2011-09 - Orange County Historical Society

September 2011 Volume 41 No 7esid
t
President: Chris Jepsen
e bEditor: John Bushman er
ber
COUNTY COURIER
Official Publication of the Orange County Historical Society
www.orangecountyhistory.org
Kickoff Program
The Painful Path to a Beautiful Beach
By John Bushman
Feast on Coast
Features Coast Club
L
ocal historian Chris Jepsen will
discuss the rise and fiery fall of
the Pacific Beach Club at the Orange
County Historical Society’s “annual
kickoff” program. The event is at the
Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, September 8th, at 6:30
p.m. The public is welcome to attend
this free event at the Gardens located
at 2647 E. Coast Hwy near MacArthur Blvd.
Orange County had the honor
of having the first State Beach in
California. In 1931 the Edward
Lawrence Doheny family, which
became rich in the oil business,
donated the Capistrano Beach
land. The events leading to the
gift followed a circuitous route.
The beach began to bloom in
1887 when the Santa Fe rails
passed San Juan Capistrano. Lots
near San Juan Creek, called San
Juan-by-the-Sea, were sold by
the Pacific Land Improvement
Company. But the business and
housing owners soon bailed and
the community failed. [1] By
1892 the SFRR gave free lots to
anyone who would build there,
but five years later the town was
vacant and the streets abandoned.
In 1925 the site was renamed
Capistrano Beach. The Capistrano Beach Company, managed by
the Wailes-Smith Company, tried
to develop a town. They sold in
1929 to the Petroleum Securities
Company, owned by Edward L.
Doheny continued on page 3
The event will begin with
an appetizer and dessert
potluck. Everyone may
participate by bringing
enough of something to eat
for six people. The program will begin about 7:30
p.m. Non-members are also
welcome to attend.
The program is on the
former Pacific Beach
Club which was between
Huntington Beach and
Newport Beach. The talk
will be about con-men,
the KKK, towering Egyptian architecture, bathing
beauties, politics, arson,
and early civil rights leaders in Southern California.
Club continued on page 2
This photo of Chris Jepsen holding the old headline ran in the O.C. Register (almost a halfpage!) when they interviewed him about the Pacific Beach Club. He said: “I look pretty serious —But then it IS a story about arson (as well as either racism or insurance fraud).”
Page 2
Club from page 1
During the 1920s, black people
were not allowed on Los Angeles
area beaches. Overcoming endless obstacles, a black beach club
was built in Orange County. Just
before it opened the elaborate and
handsome club facilities were
burned to the ground. Finger
pointing went every direction as
there were many opponents to
the club and few clues. Who was
behind the club’s mysterious
destruction?
COUNTY COURIER
Directions to Sherman Library
and Gardens
2647 E Coast Hwy, CA 92625From the San Diego Fwy. (405) take
MacArthur turn-off South
to Pacific Coast Hwy. Turn left on
Pacific Coast Hwy.
Turn Right on Dahlia.
Parking: Lot A: Dahlia at Pacific
Coast Hwy.
Lot B: Dahlia at 3rd Avenue
If this whets your appetite to
learn more about a forgotten
part of Orange County history,
please mark your calendars
for September 8th at 6:30 p.m.
Join us that Thursday to learn
more about the demise of Orange County’s Pacific Beach
Club.
OCHS Board Moves
Rankin Steps Down Jepsen New President
The OCHS Board of Directors met on July 14 for a special
meeting and voted changes to
the Board positions for the year.
Vice President Chris Jepsen was
chosen the new President and
President Greg Rankin, stepping
down after 12 years, was elected
as Vice President. Jepsen will
retain his Program Committee
responsibilities.
At the same meeting new Board
members were introduced:
Daralee Ota and Kevin DeMera.
Ms Ota will work on the Website
Committee and Mr. DeMera will
chair the Marketing Committee.
Other committees chiefs selected
include Harriet Friis for Awards,
Betsy Vigus for Curator, and
Don Dobmeier for Special Committees.
Other elections included John Sorenson being re-elected as Treasurer and Stephanie George, who
had been filling in as Recording
Secretary was officially selected
for the duty. The terms will be for
the fiscal year 2011-12.
Come to an OCHS meeting beginning in September and meet
our new Board and Committee
leaders. Our first meeting is at
Sherman Library and Gardens in
Corona Del Mar, September 8th,
at 6:30 p.m.
