Black gold suburbs: The Influence of the Extractive Industry on the Suburbanization of Los Angeles, 1890–1930

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 1981, Pages 3-26

  Viehe, Fred W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

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EID: 0019760125     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: 15526771     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/009614428100800101     Document Type: Article

References (212)

1. Joel A. Tarr recently admitted in his introduction to the Journal of Urban History that there has been only a meager response to Roy Lubove's call for a “greater emphasis upon technological development” in the city building process. Mark H. Rose and John G. Clark expressed similar sentiments when they stated that the meager response had been limited to transportation studies. “Actually,” they wrote, “from about 1890 through the early years of the Great Depression, the high-energy technologies, involving natural gas, petroleum, coal, and electricity, along with transportation technologies, such as the automobile, the highway, and the trolley, were critical in facilitating enormous growth and decentralization. But while there are a number of insightful studies of transportation impacts, little has been written about the new energy technologies.” Roy Lubove, “The Urbanization Process,” Journal of the American Institute of Planners 33 (1967), 33-39.
2. Joel A. Tarr, “Introduction,” Journal of Urban History 5 (1979), 275-278.
3. Mark H. Rose and John G. Clark, “ Light, Heat, and Power, ” Journal of Urban History, 5 (1979), 340-364.
4. (New York, 1962). Earlier nonhistorical works concerned with suburbanization are Graham Taylor, Satellite Cities (1915)
5. Harlan Paul Douglass The Suburban Trend (1925)
6. and R.D. McKenzie, “The Rise of Metropolitan Communities,” Recent Social Trends in the United States, Vol. I (1933), 443-496.
7. Charles N. Glaab, “Metropolis and Suburbs,” in J. Braeman, ed., Change and Continuity in Twentieth Century America (1968), 399-437.
8. Kenneth T. Jackson “ The Crabgrass Frontier, ” in Raymond A. Mohl and James F. Richardson, eds., The Urban Experience (Belmont, 1973), 196-221.
9. Joel A. Tarr, “From City to Suburb,” in Alexander B. Callow, ed., American Urban History, 2nd ed. (New York, 1973), 202-212.
10. Joel Schwartz, “The Evolution of the Suburbs,” in Philip C. Dolce, ed., Suburbia (Garden City, 1976), 1-36.
11. Joel A. Tarr, “From City to Suburb,” in Alexander B. Callow, ed., American Urban History, 2nd ed. (New York, 1973), 202-212.
12. 2nd ed. (New York, 1976). See also Blake McKelvey, The Urbanization of America (1963) and The Emergence of Metropolitan America (1968);
13. George Mowry, The Urban Nation, 1920-1960 (1965);
14. and Amos H. Hawley, The Changing Shape of Metropolitan America (1956).
15. (Cambridge, 1967). See also Spencer Crump, Ride the Big Red Cars, (Costa Mesa, 1962).
16. Remi Nadeau, on the other hand, attributed Los Angeles's phenomenal growth to its temperate climate and the national publicity campaign conducted by the Chamber of Commerce's All-Year Club. Remi Nadeau, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, 1960).
17. Reyner Banham, Los Angeles (1972), 77-79.
18. Sam Bass Warner, The Urban Wilderness (1972), 132-149.
19. Mark S. Foster, “The Model-T, The Hard Sell, and Los Angeles Urban Growth; The Decentralization of Los Angeles during the 1920's,” Pacific Historical Review 44 (1975), 459-484.
20. Richard Bigger and Frank P. Kitchen, How the Cities Grew (Los Angeles, 1952), 220-222.
21. Frank G. Mittelbach, “Dynamic Land Use Patterns in Los Angeles,” unpublished manuscript in possession of the author.
22. Harlan Paul Douglass, The Suburban Trend (New York, 1925), 74-92.
23. See also his article, “Suburbs,” The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York, 1934), XIV, 433-434;
24. Louis Wirth, “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” American Journal of Sociology, 44 (1938) 1-24;
25. Chauncey D. Harris, “A Functional Classification of Cities in the United States,” Geographical Review (1943), 86 note;
26. Chauncey D. Harris, “Suburbs,” American Journal of Sociology, 49 (1943), 1-13;
27. and Chauncey D. Harris and E.L. Ullman, “ The Nature of Cities, ” The Annals, 242 (1945), 7-17.
