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Santa Catalina Island rises from the Pacific Ocean twenty-two miles off the Southern California coast, a rugged and mountainous island that has drawn people to its shores for thousands of years. Stretching roughly twenty-two miles long and eight miles wide, Catalina is part of the Channel Islands archipelago and lies entirely within Los Angeles County. Its dramatic landscape of steep ridges, rocky coves, deep canyons, and isolated harbors was shaped over millions of years by tectonic uplift and constant erosion from wind and sea. Few places in Southern California combine natural beauty, isolation, and historical depth quite like Catalina.

Long before tourists arrived by steamship, the island belonged to the Tongva people, also known historically as the Gabrielino, who lived on Catalina for more than 7,000 years. They called the island Pimu and maintained villages, fishing camps, and trade routes across the channel using plank canoes expertly crafted for open water travel. In 1542, Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European known to visit the island while sailing in service of the Spanish crown. He claimed it for Spain and named it San Salvador. Sixty years later, in November 1602, explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno rediscovered the island on the eve of Saint Catherine’s Day and renamed it Santa Catalina, the name it still carries today.

For nearly three centuries after Vizcaíno’s visit, Catalina passed through Spanish colonial rule, Mexican independence, and a succession of private owners. Mexican Governor Pío Pico granted the island to Tomas Robbins in 1846, after which it changed hands several times before San Francisco businessman and philanthropist James Lick consolidated ownership in 1864. By 1867, Lick controlled the entire island. He never developed Catalina, but by keeping it intact as a single holding, he preserved the opportunity for its future transformation. After his death, the Lick estate sold the island to developer George Shatto in 1887, marking the beginning of Avalon and Catalina’s modern resort era.

Before Avalon: Catalina’s Earliest Years

Historical Notes

Santa Catalina Island was formed through tectonic uplift, volcanic activity, and millions of years of geologic movement along the California coast. The same forces that shaped Southern California’s coastal mountain ranges produced Catalina’s rugged terrain, steep canyons, rocky shoreline, and elevated interior ridges. Seen from the air before modern development, the island reveals its dramatic natural character largely unchanged from what early explorers and settlers encountered during the 19th century.

The island’s isolation helped shape every stage of its history. For the Tongva people, Catalina provided abundant marine resources and relative safety from mainland conflict. For Spanish navigators, it served as a recognizable offshore landmark. For landowners and speculators during the 19th century, it represented opportunity. And for generations of visitors arriving by steamship, Catalina became an escape from mainland life, close enough to see from the coast yet distant enough to feel like another world entirely.

Historical Notes

The S.S. Amelia was the first steam-powered vessel to provide regular passenger service between Wilmington and Santa Catalina Island, operating from 1880 to 1883. Owned by the Wilmington Transportation Company under Phineas Banning, the vessel established one of the island’s earliest dependable transportation links to the mainland years before Avalon formally existed as a town.

The arrival of regular steamship service marked an important turning point in Catalina’s history. Before vessels like the Amelia, reaching the island required chartered boats or private sailing trips that depended heavily on weather and sea conditions. Steamship transportation made Catalina accessible to a growing number of mainland visitors and helped lay the foundation for the island’s future tourism economy. It also introduced early travelers to landmarks such as Sugarloaf Point, which already stood prominently above Avalon Harbor.

Historical Notes

This 1887 view captures Avalon Harbor at the very beginning of Catalina’s transformation into a resort destination. George Shatto had purchased the island that same year, but the town of Avalon had not yet fully taken shape. The harbor remained largely undeveloped, with only a few small vessels anchored offshore beneath the steep hills surrounding the bay. Sugarloaf Point dominates the distant shoreline years before it was altered and eventually removed for construction of the Catalina Casino.

Catalina’s early recorded history reflects centuries of changing ownership and identity. Cabrillo claimed the island for Spain in 1542, and Vizcaíno renamed it Santa Catalina in 1602. Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, the island became part of Mexican California before passing into private ownership after the American acquisition of California. Governor Pío Pico’s 1846 land grant to Tomas Robbins began a long period of speculation and ownership transfers that eventually brought the island under James Lick and later George Shatto, whose vision would permanently reshape Avalon Harbor.

Historical Notes

Before Avalon emerged as a resort town, the harbor existed as a quiet natural anchorage framed by steep hillsides covered with native brush and scattered trees. A handful of small boats rest offshore in this early view, while Sugarloaf Point rises prominently above the bay. The protected waters of Avalon Harbor had long attracted fishermen, sailors, and occasional visitors even before permanent development reached the island.

