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\u00a0\u00a0 Dana Point developer Sidney H. Woodruff wrote that it was the Dana Point Syndicate\u2019s \u201c\u2026 intention to install the finest kind of improvements, such as pavements, sidewalks, curbs, ornamental lights, vitrified sewers, castiron water pipes, high-pressure fire hydrants, etc., and everything that will make the City Beautiful and perfectly appointed \u2026\u201d Of these improvements, Woodruff\u2019s \u201cornamental\u201d lantern streetlights continue to attract attention.\u00a0 In addition to Woodruff, several other early investors in Dana Point have been credited with naming the Streets of the Green, Blue, Ruby, Amber, Violet, Golden, Silver, Copper and Crystal Lantern.\u00a0 Who were these other people?<\/p>\n
Documents in our archives inform us that the San Juan Point Corporation was the first developer to break ground in Dana Point in 1923-24 with the Scenic Inn and the bluff-top scenic trail.\u00a0 The officers were Dr. J.L. Beebe, P.H. Krick, Joe Skidmore and Anna G. Walters.\u00a0 The corporation disbanded in late 1924.\u00a0 In 1925, Anna Walters advertised as a Tract Manager of Dana Point through the real estate firm of Merrick & Ruddick Inc.\u00a0 She represented her own properties and those of others who remained invested here. Walters would also continue the development\u2019s theme, as mentioned in a Los Angeles Times<\/em> article on September 6 of that year, with the observation that the area was \u201cVisited by Historic Author on Voyage in Year 1835\u201d and that \u201cHistoric Dana Point has fallen before the march of progress, it has been subdivided for the homeseeker, and is to be formally opened to the public on Labor Day.\u201d<\/p>\n A comparison of tract map 768 between June 1925 and September 1925 shows the street name changes that were first made that summer. What was Hillcrest Drive was renamed Street of the Blue Lantern, Juanita Drive became Ruby Lantern and Park Drive became Amber Lantern.\u00a0 Walters newly built home is shown in the same 1925, Los Angeles Times<\/em>, located on a street in Tract 573 that became the Street of the Green Lantern. \u00a0The arrival of Woodruff and his investors in Dana Point in 1925 also adds to the confusion of the street names.\u00a0 Dr. Beebe and his wife, H. Eva Beebe, of the failed San Juan Point Corporation mentioned above, continued to own properties in Dana Point.\u00a0 They would also invest in Woodruff\u2019s 1930 Dana Point Inn. \u00a0In 1980, Orange County Legacy <\/em>magazine credits Mrs. Beebe for naming the lantern streets, although she was only one of many people who contributed to the concept.\u00a0 In addition, a developer from the 1920s, Alice Snell Moyer, is also credited with helping to name the lantern streets. \u00a0This fact was discovered as a written notation inside a Woodruff real estate sales album that was donated to the Dana Point Historical Society.<\/p>\n On April 3, 1927, a Los Angeles Times<\/em> article announced the opening of one of the first buildings to be built in Dana Point — a new service station designed by Fay R. Spangler for Anna G. Walters, on the corner of the Street of the Blue Lantern and the new Roosevelt Highway.\u00a0 The lessee was Carroll Lynch, who operated the station.\u00a0 Within four years, Mrs. Walters owned both a home and a commercial building, each on a lantern street, and she would continue to reside here until her untimely death in 1932 at age 59, when her daughter and son-in-law would inherit her estate. \u00a0It is no wonder she is associated with the lantern streets.\u00a0 Yet, in a recent telephone call I had with Carolyn King, Woodruff\u2019s step-granddaughter, Carolyn noted how amazing it was that Woodruff\u2019s lantern streetlights were installed throughout Dana Point with underground wiring, an innovation for the time. She also emphasized Woodruff\u2019s eye for detail, which included specific street landscaping that was coordinated with the color-named lantern streets.<\/p>\n Why were so many people credited with the naming of the lantern streets when the streetlights were installed from circa 1927-1929 by Woodruff\u2019s Dana Point Syndicate as part of his nautically themed development?\u00a0 Was it due to early investors\u2019 admiration of the unique ship lanterns because they evoked Richard Henry Dana Jr.\u2019s description of this harbor as the \u201c. . . most romantic spot on the California coast\u201d?<\/p>\n There are several colorful legends associated with the lantern streets and occasionally the Historical Society is asked to settle a bet or answer a question about them. These theories are found and debunked on social media.\u00a0 One internet report on Dana Point lanterns reads:\u00a0 \u201cThe streets are named after different colored lanterns\u2014Street of the Violet Lantern, Blue Lantern, etc.