28. Verne F. Gaede, “Central Area of Whittier Oil Field,” California Oil Fields, Vol. 50, No. 1 (1964), 59.
29. Verne F. Gaede et al., “Brea-Olinda Oil Field,” California Oil Fields, Vol. 53, No. 2, part 2 (1967), 5, 8, 10.
30. Incorporated Cities in the County of Los Angeles (Revised, September, 1973), compiled by the Executive Officer—Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
31. Esther R. Cramer, La Habra (1969), 183.
32. R.E. Beckley and B.F. Masten, “ Looking Backward Over Fifteen Years of Natural Gasoline History of the Pacific Coast, ” Petroleum World (1927), 111-112.
33. “California Operating Refineries,” Oil Age (March 1923), 24.
34. Cramer, La Habra, 187-274.
35. Douglass, The Suburban Trend, 95, 96.
36. J.M. Guinn, A History of California, Vol. I (1907), 444.
37. Whittier, California, n.d., n.p. as found in UCLA Research Library.
38. Cramer, La Habra, 197.
39. “Taxing Oil Properties,” Oil Age (August 1919), 2.
40. Cramer, La Habra, 189.
41. Frank V. Stump, “The Lure of Orange County,” Southern California Business (January 1924), 13.
42. Stump, “The Lure of Orange County,” 13.
43. “Operators Evolve Equitable Formula for the Taxation of Oil Land,” Oil Age (November 1925), 13.
44. Crump, Ride the Big Red Cars, 75, 101.
45. Luther A. Ingersoll, Ingersoll's Century History (1908), 105. The following quotation indicates that the oil discovery also was a boon to agriculture. “By a most fortunate conjunction of circumstances the discovery of a bountiful supply of petroleum in this section in the past five or six years has come as a God-send to the horticulturist to enable him, by the use of cheap fuel, to pump water enough from wells to save his trees from destruction.” H. and C. Cohn, All About Montebello, n.d., n.p.
46. “Gasoline Price War,” Oil Age (September 1923), 33.
47. Joe S. Bain, The Economies of the Pacific Coast Petroleum Industry, Part III: Public Policy Toward Competition and Pricing (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1947), 97.
48. American Petroleum Institute, Facts and Figures (1950), 367.
49. Platts Oil Price Handbook, vols. for 1922-1930.
50. Walter H. Case, History of Long Beach and Vicinity (Chicago, 1927), 267. “California Operating Refineries,” 24.
51. James Kilty, Leonis of Vernon (1963), 49. “California Operating Refineries,” 24.
52. Case, Long Beach, 268.
53. Carsen B. Hubbard, History of Huntington Park (Huntington Park, 1935), 11.
54. Manhattan Beach 50th Anniversary Committee, 50 Years in the Right Direction: Manhattan Beach, California (Manhattan Beach, 1962), 4, 5. The working class evidently had a long history of establishing their residences near their places of work. Theodore Hershberg et al. found that the vast majority of Philadelphia workers in 1850 lived within 0.6 miles of their workplace. This pattern apparently continued well into the twentieth century among Philadelphia workers, according to Eugene P. Erickson and William L. Yancey, “Work and Residence in Industrial Philadelphia,” Journal of Urban History 2 (1979), 147-182.
55. Case, Long Beach, 340, 341.
56. “Confidence in Future of Industry Shown by Axelson Extensive Expansion Program,” Oil Age (December 1927), 76.
