The Street Seen: Auto Inn Garage
171-177 Pier Avenue @ Neilson Way
In 1914, the Auto Inn Garage is built on the North East Corner of Neilson and Pier on property leased from Pacific Electric. The building no longer exists - it is demolished in 1926 to allow for the widening of Main St.
Pacific Electric Railroad owns the property between Neilson and Main St, from Ashland to Pier.1 Pacific Electric leases the property on the North East Corner (NEC) of Neilson and Pier to several 1-story stores - on a 30-day notice.2
In 1914, C.G. Reed3 and A.W. Layne4 obtain a 15-year ground lease from Pacific Electric for a 100 ft by 200 ft property on the NEC Neilson and Pier Ave. Reed & Layne build a 60 ft (along Pier) x 200 ft (along Neilson) automobile garage.5 The $22,000 construction begins in April 1914, and the tenants6 move in June. The 12,000 sq-ft brick building has space for 180 cars - the largest garage in the beach district with “every modern appliance known to garage equipment.”
The garage is used for automobile parking, automobile repair, automobile dealership showrooms, and a taxi service. The entrance is on Pier Ave, and there are 4 store rooms on Pier Ave and 10 store rooms on Neilson. The 2-story front building on Pier Ave has offices and apartments on the 2nd floor. By July, Reed and Layne are considering expanding the Auto Inn Garage all the way to Ashland - with another entrance on Ashland (Kinney St does not cross Neilson until 1932).
In 1916, Layne, living in a 2nd floor apartment, becomes the sole owner of the Auto Inn Garage.
In 1916 James R. Fones7 opens an automotive dealership in the Auto Inn Garage. By 1917, Fones occupies the entire Pier Ave ground floor frontage. However, in 1918, Fones leaves, and in 1920 opens his own garage8 at 3005 Main (at the end of Pier Ave).
In 1919 Layne sells the Auto Inn Garage to L.H. Gibbs,9 and the business is renamed the Ocean Park Garage - “an up-to-date Garage run by business men on business principles.”
In 1920, W. Remsberg10 buys the Ocean Park Garage, and employs Dutch Klein designer, builder, and racecar driver in the repair department. In 1925, J.C. Williams,11 owner of the Ocean Park Garage, “put his huge stock of Goodrich tires on sale at prices which Bay District motorists declared were ridiculously low.” In 1926, the 1914 building is demolished to allow for the widening of Main St.
Next Week:
In 1926, 30 ft west of the demolished 1914 garage, Pacific Electric builds a new automobile garage, which, for the most part, is the building that we see today.
Pacific Electric operates electric trolleys on the dual-track Venice Short Line along Neilson, and on the single-track Santa Monica Air Line along the right-of-way just west of Main St. Pacific Electric also owns the property from Hollister to Marine between the Venice Short Line and the Santa Monica Air Line.
In 1914, to make way for the new Reed and Layne garage, C. Harmony Brown, tobacconist, and John Reid, caterer, move across Pier Ave to the Pacific Electric Ocean Park Depot (1910 - 1955) on the South East Corner of Neilson and Pier.
Charles Gage Reed (1870 – 1932). Born in IA, Reed comes to Ocean Park in 1907 and buys a drugstore on Pier Ave. In 1911, he buys property in Venice and builds the 3-story, 45 room Reed Apartments. In 1914 Reed sells the Reed Apartments for $45,000 - taking $32,000 in payment for a 320-acre alfalfa ranch in Tulare County. In 1918, Reed operates a drugstore in Needles, CA. From 1926 to 1931 he runs a drugstore in Taft, CA. Reed dies in Huntington Park in 1932.
Alvah Willard Layne (1877 – 1949). Born in IN, Layne comes to Ocean Park in 1904 where he is the general manager of the Ocean Park Journal. His brother-in-law, Charles E. Lovelace (1870 - 1926), is editor of the Ocean Park Journal, and in 1906, Lovelace is appointed Ocean Park Postmaster. In 1907 Layne, along with others, sues Abbot Kinney over an article “Tale of Two Cities” Kinney published in the Vanguard. Layne resigns from the Ocean Park Journal in 1908. In 1910 he designs a 2-story steel and glass, rotating café for the Ocean Park pier. In 1915 Layne is working for A.R. Fraser and the State Investment Company as director of amusements on the Ocean Park pier. Layne sells the Auto Inn Garage in 1919 and in 1930 is farming in San Diego. By 1935, he is in northern California, where he is a store clerk in Stockton in 1940 and dies in Santa Clara in 1949.
Reed and Layne operate, in a leased building, the Auto Inn Garage at 144 Pier Ave (between Ocean Front Promenade and Neilson), where they have the dealership for McFarland Motor Company. The 144 Pier Ave building narrowly survives the 1912 Ocean Park Pier fire – and there is concern over its 400-gallon gasoline storage tank.
Looks like the first automobile in Los Angeles was in 1897. By 1904, 1,600 motor vehicles cruise the streets of Los Angeles. The maximum speed limit is 8 mph in residential areas and 6 mph in business districts. Very few houses have a place to park. By 1915, Los Angeles County counts 55,200 motor vehicles.
Beach property specialists Japs, Kill & Joyce are one of the first tenants of office space at the Auto Inn Garage.
James Rison Fones (1879 – 1948). Born in AR, both his parents die when he is in his early 20s. Fones comes to Los Angeles in 1910, and in 1916 he opens an auto dealership in the Auto Inn Garage on Pier Ave. By spending heavily on advertising, Fones has dealerships for Dort (1915 – 1924), Saxon (1914 – 1922), and Chalmers (1908 – 1923). In 1918 he moves out of the Auto Inn Garage at 171 Pier Ave to the Central Auto Station at 144 Pier Ave. In 1920 Fones leases the Pier Garage, the oldest garage in Ocean Park, on Main St at the head of Pier Ave. Fones occupies the whole block on Main St to 2nd St, from Pier to Marine At 25,000 sq-ft, with space for 200 cars, it is the largest garage in southern California. But by 1922, Charles J. Carr takes over the property. Fones dies in Santa Monica in 1948.
The Pier Garage on Main St is demolished in 1926 to make way for the extension of Pier Ave across Main St to 2nd St and the building of the BPOE building.
L. Harry Gibbs is the manager of the St. Regis Apartments (NEC Kinney and Ocean Front Promenade.)
James Walker Remsberg (1894–1977). Walker Remsberg, who lives at 2906 3rd St in Ocean Park, owns the Marine Garage at SWC Marine and Main. In 1928, Remsberg is jailed in San Quentin for forgery.
James Clyde Williams (1882–1960). Born in UT, comes to Ocean Park in the early 1920s. He is the leasee of the Ocean Park Garage through 1950. In 1929, as well as operating the garage, Williams begins Ocean Park Radio Service selling radios.