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Bixby, Llewellyn (audio interview #1 of 2)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Bixby was interviewed in his office in downtown Long Beach. 1/11/1984
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- 2020-10-28
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- SUBJECT BIO - Llewellyn Bixby was president of Alamitos and Bixby land companies as well as a leader of additional companies owned by his family members. Bixby led the companies out of the Depression, when they were burdened by debt, and prosperity as post-WWII real estate developers. Bixby was born in Long Beach and grew up here before attending Pomona College. After graduation, he married Betty Lewis and they returned to live in Long Beach. When his father died, his cousin George's widow asked him to come to work in the family business and he did. Bixby found companies with large land holding, but little cash and plenty of debt. So he oversaw sale of large tracts of land, preserving land and especially corners along main streets with potential for commercial development. He then arranged for development of the remaining land and returned the companies to prosperity. Under his leadership, the companies began to expand their holding. In these 2 interviews, Bixby talks about his family's history in Long Beach and his own role in local developments. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include: family history; childhood; education; Bixby Land Company; Rancho Los Cerritos and Rainbow Pier GarageTopics on this side of tape include: family history; childhood; beach; Alamitos Land Company and Pacific Electric RailwayTopics on this side of tape include: Alamitos Land Company; Bixby Land Company; oil wells; Virginia Country Club; Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Company; Reserve Oil and Gas Company and Recreation Park
- *** File: cblbixby1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-9:34)... Introduction. Bixby was born in 1908 and never met his grandparents. His grandfather was the youngest of 3 siblings, Nan, Sarah, who wrote Adobe Days, and his father. His grandfather moved south to Los Angeles to handle the business of Flint, Bixby & Co. in southern California. The Flints stayed at San Juan Buatista. The Bixby Land Company was formed in 1896. The Flints took the northern properties and the Bixbys kept the property in the south. It was an informal partnership. The owned an interest in the Irvine Ranch as well as the Alamitos Land Company. It was that company that sold Recreation Park to the City of Long Beach. The Los Angeles and Ocean Railway was going to make Alamitos Bay and major port, but the money ran out before the promoters got the railway built. (9:34-12:56)... There were five Hathaway sisters and four of them married Bixbys. His grandfather married one sister and when she died, he married another one, Mary, who became his grandmother. She also died. Jotham Bixby married Margaret, another sister. and John Bixby married Susan, yet another sister. (12:56-18:33)... Bixby's parents moved to Long Beach in 1905. His dad and mother had been college classmates at Pomona and graduated in 1901. Then he went back to Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he took a 2 year engineering course. and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering. About that same time, things were busy in Long Beach. He never really practiced engineering because other family members wanted him to come to work in the family companies. His parents moved into a house on Gaviota and Ocean and lived there until the Spring of 1931 when they moved into the adobe at Rancho Los Cerritos. That's where Bixby and his sister grew up. He went to Carroll Park grammar school and both he and his sister went to Poly high school where he graduated in 1926. His dad worked for the family companies including the Jotham Bixby Company which was incorporated in 1905. Their office was at 22 Pacific Avenue which was an alley north of Ocean. His first memory of the office and the men who worked there was, as a boy, swinging on a gate that was about waist high and that separated offices. (18:33-25:01)... Bixby's granddad was Lewellyn Bixby. His dad was Lewellyn Bixby, Jr. When his granddad died, he father dropped the "Jr." and changed his name to the original Welsh spelling, "Llewellyn." When Bixby came along, he was named Llewellyn Bixby, Jr. although he was the third person with that name. Bixby's son went back to Roman Numerals and was named "Llewellyn Bixby IV." His dad had a heart attack in 1942. Bixby hadn't been working for the companies because his dad that other relatives who went to work there had some problems. He planned