September 2011
ORANGE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND COMMITTEES
President
C h r i s J e p s e n
V i c e p r e s i d e n t G r e g R a n k i n
R e c . S e c r e t a r y S t e p h a n i e G e o r ge
Tr e a s u r e r J o h n S o r e n s o n
A c t i v i t i e s J a n e N o r g r e n
H i s t o r i a n K e n L e a v e n s
M a r k e t i n g K e v i n D e M e r a
M e m b e r s h i p J u d y M o o r e
B i l l i e W i l l i s
P r e s e r v a t i o n P h i l C h i n n
P u b l i c a t i o n s J o h n B u s h m a n
P r o d u c t i o n A s s i s t . B e t s y V i g u s
We b S i t e C a r o l y n S c h o f f
D a r a l e e O t a
A w a r d s H a r r i e t F r i i s
OC Journal
P h i l B r i g a n d i
Curator B e t s y V i g u s H a r r i e t F r i i s
OCHS Phone
714 543 8282
Mailing Address
PO Box 10984
S a n t a A n a , C A 9 2 7 1 1 We b s i t e
w w w. o r a n g e c o u n t y h i s t o r y. o r g
Web m a s t e r — o c h s s c h o f f @ a o l . c o m
Historian— [email protected]
OCHS CALENDAR
Sept 1—7:00 pm Board Meeting
Sept 8
ANNUAL
SEPTEMBER MEETING
SHERMAN LIBRARY & GARDENS
6:30 pm Gardens Open
7:00 pm Appetizers & Dessert
7:30 pm Program
Pacific Beach Club
by Chris Jepsen
Oct 13 Program to be announced
Page 3
COUNTY COURIER
September 2011
Doheny continued from pg 1
Doheny and family. The
Doheny’s soon sunk $2 million into the area. The Dohenys
owned chunks of coastal
Capistrano Beach land. They
donated funds to build the first
site of St. Edward Chapel, later
rebuilt in Dana Point overlooking Doheny State Beach as St.
Edward the Confessor Catholic
Church. The original site is
home to San Felipe de Jesus
Catholic Church. On March
1, 1931 the town’s name was
changed to Doheny Park.
Doheny State Park and Capistrano Beach- looking south toward San Clemente in 1940s
From Tom Pulley Postcard Collection
The Doheny family began
buying Capistrano Beach real
estate in the 1920s. Ned, Edward’s
son, headed the Capistrano Beach
Company. Members included his
wife Lucy’s twin brothers, Clark
and Warren Smith, and Luther
Eldridge, the contractor.
Eldridge built Spanish-style homes
with large ceiling beams (decorated
by artist Alex Meston), and tiled
short and long roofs with a lowpitch to help cool it. He soon finished the original Doheny family
house on the Camino Capistrano
bluff, four houses on the beach,
and 18 homes spread out. The town
did not take off. Later the unim-
Doheny home on Camino Capistrano
proved Capistrano Beach properties reverted to the elder Doheny.
Upon his death in 1935, his wife
and heirs took it over and finally
sold it all by 1944. [2]
In the 1950’s and 1960’s Doheny
Beach was a focal point of the
rising surfing culture and is still
popular with Orange County surfers. It is mentioned in songs like
‘Surfer Joe’ by the Surfaris, the
Beach Boys “Surfin’ U.S.A,” and
others from the surfing craze of the
early 60s. [3]
Hobie Surfboards in Dana Point
aided surfers by being one of the
first to offer a lightweight glossy
OCHS Photo
coated board instead of the heavy
wooden boards used in the 1950s.
The new boards and Doheny’s
gentle breakers were ideal for surfing neophytes. Many surfers list
it as the first place they learned to
ride the waves. Doheny Beach still
has an aura to it - sort of a Mecca
for surfers.
Yet the 62-acre State Beach
appeals to campers, family barbeques, school children touring the
aquarium, and old timers casting
a line to catch some dinner. The
park also draws crowds for music concerts for Surf, Rock, and
Blues Festivals. The park entrance
is on Dana Point Harbor Drive,
seaward of Pacific Coast Highway
in Dana Point. The center has an
aquarium and simulated tide pool.
