Henry E. Huntington and the Creation of Southern California by William B. Friedricks

Abstract

technology and culture Book Reviews 447 editing an anthology of essays on California social history to be published by the University of California Press. Henry E. Huntington and the Creation ofSouthern California. By William B. Friedricks. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992. Pp. 229; illustrations, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $35.00. William Friedricks shows how Henry E. Huntington more than anyone else created 20th-century southern California. The region’s advantages gave Huntington unique opportunities. In 1900, Los Angeles was a small city occupying the largest stretch of relatively flat land adjacent to the coast between Mexico and the Northwest. It was blessed with mild climate, oil, intensive agriculture, recently arrived railroads, and a new man-made harbor. Huntington, a builder by nature, would provide the rest. Other businessmen were as visionary, but none had his qualifications or his wealth. Friedricks traces Huntington’s early life as an employee of his fatherly uncle, Collis P. Huntington, giant of the Central Pacific (Southern Pacific) Railroad. By 1900, Henry was second only to Collis in the management structure of the SP. In San Francisco he got invaluable experience developing and modernizing trolley lines owned by the railroad. He expected to succeed his uncle as president of the SP, but stockholders decided otherwise. Still, Henry inherited $15,000,000, while Collis’s widow, Arabella, got two-thirds of the estate. Nephew Henry and widow Arabella married in 1913. Turning his interests to southern California, Henry began building his own empire. With abundant capital, experience, and business skills, he could develop his investments without dependence on others. He simul­ taneously financed many large projects over a vast territory, creating a triad of development—streetcars, real estate, and electrical power, all encouraging regional expansion. Without Huntington, Friedricks says, the Los Angeles basin probably would have developed much differently. Friedricks presents a condensed history of transit lines and their technological progress in Los Angeles and environs and shows how Huntington purchased, consolidated, and extended them into an effective network. He emphasizes that trolley lines, often thought to be the basis of Huntington’s power, only aided his major endeavor, opening residential subdivisions. After 1910, his transit system stretched over 1,300 miles, sending tracks from city to mountains to valleys to the sea. Many of today’s freeways closely follow his routes. His rails determined the retail districts of towns he served—Brand Boulevard in Glendale, Pine Avenue in Long Beach, and Colorado Street in Pasadena. Almost all new subdivisions, 1903—13, were close to streetcar lines. Initially, Huntington’s interurban Pacific Electric lost money, be­ cause it reached areas where few customers yet lived, while his 448 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE intracity Los Angeles Railway prospered. He reinvested profits in new technology which made travel faster and cheaper. Meanwhile, he profited from natural gas piped from Kern County and hydroelectric power he produced for his cars. Huntington was also a collector, and it was George Ellery Hale who persuaded him to bring his books and paintings to San Marino and set up a trust for their future use by the public and scholars. Character­ istically, Huntington collected books, manuscripts, and paintings in ways similar to his business methods. He bought whole libraries, hired the best agents to find what he wanted, spent lavishly, and shrewdly timed his successful acquisitions. In researching the achievements of this remarkable pioneer, Friedricks used the recently opened Huntington business papers at the world-famous library as well as other primary materials. Other books, most notably Spencer Crump’s Ride the Big Red Cars, have covered the Pacific Electric story, but this is the first work to cover in detail the full scope of Huntington’s development of the region. The book includes several interpretive maps, charts, and photographs, indispensable for a subject tied to local geography and technology. John E. Baur Dr. Baur is professor of history at California State University, Northridge. He has published four books and numerous articles on California and the West. Constructing Urban Culture: American Cities and City Planning, 1800— 1920. By Stanley K. Schultz. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. Pp. xviii + 275; illustrations, notes, index. $34.95. In Constructing Urban Culture: American Cities and...