The Street Seen: Holborow Hotel
163 Pier Avenue @ Neilson
July 1901, Abner Ross,1 who is visiting Ocean Park for the summer, announces the construction of a 52 room hotel on Pier Avenue (at Trolley Way - across from the Ocean Park Bank).2 This substantial wood frame building, is erected in just 23 days (15 days for building construction and 7 days for the hotel furnishings).
J. G. Holborow3 and his wife Alice will operate the hotel, and Ross has a public naming contest in July. The “Holborow” opens in early August 1901. For several years, the “Holborow” is the principal hotel of Ocean Park.
On May 12, 1904 the “Holborow” is the scene of a political scandal involving an all night poker game with City officials and marked cards.4 In June, J.G. Holborow’s lease on the “Holborow” expires and he moves to the “New Holborow”5 - a new hotel 200 feet west on Pier Ave.
With the Holborows moving on, in August 1904, Ross leases the (old) “Holborow” to Charles H. Rutledge for 4 years. Ross again has a public naming contest - the winner is “Casa Del Mar.”6
In 1907, "Casa Del Mar" is sold to Charles E. O’Neill7 for $30,000. Declaring the brand “Casa Del Mar” too down scale, O’Neill renames the hotel “Savoy” after the London hotel. The "Savoy" opens in July, 1907. In August, 1907 O'Neill, citing disagreements with his partners, puts the "Savoy" up for sale. In 1909, the "Savoy" is sold to Louis Melczer8 for $40,000. The hotel is remodeled – retail on the ground floor and hotel upstairs.
Having escaped the 1912 Fraser's Million-Dollar-Pier fire, the “Savoy” burns down one afternoon in February 1915 - the fire starts in the ground floor retail. Melczer’s loss is covered by insurance.
The “Savoy” is not re-built (the code no longer allows wood frame structures in commercial zones) and is replaced by 1-story retail.
In 1965, the 1-story retail building is demolished - along with everything else west of Neilson between Ocean Park Blvd and the south city border - as part of the Ocean Park Redevelopment Project. It’s all gone.
Abner Leonard Ross II (1832 – 1912)
Born in OH, Ross marries Virginia “Jennie” Burdick Ross (18?? - 1876) in 1858. He goes to Dayton in 1872, then manages a hotel in Chicago. He marries Emma C. McCreary Ross (1845 - 1925) in 1877. Over the next 20 years, Ross acquires several hotels in TN and FL. He sells all of his holdings in 1899. Ross retires to Los Angeles, where he acquires the Hotel Lindsay on Main St in downtown Los Angeles and renames it the “Rosslyn.” In June 1901, he sells the Rosslyn (which will be bought in 1903 by the Hart brothers).
While his new Los Angeles home is being built, Ross and his family move to Ocean Park (32 Kinney) for the summer. In July, Ross buys four lots on Pier Ave and builds the “Holborow” - which opens in August. In September, he leaves Ocean Park for his new Los Angeles (Alvarado & 10th) home. In October, he buys and sub-divides the 6 acre Ross Dixon Tract in downtown Los Angeles. In December 1901, Ross celebrates his 69th birthday.
Ross buys the Pier Ave lots for the “Holborow” from Abbot Kinney and Matilda Dudley (widow of Francis Ryan). Kinney and Dudley add a covenant to the deed that requires that the improvements must be a 1st class hotel, and define some side yards offsets. This burden adds value to the rest of the Bay View Tract which Kinney & Dudley own.
In 1903, Mary A. Berryman (1850 – 1930) and her husband John R Berryman (1849 – 1914) retire from WI to Los Angeles. Mary buys the lot on Pier Ave next to the “Holborow” from Kinney & Dudley, and in 1904, builds the 3 story Wisconsin Apartments. When the “Savoy” decides to build on the 12-foot vacant strip between the two buildings, blocking light and air from the windows on the east side the Berryman building, Berryman sues claiming they can rely on the 1901 sales covenant between Ross and Kinney & Dudley. In 1911, the Supreme Court of California rules (Berryman v. Hotel Savoy Company) that the Kinney & Dudley attachment is a personal covenant and does not go with the property.