It has landscaped picnic areas with
tables, barbeque grills and fire
rings. The old ‘hole in the fence’
area has volleyball sites, restrooms,
and showers. People love it for
evening campfires.
The Beach happened because the
Doheny’s donated 41.4 acres of
ocean front property to the State on
May 31, 1931. [1] The path from
Ned Doheny’s idle real estate to
Page 4
COUNTY COURIER
September 2011
becoming a State Beach follows the senior Doheny’s road
to riches and a tragedy that led
to bestowing the beach land.
Doheny was born in Wisconsin
to Irish immigrants in 1856.
As a young man he wandered
the Southwest prospecting to
try and strike it rich. In 1892
he came to Los Angeles with
his wife Carrie Louella and
their seven year old daughter
Eileen. [4] These were hard
time as Edward had no job
prospects, they lived in a meager boarding house, and Eileen
would die that year.
The Doheny Mansion, three miles southwest of Downtown Los Angeles, is currently the
One fateful day Doheny asked centerpiece of the Mount St. Mary’s College Doheny Campus.
From Richard Vining Postcard Collection
a hauler about his gooey load
and learned it was ‘brea’ – SpanThe senior Doheny began to buy or Secretary Fall also got a $300,000
ish for tar. Back then, tar was used lease oil properties everywhere in- suitcase from oilman Harry Sinfor fuel. He persuaded Charles
cluding Olinda (now Brea). He also clair for Navy land at Teapot Dome
Canfield, an old mining buddy, [5]
became a major oilman in Mexico, (Wyoming). The deal eventually
to front $400 to lease land. They
leasing a million acres near Tamcost Doheny dearly.
dug with pickaxes and drilled
pico. His company was the largHarding died in 1923, but President
with a sharpened tree trunk to no
est oil producer in Mexico (now
Coolidge continued the inquiry
avail. In April 1893, at about 220
PEMEX). Doheny was wealthy
of the ‘deals.’ In 1924 the Teapot
feet they struck oil, the first monenough to hire his own army to
Dome scandal hit the newspapers
eymaking oil well in Los Angeles.
guard his oil during the Mexican
They made enough to get new sites Revolution. His wells produced six as Fall, Doheny, and Sinclair were
indicted. Fall was convicted of takand hit on 81 wells. An oil boom
million barrels a month and were
ing Doheny’s money, but Doheny
flowed and the City of Angels had
generating $31 million by 1922.
was acquitted of bribery. Later the
over 3,000 oil derricks pointed
When he came west, Doheny was
U.S. Supreme Court invalidated
heavenward.
so poor he could not afford his
boarding room rent; now he was as the Elk Hills and Teapot Dome
That year Edward had a son, Eddeals for being obtained illegally,
wealthy as John D. Rockefeller.
ward ‘Ned’ L. Doheny Jr. In 1899
so Doheny stood trial for bribery
the Doheny’s divorced and Carrie
again. These trials were nothing
To get more land, Doheny asked
Louella took her life soon after. [4]
compared to what happened next.
another mining friend, Albert B.
The elder Doheny married Carrie
Fall [4] Secretary of the Interior
Doheny bought land in Beverly
Estelle Betzold in 1900. Ned marfor President Warren Harding, to
Hills as a present when Ned married Lucy M. Smith, the daughter
lease Doheny’s company the U.S.
ried Lucy Smith. Ned was on trial
of a vice president of the Santa Fe
Navy owned Elk Hills land near
too as he and Hugh Plunkett, his
Railroad, in 1914. He graduated
Bakersfield in 1921. [6] To seal
aide, went to Washington with the
from the University of Southern
the deal, Ned delivered a suitcase
cash for Secretary Fall. During the
California in 1916 and, after Navy
with $100,000 cash to Fall. Was it
trial, the elder Doheny helped Ned
service during World War I, revaluable? In 2006 Elk Hills filled
build the Greystone estate on the
turned to become a Vice President
its 106th billion barrel of oil. [7]
land. They kept a low profile by
in the family oil business.
Page 5
working on the $3 million mansion, the second largest in the state
to the Hearst Castle. Doheny sold
the 400-acre estate and Greystone
to Ned and Lucy for $10 as a wedding gift. It was finished in October
1928 but Ned’s residence there
would be brief.
Ned had found a needed assistant
in Plunkett. Hugh was employed
at a service station owned by W.H.