For more than 7,000 years, Catalina Island was home to the Tongva people, whose knowledge of the island and surrounding waters allowed them to thrive in relative isolation. Spanish and later Mexican rule brought formal claims of ownership but little large scale settlement or development. For much of the 19th century, Catalina remained remote, rugged, and sparsely populated, preserving much of the natural landscape seen in these early photographs.

Historical Notes

This rare 1886 photograph captures Avalon during the final years before organized resort development transformed the harbor into Southern California’s premier island destination. Tents line portions of the shoreline while a steamship rests offshore, providing some of the earliest visual evidence of recreational visitors arriving on Catalina before the founding of Avalon.

At the time this photograph was taken, Catalina Island belonged to the estate of James Lick, the San Francisco businessman and philanthropist who had consolidated ownership of the island by 1867. Although Lick never developed Catalina himself, his ownership preserved the island as a single holding during a period when much of Southern California was being divided and rapidly sold. Within a year, George Shatto would purchase Catalina from the Lick estate, build the island’s first major resort facilities, and begin transforming what appears here as a rough coastal encampment into one of Southern California’s earliest planned resort communities.

The Hotel Metropole and Avalon’s First Resort Era

In 1887, George Rufus Shatto, a real estate developer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, purchased Santa Catalina Island from the estate of James Lick for approximately $200,000. It was an ambitious gamble. The island had no town, no pier, no hotel, and only limited transportation to the mainland. What Shatto saw instead was opportunity — a protected harbor, clear water, dramatic scenery, and a climate that could attract visitors seeking escape from the increasingly crowded cities of Southern California. Within a year, he had surveyed lots, constructed a wharf, and begun laying out the settlement that would soon become Avalon. His sister in law, Etta Whitney, selected the name from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, inspired by the legendary island of Avalon associated with beauty and rest.

At the center of Shatto’s vision stood the Hotel Metropole, completed in 1888 along the shoreline of Avalon Bay. The large wooden hotel overlooked the harbor with wide porches, balconies, dormer windows, and sweeping views of the bay. A windmill beside the property supplied water to guests while small boats ferried passengers and freight ashore from anchored steamships. From the beginning, the Metropole became far more than a hotel. It was the social center of a town being created almost in real time, where tourists arrived by steamer, stayed in tents pitched along the waterfront, attended dances and gatherings, and experienced a style of resort life unlike anything else then available in Southern California.

Shatto’s dream helped launch Catalina’s tourism era, but his finances could not keep pace with the rapid development. Within only a few years he defaulted on his mortgage and control of the island returned to the Lick estate. In 1891, Catalina was purchased by the three sons of Phineas Banning — William, Joseph, and Hancock Banning — who established the Santa Catalina Island Company. The Bannings expanded steamship service, improved roads and utilities, and guided Avalon through its first major period of growth. Under their management, the rough tent settlement surrounding the Metropole slowly evolved into one of California’s earliest seaside resort towns.

Historical Notes

Completed in 1888, the Hotel Metropole became Avalon’s first grand resort hotel and the centerpiece of George Shatto’s plans for Catalina Island. The large wooden structure stood only steps from the beach and greeted arriving passengers the moment their steamship entered Avalon Harbor. Wide verandas, balconies, and dormer windows gave visitors commanding views across the bay, while the windmill beside the hotel supplied much of the fresh water needed by the growing settlement.

The Metropole quickly became the social heart of early Avalon. Visitors gathered there after arriving by steamer, attended dances and receptions in the evenings, and organized fishing trips, boating excursions, and sightseeing during the day. Although tents and temporary camps still covered much of the harbor, the hotel gave Avalon its first real sense of permanence.

Historical Notes

This early harbor scene captures Avalon during its first full season as a developing resort community. The Hotel Metropole stands prominently along the shoreline while a steamer departs Avalon Harbor carrying passengers back toward the mainland. Only a few scattered buildings and tents appear near the waterfront, and most of the surrounding hillsides remain open and undeveloped.

Steamship transportation was the lifeline of early Avalon. Before automobiles and highways connected Southern California communities, visitors depended almost entirely on coastal steamers to reach Catalina Island. Regular passenger service transformed the island from a remote offshore anchorage into an accessible vacation destination, bringing increasing numbers of visitors to Avalon during the late 1880s and early 1890s.

Historical Notes

The Hotel Metropole offered visitors comforts rarely associated with such a remote island setting during the late 19th century. Guests enjoyed shaded porches overlooking Avalon Bay, immediate access to boating and fishing, and a lively social atmosphere centered around the waterfront. Small boats pulled onto the beach and the nearby windmill reveal how dependent early Avalon remained on maritime transportation and improvised infrastructure.

