“Sharp Practice”

Abstract

The Centinela Land Company of Daniel Freeman and Francis Pliny Fisk Temple and other prominent Los Angeles businessmen demonstrates the practices and philosophy of land speculation that fueled the city's growth during the Gilded Age. Furthermore, the company's history also demonstrates the close ties between these businessmen and their shared, frequently byzantine, business ethos. The Centinela venture also yields unexpected insights into marital property holding and women's property rights in nineteenth-century Los Angeles.