The Street Seen: Carl Francis Schader (1870–1934)
Ocean Park People
Carl Francis Schader (1870–1934). Real estate broker and developer.
Born in Little Rock, AR, Schader comes to Los Angeles in 1887. He serves as the civil engineer for a number of early improvements in Santa Monica. After a brief turn at real estate in 1891, he leaves to pursue an interest in desert mining. In 1909, Schader returns to Santa Monica to develop real estate. He purchases beachfront property just south of the Santa Monica pier (bounded on the north by Seaside Terrace, Ocean Avenue to the east, Pico Boulevard to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west) on land that once contained the former grand Victorian style Arcadia Hotel. Here he intended to “remake Santa Monica” with two subdivisions: Vicente Terrace and Seaside Terrace. His wife, Nellie M. Elliott Schader (1870–1936), developed the Kensington Tract that is between the Vicente Terrace and Seaside Terrace tracts.
With an eye to improving his beachfront development, Schader also donates some of his other less desirable land - for an Elks Lodge, a Masonic Temple, and a Civic Auditorium.
He is instrumental in getting Pico Blvd upgraded and widened from his development, past the new high school, to join up with Los Angeles' Pico Street - providing a direct route from downtown Los Angeles to his development.
Schader retires in 1912, leaving the business in the hands of his son Carl J. Schader (1892 – 1916). However Carl Jr shoots himself, and Carl Sr returns to the real estate business. Schrader becomes involved in real estate in Calipatria in Imperial County, California, and in Arizona.
Schader also incorporated the Merchants’ National Bank of Santa Monica, was president of the Ocean Park Bank, organized the Pioneer Mines Syndicate and the Desert Power and Light Company of Kingman, Arizona. He brokered the sale of Rancho Palos Verdes and subdivided towns in the Imperial Valley and Arizona.
He dies in 1934 (age 63) in an odd car accident when returning from Phoenix to Los Angeles.