57. Cramer, La Habra, 189.
58. Alva Starbuck, “The Oil Industry,” in Benjamin F. Arnold and Artilissa D. Clark, eds. History of Whittier (1933), 152;
59. and George E. Little, “Incorporation of Whittier,” in Benjamin F. Arnold and Artilissa D. Clark, eds. History of Whittier (1933), 167.
60. Minutes of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Vol. 36, 320 and Vol. 47, 207. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (June 1921), 24;
61. and “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (September 1921), 20.
62. Leo J. Friis, Orange County through Four Centuries (1965), p. 111. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (August 1919), 21; (October 1919), 17; (January 1921), 18; (June 6 1923), 18.
63. Frank V. Stump, “Alhambra is on Her Way,” Southern California Business (July, 1924), 14, 15.
64. Alhambra Chamber of Commerce, California's Suburban Homeplace, City of Alhambra (Alhambra, 1915).
65. Edwin O. Palmer, History of Hollywood (Hollywood, 1938), 139.
66. Minutes of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Vol. 48, 30. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (October 1922), 32.
67. Minutes of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Vol. 40, 86; Vol. 45, 275; and Vol. 57, 35. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (September 1917), 11; (September 1918), 11; (May 1921), 26; and (May 1923), 18.
68. Pierce E. Benedict, History of Beverly Hills (1934), 60.
69. “Table No. I,” Oil Age (April 1928), 22.
70. Minutes of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Vol. 73, 207. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (September 1917), 11.
71. David Firman, “Montebello, California,” (M.A. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1949), 33-35.
72. Friis, Orange County, 116.
73. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (October 1919), 17.
74. Virginia L. Carpenter, A Child's History of Placentia (1969), 32, 35.
75. Walker A. Tompkins, Little Giant of Signal Hill (1964), 36, 37.
76. Frank V. Stump, “An Artistic Industrial Youngster,” Southern California Business (May 1924), 13.
77. Case, Long Beach, 365-367.
78. “The Way Long Beach Bounded Ahead,” Southern California Business (December 1924), 17.
79. Joseph Jensen, “‘OIL’ … The Magic Word of Southern California,” Southern California Business (August 1926), 11.
80. John E. Barber, “Twelve Months of Prosperity,” Southern California Business (January 1926), 45.
81. “Goodyear Progress,” Southern California Business (November 1929), 38.
82. G. Elmer Moreland, “Oil Industry Speeds Equipment Production,” Southern California Business (December 1929), 10.
83. John C. Austin, “ Pioneering the World's Second Tire Center, ” Southern California Business (February 1929), 9.
84. Lloyd P. Hamilton, “ Coming to the Front in Furniture, ” Southern California Business (January, 1925), 15.
85. R.D. Sangster, “ Glass Industry in the Los Angeles District, ” Southern California Business (December 1927), 10.
86. Delos Sutherland, “ Following the Trail of King Steel, ” Southern California Business (August 1923), 13.
87. R. D. Sangster, “ Turning Out a Factory Record, ” Southern California Business (January 1927), 10.
88. B.F. Mahoney, “ Aviation and the Oil Industry, ” Oil Age (September 1928), 45.
89. W.D. Longyear, “ Take Airplanes for Instance, ” Southern California Business (August 1929), 10.
90. Ernest McGaffey, “ The Automobile Transforms Business, ” Southern California Business (August 1923), 39.
91. F.H. Merrill, “ The Growth of the Chemical Industry in Southern California, ” Southern California Business (July 1926), 57.
92. Phil Jacobsen, “ Hauling Our Needs by Motor Truck, ” Southern California Business (July 1922), 17.
93. The close proximity of the extractive industry to Kansas City, Denver, and Wichita also resulted in rapid growth during this period. Mark H. Rose and John D. Clark, “ Light, Heat and Power, ” Journal of Urban History 5 (1979), 340-364.
94. Kenneth T. Jackson, “Metropolitan Government Versus Political Autonomy, “in Kenneth T. Jackson and Stanley K. Schultz, eds., Cities in American History (New York, 1972), 442-462.
