The Street Seen: Shearon
3010 Main Street (between Pier & Marine)
Los Angeles police detective David Shearon builds the 3-story Shearon apartment in 1906. In 1926, to make way for the widening of Main St, the building is demolished and rebuilt 40 ft to the west.
Before Main St Widening
Los Angeles police detective David Shearon1 buys the vacant lot at 3010 Main Street for $500 from his ex-wife Amelia Lovell,2 and builds the 3-story Shearon apartments in 1906. At 3 stories, the Shearon apartments is the tallest building on the west side of Main St.
After Main St Widening
All of the buildings on the west side of Main St, from Hollister south to the City limits, are demolished in 1926 to allow the widening of Main Street to 80 ft.
The Shearon apartments is demolished and in 1926, William Fleming Company,3 a design/build firm, builds the 3-story (2-story hotel over ground floor retail) Shearon hotel, 40 feet to the west.
Shearson leaves Ocean Park and moves into an apartment building (which he renames the King David Apartments) he owns in Hollywood, where he dies in 1935. The Shearon hotel is still in business in 1952.4
In 1978, the building is sold to Albert T. Ehringer (as Grand American Fare).5 The unreinforced masonry (URM) building is seismically upgraded, fire sprinklered, and converted to office use. In 1993, the building is sold to Bill Cosby (as SAH Enterprises). Established in 1988, M. Hanks Gallery specializing in African American art, occupies the ground floor till 2015.
Redcar purchases 3008 Main Street in 2015 - one of three Main Street properties (together with 3016 Main Street and 2671 Main Street) they buy from C.O.C. Real Estate LLC. Redcar, as is their mission, extensively renovates the interior of the building.
The building is currently occupied by Lululemon.
David O’Donnell Shearon (1856 - 1935). Shearon is born in Ireland and comes to the US in 1876. In 1889, Shearon joins the Los Angeles police department as a patrolman. In 1895, he is fired from the police force for insubordination - he expresses his opinion to fellow patrolmen that the police chief is not up to the job. In 1900, he is re-appointed as a patrolman in the police force, and in 1903 promoted to detective (plainclothes). In 1906, Shearon is fired for being absent on the job - working instead on his real estate portfolio (the newspapers call him “the richest man in the police department”). He moves into his Shearon apartments on Main St in Ocean Park and actively manages it. In 1909, he runs for Santa Monica City Council but is not elected. In 1916, a painter falls off the roof of the Shearon apartments and lands on Shearon, breaking Shearon’s leg and sending him to St Catherine’s - the painter walks away with no injuries. With the Main St widening in 1926, the Shearon apartments are demolished and replaced with the Shearon hotel. Shearon and his wife, Teresa Katie Shearon (1875 - 1963) move into a 1924 apartment building he owns at 4160 Rosewood Ave in Hollywood, and he dies there in 1935.
Amelia Steele Shearon Lovell (c.1850 - 1910). Since 1884, Amelia Steele is living with the previously married John Lovell (1851 - 1913). In 1893, she marries patrolman David Shearon, but is soon divorced, and marries her old boyfriend John Lovell in 1896. Between 1885 and 1898, John Lovell receives several head injuries. In 1905, he is committed to an insane asylum, with his wife as guardian. Amelia is active in real estate deals. She builds a summer home and several stores on Main St and continues to be friendly with Shearon. Amelia dies at Santa Monica Bay Hospital in 1910 leaving an estate valued at $50,000 - with $500 to ex-husband David Shearon, $100 to husband John Lovell, and the remainder to two sisters. In a widely followed 1912 court case, Lovell’s guardians contest the will - but settle out of court (one of their witnesses is arrested for perjury) for a life interest in a house in Venice, and $550 in cash. John Lovell dies in the Venice house in 1913.
William Fleming (1866 - 1950). Fleming is born in Northern Ireland and immigrates to the United States in 1882. His William Fleming Company is a design/build firm.
Shearon’s death in 1935, is preceded by his brother John O’Donnell Shearon (1852 - 1928), who is also in Los Angeles. Distant relatives Patrick C. Shearon (1856 - 1939) and his son David Fidelis Shearon (1893 - 1960) from Queens, NY manage the hotel till 1940.
In the 1970s, Al Ehringer, Bob Scura, and John P. Wilson are buying up dilapidated buildings along Main Street, and fixing them up.