by Jane Gordon | Dec 1, 1968
Next time you’re in the Post Office — standing in line at 10 of 5, right? With half of Venice lined up ahead of you, like you’re sure they’ll clang the window shut just as it’s about your turn, the hand clutching the unstamped letter narrowly escaping the guillotine — so the next time you’re standing there in line, fantasizing, check out the man on the wall. Not on the Wanted poster; the one in the mural up on the left-hand side as you come in. His name is Abbott Kinney, and he’s our Founding Father. The first man to do “his own thing” in Venice. And he really did the whole thing.
Before Kinney began doing Venice, the whole area was empty marshland. As a matter of fact, in 1880, the year he first came to California, this area and all the La Ballona Township (now called Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Venice, Del Rey, Palms, Culver City, etc.) was inhabited by a lot of sheep and 417 humans.
Santa Monica was developed first, and Kinney was one of many businessmen responsible for its rapid growth around the turn of the century. He also did a lot for Ocean Park, conceived and built the Sawtelle Soldiers’ Home (now the V.A.), and laid the way for the P.E. Red Cars to come out to the ocean.
But nobody was ready for his Venice-of-America. He envisioned a sea-side resort, just like the one in Italy, complete with canals and colonnades, singing gondoliers and all manner of delightful divertissements. They called it “Kinney’s Dream” and were sure it would never come off.
So he took his men and mules, his vision and his fortune, and they broke ground on August 15, 1904. He conceived and built all the unique Venice features– the canal system, the Venice Pier with its auditorium and its roller coasters, the St. Mark’s Hotel, the Ship Hotel and Restaurant. At the same time, he was just as thorough in planning public facilities for his city– streets, electric lighting, complete gas and water systems, schools, parks, hospitals, etc.
It went up incredibly fast. People stopped laughing, and started buying in. Statistic: in a period of 2 weeks in November (still 1904), $386,000 were spent for lots in the Venice area.
Kinney lavished his city with amusements and attractions. A miniature railroad ran through the main part of town, there was the “Race Thru the Clouds” ride, the Venice Midway (along Ocean Front) with bingo parlors and other sorts of gambling, restaurants and theaters. The Venice Pier had all the features of a good amusement park (at one point there were 3 roller coasters and also an impressive auditorium which was the scene of many important cultural events. Sarah Bernhardt performed there. Artists and scholars gathered for what Kinney called his Chatauqua — an assembly on culture. All Kinney’s idea; all his doing.
The canals really had gondolas and singing gondoliers — imported from Italy — and people rode around the town in them. Rode straight up Main Street; it used to be a canal. The present traffic circle (surrounded by the Post Office, the Safeway market and the Bank of America) combined with the present Safeway parking lot used to be a large lagoon. The water in the canals was clean and blue — Kinney provided for their maintenance. Special canal-cleaning tools were invented to keep down the kelp.
By 1910, Venice’s population had grown to 10,000, not counting the enormous crowds of visitors from all over Southern California. Doing better than Disneyland.
Kinney died in 1919 and six years later Venice fell into the clutches of the City of Los Angeles. We’re researching this period for the next issue and would welcome information from any readers who know or remember any part of the story. Call me