\u2014because colored lanterns were used by ships 200 years ago to advertise their fares when in the Dana Point natural harbor.\u201d There is no factual basis for this belief.\u00a0 During Richard Henry Dana\u2019s era, as chronicled in his best seller,<\/em> the ships carried all sorts of manufactured and finished goods from Boston to trade for western cowhides, but the products were not color-coded to ships lanterns. \u00a0Another theory is that the colors were inspired from ships\u2019 navigational lights used in the United States as early as 1838. \u00a0\u00a0It is possible, but doubtful, since navigational lights are only red, green and white. \u00a0One online contributor, writing on Tripadvisor, <\/em>was not as kind when writing, \u201cThe \u2018Street of the Whatever Lantern\u2019 was a marketing gimmick, meant to seem nautical, by Sidney Woodruff, the master planner behind what is now\u00a0Dana Point<\/a>. (Interestingly, Woodruff is also the guy who made the Hollywood(land) sign.)\u201d<\/p>\n A January 16, 1927, Los Angeles Times <\/em>article described the lanterns and lantern streets: \u201cOne of the interesting innovations at Dana Point is the unique system of lighting and naming the streets. The Roosevelt Highway, as the major-traffic artery of Dana Point, is crossed by a series of streets with streetlights of special design, each having a beautiful ship\u2019s lantern in various colors. The first is the Street of the Golden Lantern, and is entirely lighted by golden lanterns. The second is Street of the Green Lantern, and is lighted by green lanterns. Next is the street of the Amber Lantern, etc., and as the streets wind up to the hillcrests, giving brilliant colorful effect.\u201d \u00a0It is a dramatic description, but the streets are not in order and one has to wonder if the reporter was even here or, if here, stayed to see the colored lanterns at night. Current research and historic photos show it was only a colored dome light at the top of the post, located at the lantern street corners where they intersected Roosevelt Highway.\u00a0 The lantern itself was an uncolored frosted glass, as replicated today on the corners of Pacific Coast Highway and Del Prado at the Streets of Blue, Ruby, Amber, Violet and Golden Lantern in the Lantern District.<\/p>\n There are at least eight original lanterns scattered throughout the gardens of private residences in the Lantern Village. Some of these original lanterns were initially sold by the county for scrap circa 1950, but then refurbished or stored by residents for later use.\u00a0 Judging from the remaining lantern post foundations along the curbs in the Lantern Village, the posts were simply sawed off at the base for easy removal, which could be why some original posts appear shorter than others.<\/p>\n In 1989, Gary Keller’s South Coast Lighting and Design<\/em> restored and rewired 15 original lanterns for the area on La Plaza.\u00a0 The lanterns had to meet current codes and the old glass was pulled out and new tempered safety glass was installed.\u00a0 Keller\u2019s company also reproduced 10 new lantern streetlights for the Lantern District in 2014-15.\u00a0 Over the years, several lanterns have been donated to the Historical Society, one of which was used as a template to replicate those 10 new lantern streetlights now on Del Prado and PCH.\u00a0 That lantern is on display in our museum along with a floor-to-ceiling wall photo of the \u201cLady and the Lantern\u201d with the dome light visible at the top of the lamppost above the lantern.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best lantern reference appeared in the Santa Ana Daily Register<\/em> on July 19, 1929, reporting on Governor Young appearing at the opening of the Roosevelt Highway in Dana Point the day before.\u00a0 \u201cFollowing his address, Governor Young threw the switch of 400 ornamental lights illuminating the streets of Dana Point.\u00a0 The lights are unique in that they are made to resemble ships\u2019 lanterns.\u201d\u00a0 It must have been an impressive sight.\u00a0 Unfortunately, just three months later, on October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. The Great Depression and World War II would cause Dana Point\u2019s streetlights to dim and deteriorate, but some would be saved for restoration and reproduction as Dana Point\u2019s historic lantern streetlights.\u00a0 Yes, Woodruff was marketing our historic past to attract future residents to his seaside resort with unique streetlights designed as ships\u2019 lanterns, and we are still talking and writing about them today.<\/p>\n Consider visiting La Plaza one evening to admire the 15 original restored lantern streetlights and, for a moment, imagine 400 of those lanterns illuminating Dana Point in 1929.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Barbara Force Johannes The February 11, 2021 removal of the last Dana Point Lantern Post still standing in its original location on Violet Lantern …<\/p>\n