to go to Harvard Business school when he graduated from college. With a couple of friends, he took a trip around the world. When he got back to Long Beach, he discovered the family's financial problems. Bixby Land Company had lots of land but no way to do anything with it except pay taxes. Amelia Bixby, George's widow, had incorporated her holdings into the Amelia M. E. Bixby Company. When his dad had his heart attack, Amelia called Bixby and told him to come to work for the family companies. Bixby married in 1934. His son, Llewellyn, was born in 1935, Jean, who is now president of the Bixby Land Company, in 1938 and Barbara in 1941. His father died in 1942 and his mother in 1959. (25:01-28:00)... Bixby's been involved with Kiwanis, Red Cross, yacht club. He's been involved in sailing for many years. Both he and his wife grew up on the water. He worked for the Jotham Bixby Company when it was subdividing Bixby Knolls. But he and his wife wanted to live near the ocean, so they bought a house closer to the ocean. When they were first married, they bought a little place in Belmont Shore on Pomona. They lived there until their son was old enough to wander by himself. The streets were so narrow, they worrked about him to they bought another place on Vista and Lakeview, a block from Lowell and Rogers schools. It was a brand new tract house with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. They lived there until they build the house where he lived at the time of the interview. Before he married, he lived with his parents in the adobe at Rancho Los Cerritos. (28:00-31:00)... Kenneth Wing designed the house where he was living at the time of the interview. The restoration of e adobe at Rancho Los Cerritos cost about 4 times as much as anyone estimated. It was the Depression and he found out how far his dad went in debt to pay for the restoration. That's when he decided he couldn't sponge off of him to continue in school. When he came back to Long Beach after college, he took over the Rainbow Pier Garage. It never closed. That where he was working when he got married. He's long been involved with the Red Cross and the United Way. He became Chapter Chairman for the United Way. At the time of the interview, he'd been a member of Kiwanis for close to 50 years. Kiwanis members were a gang of guys he liked; when he joined, they seemed younger and less stuffy. His dad was a Rotarian for 3 or 4 years, but then he resigned. They met at the Virginia Hotel. He also belonged to the yacht club and various other things. End of tape *** File: cblbixby2.mp3 (0:00-5:31)... Bixby was 8 years old when Jotham Bixby died. He was always impressed by both Jotham, who had a long, white beard, and his wife, Margaret, who always dressed in freshly ironed, frilly things. They always had lots of silverware on the table and lived in a grand manner. Bixby also knew their oldest son, George H. Bixby, but he died when he was young. George's widow, Amelia, however, became good friends with Bixby. She was a great help to him when he needed someone to lean on in the company. She was a very practical woman with a delightful personality. He also worked with Fred Bixby when he was president of Alamitos Land Company. Fred had a good stock of whiskey that he'd laid in before prohibition and they sit around, have a nip and talk things over. Martha Hathaway acted as a second mother to his dad and 2 aunts. (5:31-6:54)... Florence Bixby was a very delightful woman. She stayed on the board of the Day Nursery so long that the board made a rule limiting the terms people could serve. Many other Bixbys have served on that board. He used to go to Rancho Los Alamitos when he was a boy. They had barbeques and play in the hay barn. Fred Bixby was kind of the grand patron who looked after all of the other relatives. (6:54-11:52)... As a child, Bixby lived near the ocean. There were really big waves and when school was out, he hit the beach. The beach was entirely different then. It wasn't until the federal government extended the breakwater in 1925 that the waves were stopped. Sometimes after winter storms, there was practically no beach left. They used to body surf in the waves. His family used to go for drives on the beach in their old Hudson 54. Fishermen used to fish on the beach. Some early airplanes landed and took off along the beach. When his mother found out his dad rode in one, she had a fit. Bixby's wife also grew up near the beach and they hung out with friends there. (11:52-18:10)... Bixby remembers riding the Pacific Electric streetcars when he was growing up. They ran down American Avenue to Ocean and then turned west. They had car barns north of Seventh Street. At Willow and Long Beach Boulevard, which was