The Drake Park Historic District is located in a subdivision that was originally called Knoll Park. The low hills in the neighborhood remind visitors why its developers called it Knoll Park and why they named a street in the area Loma Vista (Spanish for view from a hill). Although the area is now surrounded by residential, commercial and industrial neighbors, when it was originally subdivided, it was on the western edge of residential development in Long Beach, and the harbor area commercial and industrial developments that now block the residents’ view of the ocean were not yet built. 1
The district is located on land that was owned, at the time it was subdivided, by the Seaside Water Company. Beginning in March 1903, lots in the area were advertised for sale. 2 In 1904 the ads claimed that the area was "…something of an experiment in Long Beach. It is not usual here to spend such large amounts on grading and cement work as was used in improving this tract before a lot was sold." 3 Another ad asserted, "Over $7,000 has been spent on cement walks and curbs and a still larger sum on grading and putting in the water. The restrictions provide that no house shall be built costing less than $1,000. This assures every home builder that no shack shall be allowed to mar this property." 4 Also noted in the advertising was that the tract was only one block from the Magnolia Avenue streetcar line. 5 Although it wasn’t mentioned in the ads, the developers seem to have wanted to identify their subdivision with an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood of the same name by calling two of its streets Chester Place and St. James Place. 6
By the time most of the initial construction in the area ended in 1929, a varied group of residents lived in the neighborhood. Although the newspaper ads had promised a "bon ton" 7 development, the area apparently attracted a varied group of residents, mainly middle class. Original owners included: a porter at the Virginia Hotel; a printing press operator; a conductor on the Pacific Electric Red car, Atkins Ivy, lived at 923 Park Circle; and Arthur Hudson, a mechanical engineer for the Craig Shipbuilding Company. Later, professionals such as Sidney Angove, an engineer, lived at 702 Loma Vista Dr. John Atwood who lived at 925 Park Circle. Skilled workers such as Isaac Smith, a carpenter, lived at 713 Loma Vista and Rowland Oliver, a mechanic with the Neubert Machine Works, lived at 939 Park Circle. There were also businessmen, such as S.S. Heath, who owned a nearby grocery store at 906 Daisy, and lived at 923 Park Circle. Carl Heick, who lived on the prestigiously named Chester Place, was a laborer. 8
On January 11, 1904, the city accepted title to the newly developed Knoll Park. 9 It was a 1.86-acre plot with a circular rose garden in the center. Soon ornamental light standards were erected in the park so it could be used at night; benches lined the walkways and restrooms were built. 10
Sometime in 1926 or 1927, the name Knoll Park was changed to Drake Park to honor Charles R. Drake, 11 the organizer of the Seaside Water Company which developed the area as a residential subdivision.
Drake’s interest in Long Beach may have begun in 1901 when he represented Henry E. Huntington, owner of the Pacific Electric inter-urban trolley system, in bidding for a franchise to build a line to Long Beach. 12 In the same year, Drake organized the Seaside Water Company to purchase the interests of two local water companies, the Bouton Water Company and the Long Beach Development Company. 13 The Development Company also owned some still unsold property in the original Long Beach townsite. 14
When the Pacific Electric began building its line to Long Beach, Drake organized the Long Beach Bath House and Amusement Company and announced plans to build a bath house on the beach near the end of the street car line. Here is how Walter Case, a local journalist, described Drake and the impact of his local developments in 1927:
"The name of Colonel Charles R. Drake, president of Long Beach Bath House and Amusement association, is outstanding in the history of Long beach development, particularly with respect tot he amusement zone. It was on July 4, 1902 that the foundation was laid for the present-day ‘Walk of a Thousand Lights.’
It was on that day that 60,000 personas gathered in the then small resort to celebrate two big and important events, the inauguration of Pacific Electric service from Los Angeles to Long Beach and the opening of the Long Beach Bath House. This was a red-letter occasion for Long Beach.
According to Colonel Drake, Long Beach then was a town of 1,800 population. Only a few far-sighted and enterprising businessmen who had sufficient faith in the growth of the little city by the sea would invest money in amusement enterprises. A long strip of white, shell-strewn beach and a few small stores comprised the entire metropolis.
In those early years, with the opening of the Bath House, Long Beach boasted the only institution of the kind within a radius of many miles. As this and other attractions were added, people from inland began to flock to Long Beach to pass the weekends at the beach city, and many who came thus to play remained as residents.
The Long Beach Bath House and Amusement Company next constructed a boardwalk 12 feet long along the beach and later a 15 foot walk replaced the smaller one until eventually the present 35 foot cement walk was constructed." 15
Subsequently, the area became known as the Pike and was Long Beach’s entertainment center for both local residents and tourists. Visitors could rent swimming suits, change their clothes in the bath house and swim in the ocean or later in a heated, indoor, salt-water plunge. They could also ride a roller coaster or other rides, eat lunch or dinner, purchase specialty items, attend movies or vaudeville shows, dance in ballrooms or just sit and watch their fellow citizens pass by.
