EARLY DAYS OF SAN CLEMENTE
Ole Hanson first saw the land on which San Clemente was to be built in 1900 on a train trip from Los Angeles to San Diego. He never forgot this beauiful piece of land and in 1925 Ole Hanson returned in quest of the place to realize his dream. He traced ownership of the land to a syndicate headed by Hamilton Cotton and told Cotton of his dream. On November 8, 1925, the Los Angeles Examiner carried the following announcement:
"Completing one of the largest purchases of land in the Southland in recent months, Ole Hanson, subdivider and town builder, yesterday announced the founding of a new city to be known as San Clemente, the Spanish Village. Site for the new town comprises 2,000 acres between the state highway and the ocean six miles below San Juan Capistrano. Extensive plans for development were worked out while the purchase of the property was being negotiated, according to Mr. Hanson, and are now being carried out. Grading work is being done on the streets laid out to fit into the natural contour of the almost perfect townsite and construction is about to be started on the restaurant and offices which will be the first buildings. Within a few days work will be started on a clubhouse, residences, store building, a park and bridle trails. The purchase of 2,000 acres followed a lengthy search by Mr. Hanson for a property suitable for the town he has been planning for years-a village done in the fashion of Old Spain. He located the property six miles from the Mission San Juan Capistrano and found it to be owned by a syndicate of bankers and business men... Mr. Hanson
became the largest holder in the syndicate and then owner, so that he might work out his development plans to the fullest extent. The property slopes gently from the highway to the ocean for a distance of more than five miles in either direction which is not shut off from the land by high cliffs."
The announcement came as a sensation. In this district those who held the land before Hanson were profoundly skeptical. In Los Angeles and other parts of the country superficially-minded real estate men were out-spoken in their condemnation of the "hair brained scheme." Hanson's financial associates were frankly pessimistic.
And there were a number of people who said the man was "just plain crazy." Talk about building a city sixty-six miles from Los Angeles and sixty-six miles from San Diego? How silly! There had never been a city there before, and worse than that was the fact that Ole Hanson did not talk about profits, but about building, and instead of saying to the public, "Come on now boys, build a shack for the summer," he placed in his selling contract a clause whereby all plans must be submitted to an Architectural Board for approval; and worse still "the exterior of the building, whether home, gas station or lumber yard, must be of the Spanish style of architecture and must receive the approval of the architectural board".
Think of it! A man out in California told the world: "This is a painting five miles long and over a mile wide. Its foreground is the sea. Its background the hills. We will use for our pigments flowers and shrubs and trees and red tile and white plaster. Our streets shall always follow the contour of the ground. Our beach will always be free from the hurdy-gurdies and defilement. We believe beauty to be an asset
as well as gold or silver, or cabbages and potatoes. We may build at San Clemente but one building, but we will preserve for all time these hills from the mixture of terrible structures which so often destroy the beauty of our cities."
It had never been done before. Therefore, it never could be done. If some irresponsible, penniless artist had proposed such a plan one could have understood it, but for Hanson, the business man...that was different. Why should he, after winning a fortune, now bet it on a dream? Unsuccessful people dream, said the world; they can afford to; but for a man who at forty-nine had entered the realty world of Los Angeles and, in four years,"made over a million" by outguessing and out-thinking the old-timers"-why it was just plain ridiculous.
C. C. C. Tatum, president of the California Real Estate Association came to see Hanson in his Los Angeles office. When he left an hour later he had agreed to go fifty-fifty with Hanson on the building of the finest restaurant on the highway in Southern California at San Clemente. Mr. Tatum then left for a trip around the world-perhaps to forget his certain loss. Skilled aviators surveyed and photographed the land from the air and turned over the pictures to Hanson with a grin.
Oscar Easley, Hanson's head street builder and contractor, surveyed the location, heard the plan, knew it would be a failure, but through loyalty to Hanson agreed to do the street work and "ride through with the Boss."
