PART TWO OF THREE.
Beginning earlier this 3,ear,
the Catalina Islander's weekly
Time Capsule column periodically
now goes further back in Catalina
Island's history than ever before.
This special feature called Cata-
lina Rediscovered covers Avalon's
history, with this issue continuing
part 2 covering 124 years ago--
the year 1888.
Water was piped to town from
the two available springs: West
Spring, 200-foot high, and East
Spring, 350-foot high, to a tank
50 feet high behind the Metropole.
Water to the hotel was pumped
from a well by use of a windmill
in the creek of Whittley Avenue
to a hill top on East Whittley Av-
enue above the hotel. (Board with
room at the Hotel Metropole was
enticing at $2/day.)Peter Gano
had supervised the laying of these
water pipes and so, on Nov. 2, he
was granted the privilege of laying
the first water pipes to any Ava-
lon home, his eventual Holly Hill
House.
Mr. Whitney had W. C. Cal-
houn build a frame home for his
parents, Walter and Catherine
Whitney, and himself and his wife,
Edna (who had originally come up
with the name of Avalon), on the
comer of Vieudelou and Marilla
avenues facing the bay. This be-
came Avalon's first permanent
residence and is still there. ,
P. G. Wooster, of Pasadena
Playhouse fame, built on the north
hill slope at the comer of Malden
Lane and Crescent Avenue. The
Elms' family opened Avalon's
first Shell Store and Curiosities in a
tent on the west comer of Whittley
and Crescent Avenues. They had
first visited the Island in 1885. On
the side of the Elm's tent, George
Ramsey, Avalon's first Negro, was
a barber and polished shoes. A
family friend, Peter Gano, a civil
engineer, had been likewise visit-
ing the Island since 1885.
On April 14, 1888, Gano chose
his favorite lot, Block B, on the
eastern hillside facing west to
Avalon, as the location for his new
home. He originally pitched his
tent on Block 1, Lot 8, while build-
ing his pic!uresque home, which
wouldn't be completed until 1890.
The lot cost him $500. He later
built two 32-foot stringers with
The Holly Hill House stands as a
Gano who helped build
the help of Harry Elms, on the
lower end of the ways for a shed
to protect his sailboat, Osprey.
MacLean, with the help of Alfred
Carraher, set off the dynamite to
correctly blast the sold rock mak-
ing this possible. This is where the
Catherine Hotel now resides.
William Hunt decided to go into
competition with the Elm's shell
shop and started searching the
shores for shells that he would pol-
ish and sell from his pocket along
the Hotel Metropole veranda.
This upset Shatto, who said to
Hunt, Bill, you have a large assort-
ment of beach shells. You work
I Diane Geraud, Rea|t0r-GRI
I
I
E-Mail:Dgeraud@~runner .corn |
hard polishing them and people are " 2 "
foolish enough to pay you $3 and • . .... ~__ ~=~.,
45 for them. It's all very well for
you to sell shells, but I'm tell you
now that if you must wrap them,
you have to quit wrapping them
in my toilet paper. Hunt then ac-
quired a tent house next to Wheel-
er's Bakery where he
opened a Shell Store
with Charlie Hargitt.
The Ferndale's
brought the mail once
a week. Following the
Femdale, the Falcon
took over. In the fall,
. the sailboats White
Wings and Sylvia car-
ried the mail. A canvas
bag with leather straps
ordered by Shatto was
used for the mail.
On arrival, the mail
was loosely shaken
from the bag on top
of the billiards table
in the Metropole Ho-
tel, whore each per-
son found his/tier own
word from home. In
late 1888, Harry Elms
was selected by Shatto
legacy to people like Peter
to take charge of the
the house. Courtesy phOtOmail" Harry moved the
mail to his Shell Store
after the constant complaints of
the billiard players that the mail
interrupted their game. Elms had
to purchase his own stamps to re-
sell since he was not an appointee
of the United States Post Office
Department until 1889.
On Oct. 29, Shatto brought
minters over on the Catalina in
hopes of interesting them in min-
ing sil,ver. ' .
Avalon now was officially a
voting precinct and with 18 or 19:
voters for their first Presidential
Election, on November 6, werit'to i
the voting booth in the Metropole
Hotel.
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342 Smm~r - $479,000
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327 Ciarissa Cottage - $540,000
HCVOa 16- S499,000
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333 Oodsso - $849,000
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257 E. Wldttley - $699,000
87 Sol Vista - $305,000
226 Clmissa - $899,000
38 R,ckln - S ,399,000
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... -r ........................................................................
THE CATALINA ISLANDER September 7, 2012 i 3