95. “ Standard to Erect Los Angeles Office Building, ” Oil Age (July 1923), 49.
96. “ Building Shows Progress of Union Oil Building, ” Oil Age (August 1923), 29.
97. “ Gulf Pacific Oil Corporation, ” Oil Age (January 1923), 16.
98. “ Natural Gasoline Plants in California, ” Oil Age (October 1924), 48.
99. “ Directory of Manufacturers and Dealers in Natural Gasoline Plant Equipment, ” Oil Age (March 1926), 71-73.
100. “Atlantic Refining Offices in Los Angeles,” Oil Age (May 1926). 42.
101. Orra C. Monnette, “ Industrial Southern California, ” Southern California Business (July 1926), 9.
102. “ The Buyer's First Aid and Directory of Advertisers, ” Petroleum World (July 1927), 151-153.
103. “ Ohio Oil Co. Opens Office in Los Angeles, ” Oil Age (September 1927), 70.
104. “ Entry of Prairie Oil and Gas into California is Forecast by Opening of L.A. Office, ” Oil Age (January 1928), 50.
105. “ An Industrial $25 Million Gain, ” Southern California Business (January 1928), 12.
106. “Buyer's Guide of Electrical Equipment for the Oil Industry,” Oil Age (March 1928), 82, 83.
107. Kendall Beaton, Enterprise In Oil (1957), 223.
108. Charles S. Jones, From Rio Grande to the Arctic (1972), 32.
109. Moreland, “Oil Industry,” 10.
110. John R. Boyd, “Looking Ahead Industrially,” Southern California Business (August 1924), 14, 15.
111. Kilty, Leonis of Vernon, 49.
112. Monnette, “Industrial Southern California,” 9.
113. Moreland, “Oil Industry,” 11, 46.
114. Sangster, “Turning Out a Factory Record,” 42.
115. W.L. Dixon, “Looking Through California's Glass Industry,” Southern California Business (April 1926), 13.
116. “ Tendency to Erect Big Refineries Near Centers of Consumption Reflected in Latest Census, ” Petroleum World (June 1927), 80.
117. “Directory of Manufacturers and Dealers in Natural Gasoline Plant Equipment,” 71-73.
118. “The Buyers' First Aid and Directory of Advertisers,” Petroleum World (July 1927), 151-153.
119. “ Union Tank and Pipe Co., ” Oil Age (June 1925), 91.
120. “ Oil Field Specialties Companies Under Way, ” Oil Age (March 1923), 21.
121. “ Roofing Paper Demand for Oil Industry to be Met, ” Oil Age (September 1923), 43.
122. “ Southwestern Engineering Corporation, ” Oil Age (June 1925), 82.
123. “ White Company Establishes Factory Branch, ” Oil Age (November 1925), 62.
124. “Engineering and Manufacturing Service Offered by Calmec,” Oil Age (October 1928), 88.
125. “ Oil Well Equipment Corp. in New and Larger Headquarters, ” Oil Age (July 1928), 51.
126. “ Kobe, Inc. Opens New Screen Casing Plant in Los Angeles, ” Oil Age (November 1928), 75.
127. “ Air Reduction Sales Co., ” Petroleum World and Oil Age (December 1929), 128.
128. “ Golden St. Rubber Mills, ” Petroleum World and Oil Age (December 1929), 134.
129. “ Warman Steel Casing Co., ” Petroleum World and Oil Age (December 1929), 141.
130. “ Youngstown Steel Products Co., ” Petroleum World and Oil Age (December 1929), 10.
131. Boyd, “ Looking Ahead,” 14.
132. “South Gate Grows and Prospers, ” Southern California Business (March 1926), 34.
133. “ Firestone Comes West, ” Southern California Business (September 1927), 9.
134. Hubbard, History of Huntington Park, 113.
135. Sangster, “Turning Out a Factory Record,” 10.
136. “The Way Long Beach Bounded Ahead,” 17.