Despite the elegant appearance of the hotel, much of Avalon still resembled a frontier outpost. Supplies arrived by ship, roads remained rough, and tents outnumbered permanent structures throughout the harbor area. Yet this blend of rugged surroundings and resort hospitality became one of Catalina’s defining attractions, giving visitors both adventure and comfort within the same setting.

Historical Notes

This colorized view restores the atmosphere of Avalon during the island’s earliest tourism era. The white wooden facade of the Hotel Metropole overlooks the calm waters of Avalon Bay while the dry hills surrounding the harbor still show little evidence of permanent development. The scene captures Catalina at a moment when the island remained isolated and rugged even as organized tourism was beginning to reshape the shoreline.

The setting itself became part of the hotel’s appeal. Positioned between the mountains and the protected harbor, the Metropole offered scenery unlike anything available at mainland resorts. Many early visitors returned year after year, drawn less by luxury than by Catalina’s ocean travel, mild climate, dramatic landscape, and relaxed seaside atmosphere.

Historical Notes

By the early 1890s, Avalon had begun evolving from a seasonal tent settlement into a recognizable resort town. The Hotel Metropole anchored the waterfront while tents spread across the shoreline and additional buildings slowly appeared beneath the surrounding hills. Sailboats, steamships, and pleasure craft filled Avalon Harbor as tourism activity steadily increased.

The unfinished Congregational Church visible near the lower right reflects Avalon’s gradual transition toward permanence. Churches, businesses, boarding houses, and year round residents were beginning to replace the temporary character of the earliest settlement years. At the same time, Sugarloaf Point continued to dominate the harbor entrance, serving as both a navigational landmark and one of Catalina’s most recognizable natural features.

Historical Notes

Seen from the hills above Avalon, this view reveals the remarkable growth of Tent City during Catalina’s first tourism boom. Canvas tents spread across much of the flat land surrounding the harbor while the Hotel Metropole and a small number of permanent buildings lined the waterfront below. A steamboat rests in Avalon Bay after delivering another group of summer visitors from the mainland.

George Shatto had succeeded in creating Avalon from virtually nothing, but the cost of sustaining and expanding the settlement exceeded his financial resources. When control of the island passed to the Banning brothers in 1891, they brought the steamships, capital, infrastructure, and organizational experience needed to transform Shatto’s original vision into a lasting resort community that would continue growing well into the 20th century.

Tent City and “Rag City”

During the late 1880s and early 1890s, most visitors arriving at Avalon could not afford the Hotel Metropole or the island’s limited number of boarding houses. Instead, they stayed in canvas tents pitched along the shoreline and hillsides surrounding Avalon Harbor. What began as a practical way to accommodate tourists soon evolved into one of Catalina’s most distinctive traditions. Rows of tents spread across the waterfront beneath the shadow of Sugarloaf Point, creating a seasonal community that combined the informality of camping with the social atmosphere of a growing seaside resort.

The expanding tent settlement became known informally as “Rag City,” a nickname inspired by the canvas tents that covered much of Avalon during the busy summer months. Families arrived by steamship carrying trunks, fishing gear, picnic baskets, and supplies for extended stays on the island. Days were spent swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, and exploring the harbor while evenings brought lantern light, concerts, dances, and cool ocean breezes drifting across the waterfront. For many Southern Californians, Tent City offered an affordable escape that felt adventurous yet comfortable at the same time.

Overlooking the harbor stood Holly Hill House, also known as the Lookout Cottage, one of Avalon’s earliest hillside boarding houses. From its elevated perch above the bay, visitors enjoyed panoramic views of Sugarloaf Point, Avalon Harbor, steamships anchored offshore, and the growing collection of tents, bathhouses, hotels, and businesses spreading along the shoreline below. Together, Tent City and Holly Hill House captured the unusual character of early Catalina, part frontier camp, part Victorian resort, and unlike anything else then existing along the Southern California coast.

Historical Notes

The S.S. Hermosa became one of the most recognizable steamships serving Catalina during the island’s early tourism years. Built in San Francisco in 1888 for the Wilmington Transportation Company owned by the Banning family, the vessel carried passengers between the mainland and Avalon during the busy summer season. During the off season, the Hermosa was sometimes leased for service in Puget Sound and Alaska.

This view captures many of the elements that defined early Avalon: the Hotel Metropole overlooking the harbor, steamships delivering visitors from the mainland, and the rugged hills surrounding the growing resort settlement. Steamship transportation made Catalina increasingly accessible and helped transform Avalon from a remote harbor into one of Southern California’s most popular vacation destinations.

