The Street Seen: Joslyn Park
633 Kensington Road @ 7th
Joslyn Park is a 2 1/2 acre city recreation park between Kensington and Strand at 7th Street. It occupies the former Walter T. McGinley1 estate, which is purchased by the City of Santa Monica in 1958 with funds donated by Marcellus L. Joslyn.2 Both men are very successful in business and yet rather shy of the limelight.
The park is located at the top of a ridge with eastern vistas over Los Angeles (the original name for 7th Street is Mountain View Ave). There is a basketball court, a children’s play area, and a community center at the top of the hill. An off-leash dog park runs down the slope at the eastern end of the park. While the dog park honors former Santa Monica mayor Herb Katz, McGinley at one time owned one of the best kennels in America. The 1960s swimming pool facility in the northeast corner is gone.
The existing walls, wrought-iron fence, and major trees are part of the 1927 McGinley estate designed by Emmett G. Martin (1889-1937).
Walter T. McGinley (1870 - 1932)’s life resembles a young boy’s dream. McGinley manages a circus, operates a chain of movie theatres, owns champion dogs and horses that win races. Behind his gift for showmanship, there lay a keen business instinct that makes his every enterprise miraculously profitable.
McGinley is born in PA. He is an executive and manager with Ringling Brothers Circus, Wallace Brothers Circus, and Sells-Floto Circus. In 1908, he takes an American circus on tour throughout Europe. He becomes one of the best-known legal adjusters in the circus world. Early on, McGinley recognizes the possibilities in motion pictures and establishes a chain of movie theatres. McGinley is a successful race horse and dog racing owner in the early 1900s.
He becomes friends with Lucky Baldwin (1828- 1909) and moves to California in 1915 to become the business manager for Baldwin’s daughter, Clara Baldwin Stocker (1847 - 1929). He buys land from Baldwin and strikes oil - becoming sole owner of the McGinley Oil Company.
In 1893, as a student at Harvard Law School, Marcellus L. Joslyn builds his own telephone line to his parents' Illinois home. In 1910, he opens Joslyn Manufacturing & Supply Co., a very successful Chicago electrical supply firm (telephone pole line hardware, aircraft lightning arresters, and electrical surge protection). From 1955, when the list is created, to 1962, the Joslyn Manufacturing and Supply Co. is a Fortune 500 company.
In 1947, Joslyn retires to Santa Monica, where he becomes involved in philanthropic interests. To the City of Santa Monica he gives the Senior Recreation Center at Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Lawn Bowling Club, Joslyn Hall at Reed Park, and many other monetary and land awards.