137. Boyd, “Looking Ahead,” 14.
138. Longyear, “ Take Airplanes, ” 10.
139. Monnette, “Industrial Southern California,” 9.
140. Moreland, “Oil Industry,” 11, 46-50.
141. Dixon, “Looking Through,” 13.
142. Sangster, “Turning Out a Factory Record,” 42.
143. Frank V. Stump, “Alhambra is on Her Way,” Southern California Business (July 1924), 14, 15.
144. William Lacey, “ Southern California Makes Steel, ” Southern California Business (February 1926), 12.
145. “An Industrial $25 Million Gain,” 12, 26.
146. “Directory of Manufacturers and Dealers in Natural Gasoline Plant Equipment,” 71-73.
147. “The Buyer's First Aid and Directory of Advertisers,” 151-153.
148. “Natural Gasoline Plants on the Pacific Coast,” Petroleum World (April 1928), 116.
149. “Tendency to Erect Big Refineries Near Centers of Consumption Reflected in Latest Census,” 80.
150. “New Supply House at Torrance,” Oil Age (March 1924), 38.
151. “ New Cementing Company at Torrance, ” Oil Age (February 1924), 52.
152. “ Perkins Oil Well Cementing Company, ” Oil Age (June 1925), 95.
153. “ New Company Will Specialize in Reconditioned Equipment, ” Oil Age (October 1927), 47.
154. “ Building a New Furniture Center, ” Southern California Business (October 1927), 39.
155. “ S.R. Bowen Opens New Santa Fe Springs Shop, ” Oil Age (October 1928), 98.
156. “ Oil Well Equipment Corporation, ” Petroleum World and Oil Age (December 1929), 5.
157. “ New Oil Companies, ” Oil Age (November 1919), 20.
158. “ New Oil Companies, ” Oil Age (August 1924), 44.
159. Boyd, “Looking Ahead,” 14.
160. Moreland, “Oil Industry,” 11.
161. Donald F. Lockman, “Burbank, California,” (M.A. thesis, UCLA, 1967), 64-66.
162. Winston W. Crouch and Beatrice Dinerman, Southern California Metropolis (1963), 260.
163. “ Abbott-Robinson Company Change Name, ” Oil Age (October 1921), 24.
164. “ Buck & Stoddard Moves, ” Oil Age (October 1923), 35.
165. “ Oil Well Equipment Company, ” Oil Age (June 1925), 78.
166. “ $3,000,000 Emsco Merger of Interest to Entire Petroleum Industry, ” Oil Age (December 1925), 16-18.
167. “Byron Jackson to Enlarge Slausen Avenue Plant,” Oil Age (September 1928), 65.
168. “ Rotary Manufacturing Co., ” Oil Age (June 1925), 79.
169. Longyear, “Take Airplanes,” 9, 10. A.W. Poole “ Where the Aviation Industry Centers, ” Southern California Business (May 1929), 9, 10.
170. “ Showing the Industrial Trend of Santa Ana, ” Southern California Business (January 1925), 12.
171. “ Anaheim Keeps Pace, ” Southern California Business (August 1924), 28.
172. “ Pioneer Glass Company, ” Southern California Business (September 1924), 47.
173. The suburbs were Arcadia, Azusa, Burbank, Covina, Culver City, El Monte, Glendale, Monrovia, Newport Beach, Oceanside, Ontario, Orange, Pasadena, Pomona, Puente, Redondo Beach, San Gabriel, and Tustin. Longyear, “Take Airplanes,” 10.
174. Moreland, “Oil Industry,” 11, 46.
175. H.L. Sherman, History of Newport Beach (1931), 119.
176. Frank V. Stump, “ Pomona Makes Most of Rare Gifts, ” Southern California Business (September 1925), 12.
177. Brother Louis J. Wiggins, “El Monte History,” A History of El Monte (1923), 84.
178. “ Azusa Displays Industrial Trend, ” Southern California Business (October 1925), 11.