Thomas Murphine, a quarter-of-a-century friend from Seattle, who had fought the losing battle with Hanson after the earthquake in Santa Barbara, joined up. He felt that some property would sell, but he knew that Hanson had been carried away by his dream.
Ole Hanson, Jr., the eldest of Hanson's six sons, took charge at once as director of sales. He found that all people who met his father and talked with him were converted men who came to discourage and "save" remained to talk, buy and build. How could, then Hanson meet thousands instead just a few? If his dad met a man that man absorbed the quiet faith of the dreamer. He knew a man named George Higgs who knew the details of the California lecture and tent system. Together they placed the "tent idea" before Hanson. Strange as it may seem, Hanson, a man of crowds had always hated crowds. The receiver of thousands of columns of publicity in the press of the nation had never courted it. A man who had spoken before some of the largest audiences ever gathered in America and Europe hated speechmaking and the tent meant he was to speak daily.
Ole Hanson, Jr., finally convinced his father that if he wanted his dream city to come true he must sell the idea "en masse," and not by "sharpshooting." The tent plan was adopted, and the man who hated crowds; the hater of speeches spoke an hour each day; the man who felt he was the only doing the usual thing wrote his own advertisements and his own publicity for months, describing the unusual methods he employed.
In the carrying out of his dream, Hanson wagered all his financial resources, forced himself to publicize his plan to the world, talked from the cheap lumber platform with the customer, assisted in the designing of the buildings, and stood on every parcel and chose the place for the homesite. After directing the work of the engineers he ordered white strings strung along every lot and street line in order to better visualize each detail which was destined to change planning in America.
People drove along the highway and spoke of San Clemente as a dream, and of Hanson as "crazy."
But the crazy man went ahead. He did not think he was crazy. He might go broke. What of it? He had been broke before. He might fail temporarily, but he did not want anyone else to fail with him. His entire plan protected everyone but himself. He alone stood to lose, but if he won others shared his winnings. In July, 1925, the cattle were herded out. In August a weather- beaten Model T Ford containing four engineers pulled up along El Camino Real where Trafalgar Lane of the present day San Clemente meets it; the engineers alighted, set up their tents and proceeded to survey the first 125 acres which were to constitute the first unit of the new city. In charge of the work was the veteran engineer, Horace Taylor. His next in charge was William Ayer, afterwards to become the first city engineer of San Clemente.
With airplane photographs to guide them, a careful contour map was made. Weeks rolled by. Progress seemed slow. Every street line had to meet with Hanson's approval. Taylor did his best, which was a wonderful best, but when Hanson wanted an eighty foot street, Taylor's trim engineering mind saw no need for more than a fifty-foot street, at most a sixty. Still Hanson insisted. It was done. Horace Taylor, pioneer in California developments, could not see San Clemente. To Hanson it was as if completed. He saw San Clemente a city of 50,000 before a stake was driven. Everthing was built as if the city was already here. Such is the world of the dreamer, and sometimes the dream comes true.
It was real pioneering. Discouraging and dangerous. There was no actual living real estate market. Southern California lands were not booming. It was a buyers market. The California business world was very wary of Hanson's dream. They laughed at him at first, called him a visionary. Hanson's closest friends wavered, grew skeptical. As for the outside world-it rode by and laughed. Hanson laughed too and cursed-sometimes. But most of all he worked.
The supervisors of Orange County, feeling there would never be of any necessity for streets in San Clemente, refused to accept the plat, calling the well-drawn Horace Taylor picture, streets and lots. Hanson filed the map as a surveyor's map and actually owned the streets, paying taxes on them until San Clemente was incorporated as a city, when the map was properly recorded.
On November 25 Oscar Easley's street grading crews turned over the first piece of soil. On December 6, 1925, San Clemente was founded. Two small tents, used as temporary offices and located where Avenida Del Mar now intersects with El Camino Real, constituted the community.
"I offer the lovers of beautiful California," Hanson said, with the firm conviction that there are many who will appreciate what I am doing and who will help make the village beautiful."
