The Street Seen: Edgewater Beach Club
1855 Ocean Front Walk @ Pico Blvd
The Edgewater Beach Club opens in 1926, but quickly falls into bankruptcy. The Jonathan Club takes over the building in the early 1930s. During WWII, the Edgewater is commandeered by the US Army. After the war, the property is briefly the Ambassador Hotel, and then the Kabat-Kaiser Institute, before the building is demolished in 1964. The site is currently occupied by Shutters on the Beach.
The Edgewater Beach Club is at the foot of Pico Blvd, on the northeast corner with Ocean Front Walk, and across Pico from the 1926 Casa Del Mar.
The Property (1922)
In 1912, real estate investors, Lemley and Stotler, buy the entire block bounded by Pico Blvd, Ocean Front Walk, Vicente Terrace, and Appian Way.1
In 1922, Lemley and Stotler sell that property for $50,000 to prominent Los Angeles criminal lawyer Paul W. Schenck.2 At the same time, Schenck acquires the beach sand lot directly west across Ocean Front Walk.
Edgewater Beach Club (1924 to 1926)
In 1924, promoters Robert J. Connors, Harry L. Lewis, and V.L. Ferguson form the Edgewater Club of Southern California. For $2.00MM, the Edgewater Club acquires a 99-year ground lease3 from Schenck.
Lloyd Rally4 is the architect for the 7-story plus basement steel and reinforced-concrete Mediterranean-style building. Winter Construction Company5 has the $0.80MM general contract, and Llewellyn Iron Works has the $0.10MM contract for steel. Barker Bros provides the furnishing. On the ground floor, there are 5 retail stores and a public dining room. There is an indoor pool, a 3,000-person auditorium, and 103 guest rooms.
A key to success is the ability to privatize a stretch of the beach. The design renderings and the 1950 Sanborn show direct access to the beach via a tunnel under the public Ocean Front Walk.
Ground is broken for the Edgewater Beach Club in January 1925.
In December 1925, Edgewater Club issues $0.35MM bonds @ 7% secured by a first mortgage on the building. The Edgewater Beach Club opens June 1926. Wade McFadden, previously manager of the Merritt Jones Hotel, is the manager.
Bankruptcy (1926)
In November 1926, Edgewater Club is bankrupt.6 The “palatial” building has cost $1.50MM. Creditors include the Winter Construction Company, Barker Bros, the $0.35MM bondholders, and the 2,500 persons who paid a total of $0.83MM for membership7 in the Edgewater Beach Club.
To protect the club members’ investment, Winter Construction Company, the chief creditor, buys the Edgewater8 out of bankruptcy. The Edgewater, closed since January 1927, reopens in July 1927, managed by Winter Construction.
Edgewater- Gables (1929 to 1930)
However, the club members are unable to organize to secure financing to purchase the Edgewater, and in 1928, the Edgewater is sold at a public auction to capital investors Charles E. Bentley and Gordon T. Smith for $0.72MM.
J. Ward Cohen, owner of the Gables Beach Club,9 takes over as proprietor of the Edgewater, which he renames Edgewater-Gables - lasts only one season.
Jonathan Club (1930 to 1935)
In 1930, the Jonathan Club acquires the Edgewater for $1.40MM
In 1934,10 the Jonathan Club, leaves the Edgewater and moves north along the beach to the Grand Hotel (Breakers). 11
Edgewater Club Hotel (1940 to 1946)
After the Jonathan Club departs, Bearl Sprott12 is owner and operator of the Edgewater Club Hotel. In 1942, he leases the 6th Floor to the Elks Lodge 906, which has been displaced from its 1811 Ocean Ave temporary home.
World War II (1943 to 1945)
In 1943, during World War II, the US Army Air Forces commandeer (acquire by condemnation leasehold) the Edgewater, transforming it into a rest and rehabilitation center.
Ambassador Hotel (1946 to 1948)
In 1946, Beverly Hills realtor-investor, A.S. Epstein buys Edgewater from Sprott for $0.40MM and announces plans for $1.00MM in renovations.
The facility is operated jointly as a hotel (Ambassador Hotel) and a beach club (Ambassador Beach Club) - Col. Henry R. Dutton13 is the manager.
Epstein also acquires the vacant property across Appian Way, adjacent to the hotel, for use as a parking lot.
Rehabilitation Center (1948 to 1963)
In 1948, the Ambassador Hotel is sold to the Permanente Foundation14 for more than $1.00MM.
Kabat-Kaiser Institute (1948 to 1955)
The Kabat-Kaiser Institute opens as a specialist hospital for polio and other neuromuscular conditions.
Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center (1955 to 1962)
In 1955, Dr. Kabat leaves the organization, and the Kaiser Foundation renames the two facilities15 the California Rehabilitation Centers. In 1962, to avoid confusion with state institutions with a similar name, the name is changed to the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center. The Santa Monica Rehabilitation Center closes in 1962.
Demolition (1964)
By 1960s, the value of the Edgewater building has plummeted, while the value of the location has soared. In 1962, A.S. Epstein, now owner and general manager of Casa Del Mar, returns - he acquires the Edgewater for $0.50MM. In 1963, Epstein announces plans for the Del Mar Towers, two (never built) 20-story apartment towers on the Edgewater site.
