SR 06-28-2022 16C
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: June 28, 2022
Agenda Item: 16.C
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Denise Anderson Warren, City Clerk, Records and Election Services
Department
Subject: Request of Councilmembers Oscar de la Torre, Christine Parra and Phil
Brock to allocate $10,000 in City Council discretionary funds for the City
Attorney to provide a legal review of the deed of March 3, 1888 by Arcadia
Bandini granting beachfront property specifically and permanently for the
healing and enjoyment of disabled veterans of the United States "the
residents of the home". Acknowledge and confirm that the same language is
written into the separate deed for the 300 acres, inland, that was executed on
the same day, by the same attorney, of the same benefactors, for the same
beneficiaries: Disabled Veterans. Confirm that this two-deed, March 3, 1888,
vision of Arcadia Bandini and Senator Jones mirrored the, March 4,1865,
sentiment in President Abraham Lincoln's Inauguration speech, "to care for
him that shall have borne the battle, his widow and his orphans". Provide
background on the history of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for
Disabled Volunteer Soldiers before Brentwood, Westwood, and UCLA were
thought of. Confirm that in 2018 the Office of the Inspector General of the
DVA, upheld a challenge by advocates for veterans citing that UCLA,
Brentwood School and Maverick Energy (oil drilling) were "void", therefore
illegal, Leases.
· Assess if the Camp Lejeune Act supports this challenge?
· Ensure that land and funds promised to support veterans actually reach the
intended recipients.
· Assess the need to issue an RFP to create a green, sustainable, complex for
Veterans on the designated site or assess how funds generated from these
properties might support much needed services for our unhoused disabled
veterans.
A municipality that was, against the language of the Deed, allowed to control this
beachfront property by the State of California, that also violates the Deed, must do the
legal, moral, and ethical thing and, like the City of Manhattan Beach, acknowledge the
deed exists and inform the State of California that this is land with the specific purpose
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to have a "pavilion" and a beach-house" for the "residents" of the "home" (WLA).
America's moral obligation to genuinely care for her defenders belongs here,
permanently, and the beachfront property is an integral part of the vision to keep that
obligation alive.
Prepared By: Esterlina Lugo, Deputy City Clerk
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Written Comments
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Vernice Hankins
From:nina@freddycan.net
Sent:Tuesday, June 28, 2022 4:57 PM
To:councilmtgitems; Oscar de la Torre; Phil Brock; Christine Parra; Gleam Davis; Kristin McCowan; Sue
Himmelrich; Lana Negrete
Cc:Nina Fresco
Subject:Item 16C: Soldier's Home
Attachments:1888-0303-DEEDS-SoldiersHomeLand-AndTrustForCashPortionOfDonation.pdf
EXTERNAL
Dear City Council,
In 1885 John P Jones and Arcadia B. de Baker offered the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers a 600‐acre tract
that straddled the boundary between the Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres and the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica.
The group was seeking the fifth site for a federally operated home and had received several offers. According to a report
dated June 30, 1885, from the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the offer
included five acres of water‐bearing land and a reservoir site, and a cash donation of $50,000 to be paid in five annual
installments. Alternatively, if the managers agreed to accept only 300 acres from Jones and Baker, the cash donation
would be increased to $100,000.[1] Hoping to be selected, in December 1887, The Jones and Baker organization hosted
the managers, sparing nothing to show them around the vicinity of the offered land and all the advantages that came
with it including railroad connections, surrounding soil of rich sandy loam, and spectacular views of mountains and
valleys, and the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica and the ocean due to its elevated foothill location. The earlier
offer of land, water and cash was sweetened by the promise of a rail station at the site, and half‐ fare for veterans using
it. The renewed offer was laid out in a published letter signed by Walter Van Dyke (representing John P. Jones) and
Robert S. Baker (representing Arcadia B. de Baker). Having visited ten west coast cities where they inspected twenty
potential sites, the managers accepted the Jones and Baker offer of 300 acres and $100,000.[2] The people of Santa
Monica were delighted because the home would bring as many as 2000 new residents plus their visitors to the area,
which was already entering a short boom period as a result of the break‐up of the Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly
by the Santa Fe Railroad. Prospects were bright.
During a second visit in February, a committee sent by the National Home mangers in Washington were hosted at the
Arcadia Hotel and shown around by Col. R.S. Baker and Don Juan Bandini (husband and brother to Arcadia B. de Baker,
who owned the Baker share of the Santa Monica Land Company in name). The committee members examined the site
and confirmed the veracity of the promised features. It was revealed in this reporting, that the $100,000 cash donation
would come from a syndicate that owned a nearby tract of land. After the tour, a reporter from the Santa Monica
Outlook visited the committee in their hotel for an interview. The committee confirmed that they would accept the offer
of 300 acres plus the additional cash, and noted that the inclusion of a water source, and promise of discounted rail
access was critical to the deal. They also shared with the reporter that “they also intend to secure a permanent spot
near the surf, where a pavilion and other conveniences may be provided for the old soldiers.”[3]
About a month later, in March 1888, it was reported that a deal had been signed. In this report the deal included 300
acres in the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, 28 acres for a reservoir for the home that would be eventually supplied
by surrounding canons, but in the short term from the Kuruvungna Springs that supplied the City of Santa Monica as
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Packet Pg. 916 Attachment: Written Comments (5207 : de la torre item: Arcadia Bandini Beachfront Property)
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well. This reporting also described a third conveyance of land on the beach for a bath house and on the bluff adjacent to
the Arcadia Hotel for a pavilion for the soldiers. It also explained how the financing for the $100,000 donation would
work.[4] In July, the Outlook reprinted an article about Santa Monica that had appeared in a Chicago newspaper (local
newspapers in need of content typically subscribed to papers from all over the country to peruse them for items of local
interest). The Chicagoan reported that construction of the Soldiers home was under way, and noted that Jones and
Baker had provided a site on the bluff northeast of Santa Monica for a bathhouse and pavilion. The city limit at that time
was at Montana Avenue.[5]
Three deeds were found for the 300‐acre site, the reservoir site, and the bathhouse site, all dated March 3, 1888. Each
transfer appears to have been contingent upon the described use for each site and in exchange for the benefit of those
uses to the grantors in place of cash compensation. However, they do not spell out how failure to follow through with
said uses would be handled.[6] There is no evidence on historical maps or in newspaper reports that there was a
bathhouse in Santa Monica built exclusively for the veterans who lived at the Soldiers Home at the foot of Montana
Avenue as described in the deed, though there is an abundance of evidence that they spent plenty of time in the city,
enjoying other amusements, amenities, and attractions.
A copy of the 1888 deeds is attached below.
Sincerely,
Nina Fresco
[1] Report of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers for the Fiscal Year Ending June
30, 1885, Government Printing Office, Washington. D.C., 1886
[2] The Soldier’s Home, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, December 8, 1887
[3] The Soldier’s Home, Santa Monica Outlook, Santa Monica, California, February 1, 1888
[4] Soldier’s Home, Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, California, March 8, 1888
[5] Santa Monica, Santa Monica Outlook, Santa Monica, California, July 25, 1888
[6] John P. Jones and Arcadia B. de Baker to National Home for Disabled Veterans, Los Angeles County Recorder Deed
Book 405, page 14, Deed Book 405, page 32, Deed Book 405, page 36, March 3, 1888, www.familysearch.com
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Packet Pg. 929 Attachment: Written Comments (5207 : de la torre item: Arcadia Bandini Beachfront Property)