Stroll Through Venice’s Past

The urban archeologists got an early start Sunday morning. Clad in walking shoes and armed with steaming cups of coffee, they gathered on the Venice boardwalk before 9 under a salty mist that drifted over from the gray ocean.

Their mission: to troll the streets of Venice, excavating below the funky veneer for a glimpse of its glamorous past. The Venice Historical Society sponsored the Labor Day weekend walk around the seaside neighborhood, which drew about 100 people eager to learn the roots of the eclectic area.

“Whenever we go out of the country we take a city tour, but we never play tourist in our city,” said Mar Vista resident Sonya Molho, 51.

Added her husband Lee, 57: “It’s enlightening that there’s so much history that lies under the asphalt.”

Venice was the vision of Abbot Kinney, a New Jersey-born businessman who wanted to create a cultural mecca mirroring the enchantment of Venice, Italy. On July 4, 1905, Kinney unveiled the resort town and amusement park to 40,000 visitors.

Many of the wide canals Kinney built are now cemented over. The pier is gone; the attractions demolished. But amid today’s body piercing shops, fortune tellers and musicians, there’s still evidence of the developer’s dream--a town many dubbed Kinney’s Folly--and the characters that peopled it.

In its fourth year, Sunday’s historical tour is the longest-running walk put on by the society, which is dedicated to educating the public about Venice’s past and helping preserve it.

“Our purpose is to acquaint people with the unique history of this town--and unique it is,” said Elayne Alexander, the society’s historian, who led one of three tours held Sunday. “And we’ll have more people to round up next time to help us save the old buildings from demolition.”

Modern-day Venice was just waking up as the first walking tour set off Sunday in search of relics from the past left amid today’s boardwalk life. The group strolled south down Ocean Front Walk past the African drummers, the tattoo artists and a man pushing a baby carriage full of squawking parrots.

“Everyone loves Venice!” a vendor yelled at the visitors as they dodged roller-bladers and listened to Alexander narrate the area’s history.

Kinney, who made a fortune in his family business selling the first rolled cigarettes, settled in Southern California in 1880 after a trip around the world. A few years later, he won the swampy land south of Santa Monica in a coin toss with his business partners.

He dredged the marshy beachfront and built a system of canals navigated by gondoliers. The pier he erected boasted carnival attractions like roller coasters and fun houses, a ballroom, cafes and later an aquarium.

Alexander led the group to the site of the Grand Lagoon--now a traffic circle on Windward Avenue--where a midway featured circus acts such as the 30-inch-tall Madame Chiquita, the Whirling Dervishes and a head-hunting tribe.

Down the street, a row of boardwalk booths where tourists now buy sunglasses, T-shirts and souvenirs sits on the spot that once hosted an alligator and crocodile farm. It remained a popular attraction until one of the performers who did tricks with the animals was attacked by a young crocodile.

The tour group paused in front of the nearby Venice Pavilion, near the original site of the Plunge, a saltwater swimming pool. The pool manager would draw in customers by putting on a stunt suit, climbing to the rafters, setting himself on fire and diving into the water below.

Kinney’s creation immediately drew artists, entertainers and athletes. Charlie Chaplin first developed the character of the Little Tramp in Venice, where he filmed one of his first American feature films.

The seaside resort’s fortune changed in 1920 when Kinney died and his money was tied up in a trust. Five weeks later, the flourishing pier burned down in a raging fire. The Kinneys’ homewas mortgaged by the family to rebuild it.

In 1925, Venice was incorporated into Los Angeles, and a few years later the city began filling in some of the canals to build roads. The pier and its attractions were torn down in 1946 after the Kinney family’s lease expired. Other buildings not up to seismic codes were demolished in the early 1960s.

However, some structures from the old days still remain. One stop was the Cadillac Hotel, a peach building built on the boardwalk in 1914 as a honeymoon spot.

Farther south is the Waldorf Hotel, a posh establishment which boasted a rooftop orchestra and the second elevator in the West. Kinney’s yellow Venice home remains, as well as the most recent incarnation of St. Mark’s, a popular Venice nightspot where Orson Welles filmed “A Touch of Evil.”

Many of the tour participants said the walk helped give them a sense of local history.

“It’s wonderful how things take on a third dimension when you know a little of the story you’re looking at, “ said Eva Ratliff, 70, of West Covina.

“I love my little neighborhood and I wanted to learn more about it,” added Scott Storey, 35, who moved to Venice about a year ago.

“I think it has a rich history and people really appreciate it. I used to live in the Valley--what a difference!”

The tour ended on Windward Avenue, the former site of the Grand Lagoon. Alexander left the group with a final thought from Abbott Kinney’s forefather, Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Colony.

“What your forefathers have attained with difficulty,” she quoted, “do not basely relinquish.”