know as Willowville, another line branches off and went to Newport. One line came up Pacific Avenue in front of the company offices at 22 Pacific. The line that went east on Ocean from American went right past the house where he grew up. One of the motormen on that line had a crush on his family's upstairs maid. When he came by, he'd right his bell and she'd lean out the window and wave her dust cloth to his mother's disapproval. The Alamitos Land Company gave an easement for its right-of-way along the bluff on the south side of Ocean Boulevard. Alamitos Land Company kept reversionary rights to the land, so when the Pacific Electric abondoned its line, the land came back to the company. It then gave the land to the city which turned it into Bluff Park. (18:10-21:57)... Naples and Belmont Shore were both built on filled land. Bixby doesn't know where the chain of title is located but he remembers that George Hart did some of the legal work in that area. Naples used to sit out in the middle of a marsh; you had to cross the marsh to get there. The Belmont Park subdivision was developed in the 1920s, just in time for everyone to go broke in the Depression. When the trolleys stopped running out Ocean Boulevard they were replaced by Jitney buses. (21:57-22:54)... Bixby had vivid memories of the corner of Ocean and Pacific near the company offices. For a kid, it was a wonderful place with a soda fountain where they served chocolate malts, sundaes and root been floats. The Crystal Cafeteria was across Ocean. It has an upstairs verandah that looked across Lincoln Park. He remembers going down the line and getting mashed potatoes and country gravy to eat. He also remembers that the Union Pacific Railroad took over the right-of-way of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad that went down Ocean Boulevard. Freight coming to the harbor on those tracks came right through downtown. There used to be a 10:00 train at night and it caused lots of confusion because people parked on the tracks to go to the Pike and other downtown attractions. It was a great day when the tracks were moved. He remembers that the Pike smelled of hamburgers, onions and popcorn and he remembers the movie theaters there. (22:54-28:15)... When WWI started, Bixby knew about Kaiser Bill and eveyone hated him. At that time, there were few houses along Ocean. During the war, there were Liberty Gardens in the open spaces between the houses. Nearly everyone had a garden and he rode his bicycle to Carroll Park school. He also remembers Balboa movie studio on Alamitos Avenue. The studio's owners, Horkeimer, and some of his dad's friends, Justin and Bill Cook, were among the original financiers of the studio. As a kid, he remember visiting there. (28:15-30:55)... Bixby Ranch Company has sold off most of its Long Beach property except at Pacific Coast Highway and Second Street. Bixby isn't involved in that company although Fred Bixby's family still serve on the board of the Alamitos Land Company with him. Bixby Land Company was hit hard by the Depression. When he came back to Long Beach, he found things were in bad shape. They still had 4500 acres of land, but they owed a lot of money. His first job was the dig them out of debt. It took about 3 years and he has to see all but 1000 acres of land. He decided to keep land east of town near Los Alamitos and everything west of Bellflower Boulevard. He sold some to the Long Beach Water Department, land for El Dorado Park and some to farmers. He kept everything closer to town. The companies operations, at the time of the interview, were concentrated near Los Alamitos and around the traffic circle in Long Beach. End of tape *** File: cblbixby3.mp3 (0:00-3:24)... At the time of the interview, both Alamitos and Bixby land companies were still active. The Alamitos Land Company owned Alamitos No. 1, which was the discovery well in the Signal Hill oil field. That discovery changed Long Beach completely. At the time of the interview, the Alamitos Land Company still owned that where that well was still pumping and about 100 acres nearby. The also owned about ranch land near Brawley. The company used to own 322 acres back of Sunset Beach where the Naval Weapons Station was built. The company also owned land on the northeast corner of Spring and Palo Verde and developed some of the 100 acres they had in the northeast part of Signal Hill. They still had some oil production as a result of joining their wells with a unit operated by ARCO. (3:24-9:46)... At the time of the interview, Bixby Land Company was thriving. It deals in commercial and industrial property. They own, build, develop and manage property. They developed the Circle Center near the Long Beach traffic circle. They