179. “ Insulation in Refineries, ” Oil Age (October 1923), 53.
180. “ Southwestern Engineering Corporation, ” Oil Age (June 1925), 82.
181. “ Monrovia Hits the Industrial Trail, ” Southern California Business (June 1924), 22.
182. “New Oil Companies,” Oil Age (October 1918), 32; (February 1920), 20; (May 1920), 10; (September 1920), 14; (January 1921), 18; (December 1922), 15; (May 1923), 17; (May 1923), 18, 19; (June 1923), 18; (December 1924), 30.
183. “ Recent Incorporations, ” Oil Age (September 1925), 49 and (October 1925), 77.
184. Clarence H. Matson, “ The Los Angeles of Tomorrow, ” Southern California Business (September 1924), 33.
185. Crump, Ride the Big Red Cars, 161.
186. John E. Ullman, “Transportation: A Missed Opportunity,” in John E. Ullman, ed., The Suburban Economic Network (1977), 114.
187. Incorporated Cities Now Consolidated, compiled by the Executive Officer-Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, Revised September, 1973.
188. Douglass, The Suburban Trend, 87.
189. Eshref Shevsky and Marilyn Williams found that working-class neighborhoods in 1940 existed almost entirely in the suburbs, while professional and middle-class residents lived almost entirely in the city proper. The evidence indicates that this residential pattern has continued to exist to the present day. Eshref Shevsky and Marilyn Williams, The Social Areas of Los Angeles (Berkeley, 1949), maps facing p. 40. Los Angeles County, 1960 Census, Family Income Map prepared by Wilbur McCann.
190. The Conversion theory stipulated that Democrats converted to Republicans after they moved to the suburbs, while the transplantation theory argued that their conversion occurred before they moved to the suburbs. Robert A. Wood, Suburbia (1958). See also William M. Dobriner, Class in Suburbia (1963)
191. Herbert J. Gans, The Levittowners (1967);
192. Frederick M. Wirt, On the City's Rim (1972).
193. Bennett M. Berger, Working Class Suburb (Berkeley, 1960), 28-39.
194. Ohio Writers' Project, The Ohio Guide (1940), 183-242. Chauncey D. Harris, “The Functional Classification of Cities,” 86-99.
195. Wyoming Writers' Project, Wyoming (1941), 173-179.
196. Federal Writers' Project, Kansas, A Guide to the Sunflower State (1939), 298.
197. Federal Writers' Project, Texas, A Guide to the Lone Star State (1940), 160-164, 194-198, 219, 225, 248, 259, 261, 288, 309, 314, 318, 330, 363-368.
198. Federal Writers' Project Oklahoma, A Guide to the Sooner State (1941), 180-185, 216-220.
199. Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana, A Bicentennial History, (1976), 173, 174.
200. Alabama Writers' Project, Alabama, A Guide to the Deep South (1941), 165.
201. Ohio Writers' Project, The Ohio Guide (1940), 217, 221.
202. Tennessee Writers' Project, Tennessee, A Guide to the State (1939), 236, 252-257.
203. Federal Writers' Project, Colorado, A Guide to the Highest State (1941), 133.
204. Carl Abbott, Colorado, A History of the Centennial State (1976), 191-196.
205. Charles S. Peterson, Utah, A Bicentennial History (1977), 134.
206. Merle Colby, A Guide to Alaska (1939), 67.
207. Federal Writers' Project, Oregon, End of the Trail (1940), 207.
208. Federal Writers' Project, Washington, A Guide to the Evergreen State (1941), 221.
209. William E. Lass, Minnesota, A Bicentennial History (1977), 145-147.
210. Federal Writers' Project, Texas, 194, 195.
211. Federal Writers' Project, Mississippi, A Guide to the Magnolia State (1938), 209, 214.
212. Chauncey P. Harris, “Suburbs,” American Journal of Sociology (1943), 1-13.