But would they? December 6, 1925, started as a day of torture. The big tent was opened. It had rained and the salemen's cars were parked in the ankled-deep mud along Avenida Del Mar. In the Easley tent-house, Hanson waited for the crowds to come. If they came the tent idea would win. Eleven o'clock came, and no cars, no people, more waiting. At eleven fifteen o'clock, one car; at eleven twenty, five cars; at eleven thirty, twenty cars. By high noon 600 people, who had driven an average of sixty miles, filled the tent.
The lunch, then the speech. Hanson climbed onto the platform, a somewhat wrinkled, white hair man. Many expected oratory, but instead, Ole Hanson who could orate, did not. Coldly as an accountant he stated the facts of San Clemente, what it cost, why it was chosen for the development, his plan of development, the danger of failure, the hope of success, more-the reason for success. The old time salesman shivered. They had expected noise and declamation, but here was a man talking figures and facts and sense. His speech was a backing-up of his dream with statistics. Who had ever heard of a statistical dream?
Ole told them what he was making on each lot. Let them into the inner secrets of the projects-let them read his bank statement. It was not a real estate pow-wow! It was a director's meeting, addressed by its chairman. He stressed building, building, building....speculation was atacked. Without a sign of applause he closed. His salesman agreed that as a real estate presentation, it was a flop.
But to the amazed salesman found that the people understood Hanson better than they, and that night $125,000 worth of property had been purchased by people who knew all about what they were doing. It was amazing, unheard of, unbelievable!
The Los Angeles Examiner on the following day recorded the event briefly in this manner:
"Opening day at San Clemente, the Spanish Village, located six miles south of San Juan Capistrano, resulted in sales slightly more than $125,000, according to announcement made yesterday by Ole Hanson, owner and builder. Approximately 1,000 persons viewed the tract during the opening cermonies."
Forty days after the new community had been founded, public interest was aroused to such an extent that forty per cent of the lots in the first unit had been sold, with sales amounting to more than $250,000. By August 1, 1926, the first unit was sold out and the second unit of 330 acres was announced. The Los Angeles Examiner stated:
"What is held up as a record in real estate sales of this type by Los Angeles realty dealers in recent months has been set by Ole Hanson at San Clemente. Over a six-month's period, more than 1,200 lots have been sold in the new community-a total of more than $1,250,000 in business, of which $500,125 was recorded in the last ten weeks."
By November, 1926, the buiding program was calling for sixteen new buidings every week! By the end of 1926 the total sales for the year were above the $3,000,000 mark, of which $660,366 had been recorded during the last ten weeks of 1926. By the end of 1927 the sales record stood at $5,050,000 for the two years, of which $2,500,000 had been sold in 1927. The permanent population had increased to 450, bringing it close to 1,000, with a sixty per cent increase in the number of homes. In 1928 sales totaled $2,450,000 bringing the grand total to $7,500,000, and all of these exculsive of resales. 1928 also brought the necessity for expansion and a second syndicate consisiting of Hanson, Cotton, and Goldschmidts formed for the purpose of acquiring the hills of San Clemente.
The dream was being built during the lifetime of the dreamer, Ole Hanson. People still wondered how it was done, how it could be done, forgetting that salient fact that folks want a happy place to live where they can enjoy in comfort all the clean things in life away from the sordidness, noise and hurry. This economic success had far deeper roots. San Clemente was a transplant of an older culture on a new soil. It took an outsider, Carleton M. Winslow, a world-famous architect and connoisseur to make this statement when San Clemente was scarcely three years old:
"It grows more beautiful in a way to appeal to European eyes familiar with such picturesque quality in their towns. American eyes do not see it yet."
While in the throes of those first hectic days preceding the actual founding of San Clemente, Hanson took time to write to a friend explaining what he proposed to do. With criticism being leveled at him from all sides it was the first time he had gone on record with his plan. The vision which Ole wrote is far-reaching.