also own corner properties that they saved when other parcels were sold. His daughter, Jean, is working with him in the office now and he's happy that she will be taking over the business. When oil was discovered on the south slope of Signal Hill, houses were moved away, some to Los Cerritos. In the early 1920s, Alamitos Land Company leased land to Virginia Country Club for a gold course. When Virginia Country Club moved to Los Cerritos, the former club land was sold to the city for Recreation Park. It was a bargain for the city. Bixby's father conducted the original survey for the Country Club's new home, with Bixby as his assistant. (9:46-15:18)... Los Angeles Dock and Terminal Company later became the Long Beach Dock and Terminal Company. It was started right after the turn of the twentieth century to develop Long Beach inner harbor. The Los Angeles River used to dump into Channel No. 3 so it would silt up faster than it could be dredged. Ultimately, all of the channel bottoms were deeded to thte were deeded to the City of Long Beach. When the river was channelized into its present state, at the time of the interview, harbor developent became feasible. The Dock and Terminal Company developed their property including selling the property where the Craig Shipbuilding Company was built. The company was really the brainchild of C. J. Curtis. When Curtis moved out of town, he decided Bixby should run the company. Curtis told him to run the company with John McCarthy, an attorney. At the time of the interview, they retained some mineral rights for land under the turning basin. In 1964 or 1964, the Dock and Terminal Company merged with Reserve Oil and Gas Company and that company took over management of the properties. The Dock and Terminal Company was originally organized by a number of local people who wanted to develop a harbor in the swamp by Terminal Island. They fought with the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad over rights-of-way and channels. Later Reserve Oil and Gas merged with the Getty Oil Company and later Getty merged with Texaco. Bixby's dad and the Cook brothers also ran the Softwater Laundry. (15:18-18:02)... Long Beach Dairy and Creamery Company is a child of Bixby Land Company. The company had 4500 acrea of dry farming land. The only way to get something out of it was to grow grass and pasture cows. To process the milk from the 5 dairies they had on that land, they organized the Dairy and Creamery Company. They had a building at the location of what later became the Sear and Roebuck store. It was shut down when there was an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. Uncle Sam shot all of their cattle. They bulldozed the diary building and constructed the Sear building. The city considered the new Sear store a great accomplishment. The that building was damaged in the 1933 earthquake. The company was required by the terms of its lease to repair it. After it was repaired, the company sold it to Sears. Sears took over the loan that the company had taken out to do the repairs. That debt, along with the Depression, taxes and the diaries being shut down, meant the company faced hard times by the end of the 1930s. (18:02-20:10)... Los Alamitos Sugar factory was another child of Bixby Land Company. William Andrews Clark built the sugar factory in 1898 to entice Belgian and Dutch farmers to move there and grow sugar beets. Eventually they had about 5000 acres in beets. They subdivided the town of Los Alamitos. There was also a rail line there. They loaded the sugar beet tops onto rail cars and fed them to the cows at the one dairy they still ran. They finally closed the dairy in about 1948 because the equipment was old and the milk business was lousy. The sold all of the cows. (20:10-24:24)... The Jotham Bixby Company owned some warehouses in Los Angeles. Most of the farmers around Los Alamitos were Belgians. Some were Japanese. When they were sent to internment camps, the company was just left with land that wasn't leased. Someof them had been tenants for many years and he was sorry to see them be forced to leave. Other farmers took advantage of the Japanese farmers by buying their equipment for less than it was worth. The Bank of Long Beach used to be located in downtown Long Beach where a Security Pacific National Bank branch was at the time of the interview. Jotham Bixby brought P. E. Hatch to Long Beach to open the bank. His son, Elsworth Hatch, took over after him. He moved into management of the bank in Los Angeles for a while. Unfortunately he developed a brain tumor and died at at relatively early age. He served on the board of Bixby Land Company for a while. End of tape
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