Smith, Lucy’s father, and serviced
Doheny’s vehicles. After Ned married Lucy, Hugh was their chauffeur. His role grew and soon he
was trusted with signing checks for
contractors’ bills.
While waiting for the second trial
to finish, the Doheny’s had a terrible tragedy. On February 16, 1929,
only six months after the family
moved in, Ned Doheny and Hugh
Plunkett were found shot dead at
Greystone. Lucy found them in an
apparent murder-suicide. [8]
It hit the newspapers February
18th (it happened after the 17th
deadline), including the New York
Times. LA District Attorney Buron Fitts announced a “sweeping
investigation.” Yet two days later
the DA’s office ended the inquest
as “the person responsible for the
tragedy was dead.” [9] The death
certificates were signed and the
case called a homicide and suicide.
The LAPD concluded that Plunkett
had murdered Doheny, Jr. after
being refused a raise and then shot
himself. The next day the news
was about Ned’s funeral and the
family. The short investigation, the
pat motive for Plunkett, and the
pass by the press, inspired many
theories and even cast suspicion on
the senior Doheny. [10]
An oddity was that the deaths were
just before they were to testify in
COUNTY COURIER
the second trial. Doheny’s lawyer
later stated that the family had tried
to sway Hugh to enter a sanitarium
as “...weeks ago Plunkett showed
signs of a nervous breakdown.”
This hit the newspapers, yet no one
knew of any instability, including
Plunkett’s ex-wife. [11] A Doheny
biographer suggests that Hugh may
have been going to testify against
the Dohenys, but does not name
names. [12]
After the tragedy, Doheny was
again acquitted of the bribery
charge, but hit with $47 million in
taxes and penalties. He was also
sued by stockholders. The Capistrano Beach land was given on May
31, 1931 as he couldn’t deal with
Ned’s property. [15] On September
12, 1932, the University of Southern California opened the Edward
L. Doheny, Jr. Library, which
the Doheny family built in Ned’s
honor. [13] Doheny faded into the
shadows of his Adams area abode
and became a recluse. He died
there in 1935. [14] His reputation
never recovered from the scandal.
He left $85 million to the estate.
September 2011
bought their old mansion and the
City of Dana Point are at odds over
altering the property or moving
the stately home. The City put the
mansion on the Historic Resource
Register so it still stands, for now,
[16] as a reminder of the Doheny
influence in the area.
References
1. “At Capistrano, Sanderlings Come to
Roost,” September 30, 2001, by John
McKinney, LA Times
2. “Centennial Celebration Saturday, Capistrano Beach-Years of Aliases,” Gordon
Grant, LA Times 10/23/87
3. www.en.wikipedia.org/Doheny State
Beach
4. Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and
Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward
L. Doheny, Margaret Davis Berkeley
Press 1998
5, “Black gold gave state its glitter,” John
Yewell, December 13, 2007, The Monterey County Herald
6. Ibid. Davis, Margaret
7. www.en.wikipedia.org/Elk Hills Oil
Fields
8. Ibid. Davis, Margaret
In 1947 the Doheny Park home
owners wanted the Capistrano
Beach name back and formed a
homeowners association. On January 1, 1948 Doheny Park officially
reverted to Capistrano Beach. In
1958 Estelle, Doheny’s wife, died
and left their home to the Catholic Church. Ned’s wife Lucy sold
Greystone in 1954 and was 100
when she died in 1993.
9. Me, Detective, Leslie T. White, Harcourt, Brace Company 1936
Like the Doheny’s, the beach
between Dana Point Harbor and
San Clemente, sometimes gets a
bad rap. Doheny is routinely on
the “Beach Bummer” list due to
runoff issues. Yet interest in the
family lives on as developers who
14. www.usc/libraries/locaions/doheny
10. Ibid. Davis, Margaret
11. Ibid. Davis, Margaret
12. Edward L. Doheny: Petroleum, Power,
and Politics in the United States and
Mexico, Dan La Botz, Praeger Publishers
1991
13. “Down Doheny way for 75 years,”
June 24, 2006 by Laylan Connelly, OC
Register
15. West Adams Heritage Society, biographical sketch of Edward L. Doheny
16. “Historic Doheny House escapes demolition again,” April 5, 2011 by Brittany
Levine, OC Register
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