CATALINA ISLAND STEAMERS BOATS 32 ITEMS ANTIQUE & VINTAGE POST CARDS STAMPS

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CATALINA ISLAND STEAMERS BOATS 32 ITEMS ANTIQUE & VINTAGE POST CARDS STAMPS :
$79.99

Note - All bonus items are from Catalina Island

Bonus Items Include...

\"1\" 46 Page Magazine - Catalina Express

\"1\" 2012 Winter Schedule

\"1\" The Avalon Bay News - Class of 2011 Edition

\"1\" Catalina Island Pocket Map

\"6\" Brochures

\"1\" Pen From the Pavillion Hotel - Catalina Island

\"1\" Catalina Island Magnet

\"1\" Catalina Island Key Chain

Antique

Vintage

Catalina Island

Steamer Ships

Glass Bottom Boats

Collectibles

POST CARDS

Includes \"8\" antique and vintage stamps.

\"9\" Post Cards are unused.

Complied, Edited, or Revised Internet Information

EARLY CATALINAIn the 1840s, the Mexican governor Pio Pico gave the island of
Catalina as a grant to Don Jose Corruvias of Santa Barbara. The island
traded hands dozens of times in the ensuing years. In 1864, during the
Civil War, it was occupied by Union troops, who built and occupied
Camp Santa Catalina Island for most of that year. Federal commanders
planned to use the island as an Indian reservation for the tribes they
were fighting in northwestern California and as a coastal
fortification. It was finally acquired in the 1860s by James Lick,
whose estate maintained control of the island for approximately the
next 25 years.The first owner to try to develop Avalon Bay into a resort destination
was George Shatto, a real estate speculator from Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Shatto purchased the island for $200,000 from the Lick
estate at the height of a real estate boom in Southern California in
1887. Shatto created the settlement that would become Avalon, and can
be credited with building the town\'s first hotel, the original Hotel
Metropole, and pier. His sister-in-law Etta Whitney came up with the
name Avalon, which was pulled as a reference from Alfred, Lord
Tennyson\'s poem \"Idylls of the King\", about the legend of King Arthur.
Mr. and Mrs. Shatto and myself were looking for a name for the new
town, which in its significance should be appropriate to the place,
and the names which I was looking up were \'Avon\' and \'Avondale,\' and I
found the name \'Avalon,\' the meaning of which, as given in Webster\'s
unabridged, was \'Bright gem of the ocean,\' or Beautiful isle of the
blest.\'—Etta WhitneyShatto laid out Avalon\'s streets, and introduced it as a vacation
destination to the general public. He did this by hosting a real
estate sale in Avalon in 1887, and purchasing a steamer ship for
daily access to the island. In the summer of 1888, the small pioneer
village kicked off its opening season as a booming little resort town.
Despite Shatto\'s efforts, in a few years he had to default on his loan
and the island went back to the Lick estate.The sons of Phineas Banning bought the island in 1891 from the Lick
estate and established the Santa Catalina Island Company to develop it
as a resort. The Banning brothers fulfilled Shatto\'s dream of making
Avalon a resort community. They built a dance pavilion in the center
of town, made additions to the Hotel Metropole and steamer-wharf,
built an aquarium, created the Pilgrim Club (a gambling club for men
only). They also improved the standard of Avalon\'s beach by erecting a
sea-wall and adding \"spoonholders\" or covered benches, building a bath
house. For additional habitation, the Bannings erected close to one
hundred tents throughout Avalon\'s canyon (often called \"tent cities\").
These tents were created so that if the expense of a hotel was too
much, a visitor could rent out a tent for the bargain price of $7.50
per week. To this day, many homes in Avalon are still in possession of
the same tents that stood in that spot over a century ago.
Just as the Bannings were anticipating the construction of a new,
Hotel Saint Catherine, their efforts were set back on November 29,
1915, when a fire burned half of Avalon\'s buildings, including six
hotels and several clubs. The Bannings refused to sell the island in
hopes of rebuilding the town, starting with the Hotel Saint Catherine.
The hotel would be located on Sugarloaf Point, the unique,
picturesque, cliff bound peninsula at the north end of Avalon\'s
harbor. It was blasted away to begin the construction of the hotel
with its annex being in Descanso Canyon. These plans failed due to
lack of funding and, in the end, the hotel was built in Descanso
Canyon. Due to debt related to the 1915 fire and a decline in tourism
due to World War I, the Bannings were forced to sell the island in
1919 in shares.