Historical Notes

This panoramic scene reveals how much of early Avalon still functioned as a tent community during the 1890s. Canvas tents covered large sections of the waterfront while only a limited number of permanent buildings stood near the harbor. The Hotel Metropole dominated the shoreline as the S.S. Hermosa rested docked nearby after bringing another group of visitors to Catalina Island.

The Hermosa could carry approximately 150 passengers and quickly became an important part of Avalon’s tourism economy. For many visitors, the steamship voyage itself formed part of the Catalina experience. Crossing the channel by sea created a sense of separation from mainland life that made Avalon feel both adventurous and exotic despite its relatively short distance from Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

This view looking south along Avalon Harbor captures the rough and unfinished character of early Avalon. The Hotel Metropole stands prominently near the waterfront while rows of tents spread across the shoreline below the steep, nearly barren hills surrounding the harbor. The S.S. Hermosa rests at the pier after transporting passengers and supplies from the mainland.

Although Avalon had already begun attracting tourists by the early 1890s, much of the settlement still resembled a frontier outpost rather than a fully developed resort town. Roads remained primitive, utilities were limited, and tents continued to outnumber permanent structures. Yet this combination of rugged landscape and growing tourism became part of Catalina’s unique appeal.

Historical Notes

This colorized image restores the atmosphere of Avalon during the island’s formative resort years. The S.S. Hermosa sits at the pier while tents line the waterfront beside the Hotel Metropole. The dry hills rising behind the harbor reveal how little permanent development had yet reached the island beyond the shoreline settlement.

The image also highlights the unusual contrast that defined early Catalina. Visitors arrived in formal clothing and stayed at resort hotels or organized tent camps while still surrounded by a rugged landscape that remained largely untouched. That balance between refinement and frontier scenery helped establish Avalon’s reputation as one of California’s most distinctive vacation destinations.

Historical Notes

This panoramic harbor scene captures daily life in Avalon during the closing years of the 19th century. The Hotel Metropole anchors the shoreline while tents crowd the beachfront and small boats fill the calm waters of the harbor. In the foreground, residents and visitors dressed in formal Victorian clothing gather near a windmill and clothesline, small details that reveal the mixture of resort life and practical frontier living that characterized early Avalon.

Although tourists came to Catalina seeking recreation and escape, Avalon still depended on basic systems that reflected its isolation from the mainland. Fresh water remained limited, supplies arrived by ship, and much of the town operated seasonally around the arrival of steamship passengers. The scene captures a community still balancing between temporary camp and permanent town.

Avalon’s First Businesses

The Hotel Metropole and the growing tent camps gave visitors a place to stay, but Avalon’s future depended on something more permanent taking root along its dusty streets. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, small hotels, bakeries, grocery stores, shell shops, and restaurants began appearing near the waterfront, transforming the young settlement from a seasonal resort camp into a functioning town. Wooden storefronts lined the unpaved roads while freight, food, and supplies arrived daily by steamship from the mainland.

Among Avalon’s earliest and most important businessmen was Alonzo W. Wheeler, who purchased the first lot ever sold in Avalon from George Shatto in 1887. Wheeler quickly built a small business empire that included the Avalon Hotel, a bakery, grocery store, shell shop, ice cream parlor, and the schooner Ruby, one of the earliest vessels making regular trips between Catalina and the mainland. His businesses became part of the commercial foundation that helped support Avalon’s growing tourism economy.

The modest storefronts appearing along Crescent Avenue during these years represented more than simple commerce. They reflected a growing confidence that Avalon was becoming something lasting. A bakery, shell store, and ice cream parlor were signs that Catalina was evolving beyond a speculative resort venture into a permanent seaside community with an increasingly active commercial center.

Historical Notes

Alonzo Wheeler purchased Avalon’s first sold lot from George Shatto in 1887 and quickly established himself as one of the island’s leading early businessmen. By 1889, his two story Avalon Hotel stood along Crescent Avenue with a covered porch, second floor balcony, and neighboring bakery and grocery store visible nearby. Wheeler also owned the schooner Ruby, one of the earliest vessels making regular runs between Catalina and the mainland.

The Avalon Hotel occupied an important location near the growing waterfront district. Although the larger Hotel Metropole dominated Avalon’s skyline, Wheeler’s more modest hotel helped serve the increasing number of visitors arriving each summer by steamship. Together, these early hotels anchored the beginnings of Crescent Avenue, the street that would eventually become Avalon’s commercial and social center.

Historical Notes

By the mid 1890s, Wheeler’s business interests had expanded well beyond his original hotel. His bakery, shell store, grocery, and ice cream parlor occupied neighboring storefronts along the dusty unpaved street, forming one of Avalon’s earliest commercial blocks. Freight crates, trunks, and supplies stacked outside the buildings reflect the steady flow of goods arriving from the mainland to support the growing resort town.