Drake was also involved in the construction and operation of the Virginia Hotel; it was Long Beach’s most elegant landmark in the 1910’s and 1920’s. The hotel’s early history, however, was not without difficulty. In July 1905, the cornerstone for the hotel, originally called the Bixby Hotel, was laid. In November, as construction was progressing, a central portion of the reinforced concrete building collapsed; ten workers were killed and scores were injured. After a coroner’s jury found "no person criminally liable," work on the hotel resumed. A few months later, it was announced that the name had been changed to the Virginia Hotel. It opened in March 1908 and was closed in October 1932 for economic reasons. 16 Drake was living at the hotel at the time of his death in 1928. 17
The Virginia Country Club was organized in 1910 partially to accommodate the guests at the new hotel. It was located on 116 acres leased for ten years from the Alamitos Land Company that later became part of Recreation Park. In 1921 the club moved to its present location on a 135-acre tract in Los Cerritos. 18
In addition to his other activities to promote the development of Long Beach, Drake served as district commander for the third Liberty Loan campaign in 1918; as a result of this campaign, Long Beach citizens subscribed $2,410,000, twice their quota, to support United States participation in the First World War. 19
Before coming to California in 1900, Drake was born in Walnut Prairie, Illinois in 1843. He served in the civil war and then came west to Tucson where he engaged in the insurance and real estate business. He also served in the Arizona Territorial Senate and, for one term, was president of that body. Additionally, he was one of the organizers of the firm of Norton-Drake which handled labor contracts of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. So it was consistent with his previous experience when he came to Long Beach representing a railway company also associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad. 20
Now most of the institutions associated with Drake are gone. The Virginia Hotel, the Bath House, and The Pike have closed; the Pacific Electric street car line no longer brings visitors to Long Beach and the Seaside Water Company is part of Long Beach’s municipal water system. Only the Virginia Country Club and Drake Park development remain to honor his memory and contributions to local development.
In 1939, Drake Park’s rose garden was converted into a playground. That play area was expanded in 1947 when a clubhouse and sprinkler system were also added. 21
As time passed, the homes around the park grew older, families moved away and some homes were replaced by post-World War II style apartment buildings. In 1967, the Park, which had originally been laid out to complement the neighborhood, threatened to destroy part of it. In that year, Long Beach city officials proposed to tear down the buildings on 26 residential parcels in order to expand the park to 6.3 acres. 22 Most of the historic homes on the northwest side of Park Circle were destroyed but public protest saved the area’s most outstanding Victorian house, the Bembridge House, now owned by Long Beach Heritage.
Long Beach Board of Trade, 1900
1 LB Evening Tribune, 03/10/03
2 LB Daily Press, 02/10/04
3 LB Evening Tribune, 09/30/03
4 LB Evening Tribune, 12/22/03
5 For early street names, see P.V. Pearsall, Pearsall’s Map of Long Beach and Vicinity (compiled and published by P.V. Pearsall, C.E., corrected, January 1, 1925); on the affluent Los Angeles neighborhood see, Chester Place: Mount St. Mary’s College Doheny Campus, Los Angeles (Los Angeles: Mount St. Mary’s College, 1982).
6 Long Beach Daily Press, 04/02/03
7 Long Beach City Directory, 1929, (Long Beach: Western Directory Company, 1929).
8 "Municipal Ownership" Long Beach Daily Press, 01/12/04.
9 Bernice C. Barker, "History of Long Beach City Parks" (October 3, 1973) p. 14-15. Long Beach History Collection, Long Beach Public Library and Kathleen Travis, "Historic Preservation: Nature, Theory, History and Survey on Drake Park in Long Beach, California" (unpublished master’s thesis in Art History, California State University, Long Beach, December 1979), p. 150-151.
10 Long Beach, California, "Auditor’s Annual Report, Fiscal year Ending June 30, 1926," p. 41 lists Knoll Park, Long Beach, California, "Annual Report of the City Auditor, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1927, " p. 42 lists Drake (formerly Knoll) Park.
11 Walter Case, History of Long Beach and Vicinity (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1927) Vol. I, P. 242-245.
12 Ibid. p. 224.
13 Ibid. p. 107-108.
14 Ibid. p. 521-522.
15 Walter Case, Long Beach Blue Book (Long Beach: Arthur H. Cawston, 1942), p. 201-202.
16 "Prominent Friends of Col. C.R. Drake to be Pallbearers," Long Beach Sun (June 18, 1928).
17 Walter Case, Long Beach Blue Book, p. 89.
18 Walter Case, History of Long Beach and Vicinity, Vol. 1, p. 578.
19 Ellis Davis, Davis Commercial Encyclopedia (Berkeley: Ellis Davis, 1914), p. 171.
20 Barker, "History of Long Beach Parks," p. 14-15 and Travis, "Historic Preservation," p.150-151.
21 Ibid. and Mary Ellis Carlton, "How Many More Days of Grace," Independent Press Telegram, Long Beach (June 15, 1969) cited in Travis.
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