John George Holborow (1860 – 1926)
Born in the UK, Holborow arrives in the US about 1885. In 1888, he marries Alice Helen Parks (1861 - 1916) in Los Angeles. Around 1890, he is a pharmacist in Los Angeles. Between 1892 and 1894, Holborow is a pharmacist in Oakland. In 1896, he is in Santa Monica - occupation listed as Custom House Inspector. In 1900, Holborow is operator of a bowling alley near the beach in Ocean Park, and in 1901 he is the licensee of the “Holborow” on Pier Ave.
In 1904, Holborow is the fall guy in a political scandal involving an all night poker game with City officials and marked cards. He is arrested and goes on trial in Los Angeles - the charges are dropped in 1905. In 1904, he also moves from the “Holborow” to operate the “New Holborow.” He is under pressure - in addition to the trial, the temperance people try to have his liquor license revoked. By the end of 1904, Holborow leaves Ocean Park and moves back to Los Angeles. In 1913, he is operating the ”Porter” in the San Fernando valley. Alice dies in 1916, and John Holborow dies in San Francisco in 1926. Their eldest son, Frank Parks Holborow (1889 - 1965), is a well known swimmer, swimming coach, and boxing referee.
On May12 1904, an all-night (illegal) game of stud poker is played at the “Holborow.” The five players are (i) Jasper Thomason - Santa Monica rancher, (ii) John C. Steele - City of Santa Monica Trustee, (iii) George M. Jones - City of Venice Trustee, (iv) Frank W. Vogel - City of Santa Monica Treasurer and (v) John G. Holborow. The next day Thomason declares that his $275 loss was due to Steele playing with marked cards. Subsequently, charges are made against the players for violating Santa Monica city gambling ordinances. The five appear before the Santa Monica city court, enter a plea of guilty for gambling, and pay a $100 fine (the minimum). Trustee Steele helped pass the strict anti-gambling ordinance to which he now pleads guilty.
Steele claims a political conspiracy to defeat the upcoming bond issue election that Steele favors (the bond issue is defeated). G.M. Jones and his business partner A.R. Fraser are against the bond issue, and out to get Steele. Holborow refuses to implicate Steele. In August 1904, a criminal charge of using marked cards is bought against Holborow and Steele, and they are arrested in Los Angeles. Holborow’s Los Angeles trial (who supplied the marked cards ?) finally begins in November and goes on for weeks (and is closely followed in the newspapers). In April 1905, the charges against Holborow (and later against Steele) are dismissed on technical grounds.
The “New Holborow” is a 3-story brick hotel constructed for beer barons Maier and Zobelin. Open in July 1904, the “New Holborow” is the finest hotel south of the Arcadia and is very popular. However, J.G. Holborow is under a lot of pressure and departs in November, and the “New Holborow” is renamed the “Metropole.”
The current Hotel Casa del Mar (at the end of Pico) opened as Club Casa del Mar in 1926.
C.E. O’Neill is described by the newspapers as one of the best known hotel men in Arizona - but we couldn’t find much about him. The Hotel Savoy Company consists of C.E. O’Neill and R.R. Tanner (a local real estate lawyer) and un-named investors. Other sources say Charles Anderson formerly of Nebraska bought the hotel. Anyway, O’Neill almost immediately puts the “Savoy” up for sale.
Born in Hungary, Melczer comes to the US in 1881. In 1885, he marries Esther Treuhaft Melczer (1865 – 1925). They come to Phoenix in 1893, where Louis and his brother William operate a wholesale grocery and a wholesale beverage business. By 1910 their wholesale business dominates in Arizona. In 1926, the Arizona Grocery Company acquires the Melczer Company, and Melczer retires to CA. He dies at his home in Santa Monica.