Cliffton By the Sea (Redondo Beach) Special Excursion Ticket (1924)

Michael Patris Collection

Cliffton by the Sea (Redondo Beach) special excursion ticket circa 1914, provided by the Campbell-Bentley Company, exclusive real estate selling agents. Special cars left the rear of the PE station at 6th and Main Streets for this special tour to see subdivided lots for sale at the ocean front community touted as “Newport of the West” making reference to Newport, Rhode Island. As a partial result of the Great Merger of 1911 the PE had extended a line down Catalina Avenue in what we now know as the Hollywood Riviera. Henry Huntington helped push this real estate project by having a Mediterranean style seaside cottage of his own built on the corner of Avenue B and the Esplanade in 1906, by none other than renowned architect Myron Hunt, who had built numerous homes in the Pasadena area. Another prominent Pasadenan interested in the area projects was Reverend Dr. Robert J. Burdette and his wife Clara, who purchased three of these lots to build their own beach house down the street at 1600 S. Esplanade. Efforts to develop this area were lackluster until the 1920’s. Measures 5” by 3” and on the reverse has spaces for the name of the real estate agent, guest, and the guest’s address and telephone numbers, which, on this card, have been left blank.

Michael Patris Collection