Derek Shearer, Dennis Zane, and Reverend James Conn with support from Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda.
Main Street, a quaint mile of sawdust bars and dilapidated stores selling old furniture, was upgraded by the concerted efforts of a new generation of owners.
Three interesting buildings owned by the city were abandoned and destroyed, including the Sinbad's Restaurant that featured a large whale's tail in the facade.
Colorado Place, Water Garden, and other nearby office developments on the east side of town attracted MGM, Sony, Symantec, and other corporations.
Other notable damage: St. John's hospital came close to collapsing; Honda of Santa Monica's parking structure pancaked crushing numerous cars.
Cleanup of the site is ongoing at a current cost of $3 million per year, paid for by the responsible parties, principally: Shell, Chevron and Exxon.
The state of California enacted a law, effective January 1, 1999, that overrode Santa Monica's rent control ordinance by mandating vacancy decontrol.
[20] On July 16, 2003, George Russell Weller drove his Buick at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour through the busy downtown Farmers Market, which was held on a city street that was closed to vehicular traffic by temporary signage at each end.
In the wake of numerous civil lawsuits filed against the City of Santa Monica and the company organizing the Farmer's Market, a new policy was adopted requiring portable concrete barricades to reliably block vehicle access for pedestrian street events.
The increasingly upscale nature of the city – not just the northern part, which was always affluent, but the southern Ocean Park neighborhood as well which has become a favorite of those in the entertainment industry – has created some tensions between newcomers and longtime residents nostalgic for the more bohemian, countercultural past.
[27][28] Starting in the mid-2010s and continuing to the mid-2020s, the Third Street Promenade experienced vacancies due to high rents, the retail apocalypse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the homelessness crisis, rising inflation, and difficulty sub-dividing its large buildings.