The Edgewater is demolished in 1964. The site is currently occupied by the 1993 Shutters on the Beach.
Edgewater is on Lot 31 to Lot 35 of Tract 1111 - a 1911 resubdivision of Schader’s 1910 Vicente Terrace Tract.
Paul W. Schenck (1875 – 1932). Born in Michigan, in 1880 his family moves to Athol, SD. At the age of eight, Paul Schenck is put to work in a dry goods store. Although he does not attend school, he learns through other means and, among other accomplishments, writes a very clear hand. This skill with the pen brings him a job addressing letters for the W. H. Silberhorn Packing Company of Chicago. In April 1893, the company sends him out West to take charge of the Rodeo Packing Company in Rodeo, California. When the company fails during the panic of August 1893, Schenck returns to Chicago. From 1896 to 1898, Schenck studies law at night at Lake Forest College, and he is admitted to the Illinois bar. In 1900, he forms a Los Angeles general real estate business, Schenck, Tatum & Schenck, with his brother, Sam Schenck (1873 - 1925). In 1904, he takes up the practice of criminal law. He becomes the preeminent Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer involved in many prominent criminal trials; his 92nd (and final) murder defense is the Judd case in 1932.
In 1907, Schenck divorces Leona, and in 1908, marries Genevieve Kittrelle(1882 - 1953). At various times, Schenck leaves the practice of law to attend to other business affairs. He is once the owner and manager of the Nate Goodwin cafe on the Bristol Pier, and another time, the owner of the Ship Cafe in Venice.
When Schenck dies in 1932, he leaves a large estate (including the Edgewater property) and three contested wills. Leona, his first wife, seeks unpaid alimony. Genevieve, his second wife from whom he is separated but not divorced, seeks community property. His final will leaves his estate to a daughter by his first marriage, Vona Gurholt, and to Mrs. Myrtle Hobday - “to whom I owe my life” - is this a romantic or a literal reference?
A 99-year ground lease is traditionally seen as the longest practical term of a lease of real property without it being considered perpetual. A ground lease offers tax advantages over selling, and is often transferable and treated as essentially equivalent to ownership. While 99 years outlives any of the participants, the Edgewater lease would have expired in 2023.
Lloyd Anthony Rally (1882 - 1933). Lloyd Rally is an architect active in Los Angeles in the 1920s. His work primarily consists of residential designs and commemorative structures (e.g. Eliza Otis Memorial Chimes Tower at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery). Rally designs a Santa Monica patio and garden featured in architectural publications in 1926, for Max Winter (owner of Winter Construction).
In 1925, Rally draws up plans for a 5-story, 500-car (never built) parking garage across Appian Way, east of the Edgewater.
In the 1920s, the Winter Construction Company develops a reputation for building theatres - Sid Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre (1921 - 1923), the Pasadena Playhouse, and the Culver Hotel (1924). An important job is for evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple (1921 – 1922).
It is the Edgewater Club of Southern California, which owns the ground lease and the building, that is bankrupt. Robert Jeremi Connors (1882 - 1931), president of Edgewater Club of Southern California, owns 90% of the shares.
Edgewater Beach Club membership confers no ownership benefits; members are merely holders of securities against the Edgewater Club corporation.
We have to keep in mind the actors - (i) the land owner (Schenck) and (ii) the building owner (who is leasing the land from Schenck). So when we say “acquires the Edgewater,” we mean “acquires the Edgewater building and the remainder of the time remaining on the land lease.”
The Gables Beach Club, two blocks north of the California Incline on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), is completed in 1926 but burned in a fire in 1930.
In 1934, the Jonathan Club protests to the City about the erosion of their beach due to flooding of the Pico Blvd storm drain.
In 1934, the Jonathan Club explains that the cost of leasing the Grand Hotel will be considerably less than the cost of operating the 7-story Edgewater. In 1935, the Jonathan Club leaves the Grand Hotel and takes over the Beverly Beach Club on PCH at the foot of the California Incline.
Ellis Richard Bearl Sprott (1896 - 1959). Born in MO, Sprott comes to Los Angeles in 1919, and opens a motel in Lincoln Heights. In 1925, he unsuccessfully runs for Los Angeles City Council in the 13th District. From 1935 to 1937, Sprott conducts automobile tours of Mexico. In 1940, Sprott is owner and operator of the Edgewater Club Hotel, home to several hundred army flying students. In 1943, he is also the owner and operator of series of cafeterias/food-concessions feeding 60,000 people daily in CA. Sprott dies in 1959, leaving a $350,000 estate, over which his grandson wages a court battle in 2010.
Henry Richard Dutton (1894 - 1984), former general manager of the New York Athletic Club and, recently, the Miramar Hotel, finds himself in the newspapers in 1946 when his torch-singer wife, Laura Mae Deane, whom he married when she was 15, files for divorce.
The Permanente Foundation is supported by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, whose youngest son, Henry Jr. (1917 - 1961), contracts MS in 1944.
Kaiser has two rehabilitation centers - one in Santa Monica and the other in Vallejo, CA. The Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center and Hospital in Vallejo continues to this day.