Here is what The California Southland Magazine said in the issue of December, 1928:
" Only one who has been closely associated with Mr. Hanson himself all through the history of his dogged adherance to those principles, can appreciate the fine piece of work he had done through careful selection of an organization, inspired by his own desire for a beautiful creation, and prepared financially to carry it beyond the danger point."
It is important to note the early emphasis Hanson placed on the social and recreational life of the community. One of his first acts was to deed over to the residents of the village, without incumbrance, 3,000 feet of beach, automatically making every purchaser part owner of the beach as well as, later, they were to be part of the Community Clubhouse, Beach Club, Plaza, Fishing Pier and Golf Course. Hanson insisted from the beginning that this community was not to be a rendevous just for the idle rich, but a place where people, seeking a new experiment in pleasant community living, might work out their destiny in the most favorable environment it was possible to give them.
With the deeding of the beach went a $75,000 Pleasure Pier extending out into one of the best fishing grounds on the Pacific Coast. A fleet of fishing boats was anchored in the harbor for the convenience of sportsman, and in July, 1928, the marine activities of the community were augmented by the formation of the San Clemente Yacht Club.
In laying out ther city approximately $70,000 was spent on bridle paths along the ocean front, up throught he village and curving picturesquely back into the nearby ills. Other buildings developed in rapid succession: Community Clubhouse, 1927; schoolhouse,1927; Prado Hotel , 1927; Hotel San Clemente, 1927; Plaza, 1927; The Beach Club, 1928; H. H. Cotton estate (later to become the Western White House); Casa Romantica, 1928.
Out of nothing but an idea, Hanson had created a city of more than 500 buildings and more than 1,000 permanent residences. Its fame spread throughout the land as far east as New York, and Joseph P. Day, the world famous realtor in his day, the man is accrediated with having "bought and sold" New York City, came to visit and survey it. He spent a week here and wrote Ole Hanson upon his arrival in New York, on March 8, 1929 as follows:
" It took four and one-half days from Southern California to get to New York, and it also took that time to get the perspective of that big San Clemente development that you are putting through. Your development was not alone impressive, but the unusual feature is that you have laid out your streets, your community and social welfare buildings, where the community has its club to gather in and play bridge and dance differnt nights, and your other community buildings, with the swimming pool and lockers, and on top of that your water supply, without any bonded indebtedness whatsoever.
In the East we would not think of putting in a development in that way. We have bonded indebtedness for the water and the streets, sidewalks and curbs, or leave ourselves to have it, and we never think of giving a community building, let alone two, with a swimming pool, free of charge.
We do not think in the big way that you do out at San Clemente. And in addition to all the above, the hospital building, which you have also built and efficiently equipped with all the up-to-date apparatus, and charged nothing for. In fact the whole development is so unusual that I am requesting the members of the Real Estate Department of the Metropolitan Life, of which I am a member, when they are out on the West Coast be sure to see your wonderful development, with their wide experience, I am sure it will teach things. If I were living out West permanently and had modest means I would consider it a privilege to be a member of that wonderful community which you are so constructively building out there."
In three and one-half years San Clemente had grown to the point where it was generally conceded to be the wealthiest city per capita in America. The people owned free and clear of any encumbrance, their streets; 3,000 feet of the finest beach left in Southern California, a Pleasure Pier, an artistic subway leading to it; a Community Club House; a completely equiped Beach Club with an outdoor swimming pool; a school house; a plaza; bridle paths; tennis courts, playgrounds; golf course, and water system. Besides this, much has been expended in trees and shrubbery planting and every day witnessed some new development tending to beautify San Clemente.
Hanson had remained true to his idea. It was a business feat of its kind unheard of in America. And aesthetically, this new community stood unchallenged.
Hanson's dream had become a reality. The Spanish Village by the Sea was born and it was growing.
Richelle Redivo, Realtor®
Phone: (949) 838-5449
BRE lic# 01714308