The businesses visible here capture an important turning point in Avalon’s early history. Shell shops and ice cream parlors were not frontier necessities. They were businesses designed for visitors with leisure time to explore, shop, and enjoy the island. What had begun only a few years earlier as a rough harbor settlement was steadily evolving into a mature resort community built around tourism, recreation, and seaside life.

Holly Hill House and Avalon’s Hillside Homes

As Tent City spread across the shoreline below Avalon Harbor, a different kind of development began appearing on the hillsides above the bay. Small cottages, boarding houses, and private residences slowly emerged overlooking the growing resort town, offering panoramic views of Sugarloaf Point, the harbor, and the steady arrival of steamships from the mainland. These hillside homes represented Avalon’s gradual transition from a temporary summer encampment into a more permanent community.

Among the earliest and most recognizable of these structures was Holly Hill House, originally known as Lookout Cot. Built in 1890 by retired Pasadena engineer Peter Gano, the Victorian style residence occupied a commanding perch above Avalon Bay and quickly became one of the island’s most photographed homes. Its elevated cupola and broad views made it a prominent landmark visible from both the harbor and the surrounding hillsides.

Unlike the tents and temporary structures covering much of Avalon below, Holly Hill House symbolized permanence. More than a century later, the home still stands overlooking Avalon Harbor, making it one of Avalon’s oldest surviving homes and one of the few remaining direct links to Catalina’s earliest resort era.

Historical Notes

This 1891 panorama captures Avalon at a pivotal moment in its early history. Tent City spreads across the shoreline beneath Sugarloaf Point while the S.S. Hermosa makes its way out of Avalon Harbor toward the mainland. High on the hillside at right, Holly Hill House stands with commanding views across the bay, already a permanent landmark above a town that was still largely canvas. Few photographs better capture the contrast between the temporary settlement below and the permanence beginning to appear above it.

That same year, the sons of Phineas Banning purchased Catalina Island from the estate of James Lick and established the Santa Catalina Island Company. The Bannings brought motivations that extended beyond tourism. They needed Catalina’s granite for a breakwater at Wilmington and had already invested heavily in the S.S. Hermosa to carry visitors across the channel. By owning the island, they controlled both the rock and the passage. Their investment in roads, utilities, hotels, camps, and transportation helped transform the rough harbor settlement visible below Holly Hill House into one of California’s best known seaside resorts.

Historical Notes

Lookout Cot, later known as Holly Hill House, was built in 1890 as a private residence by Peter Gano, a retired engineer from Pasadena. Gano had purchased the hillside lot from George Shatto and his agent C. A. Summer two years earlier for $500. The Victorian style home, with its cupola, wrap around veranda, and commanding hillside position, stood apart from nearly every other structure then existing in Avalon.

While the Hotel Metropole served as Avalon’s social center near the waterfront, Lookout Cot represented something very different — a permanent private residence overlooking a town that was still largely seasonal. Gano’s decision to build here reflected an early confidence in Avalon’s future and helped establish the pattern of hillside residential development that still characterizes much of the city today.

Historical Notes

By 1903, Holly Hill House had stood above Avalon Harbor for more than a decade, surviving the financial collapse of George Shatto, the transition to Banning ownership, and the rapid expansion of Avalon below. The town visible from the beach in this photograph, with its piers, hotels, bathhouses, and growing commercial district, bore little resemblance to the rough settlement Peter Gano had looked down upon when he completed the home in 1890.

Yet the house itself remained remarkably unchanged. Its cupola and broad veranda continued to overlook the harbor much as they had during Avalon’s earliest years. More than 130 years after it was built, Holly Hill House still stands today as one of Avalon’s oldest surviving homes and one of the island’s most important architectural links to the Victorian era.

Historical Notes

More than 120 years separate these two views of Holly Hill House overlooking Avalon Harbor. Although Avalon has grown dramatically since the early 1900s, the historic home remains immediately recognizable, still occupying the same hillside perch above the bay with broad views across the harbor below.

Nearly every other structure from Avalon’s founding era has been rebuilt, replaced, or lost to fire. Holly Hill House remains one of the island’s most recognizable surviving links to Avalon’s earliest resort years, a constant presence above a town that has transformed repeatedly around it.

Rag City: Life in the Tent Community

By the mid 1890s, Avalon’s tent community had grown far beyond anything George Shatto imagined when he first began selling lots along the harbor. What began as simple overflow lodging for visitors unable to afford the Hotel Metropole had evolved into a full seasonal neighborhood with its own streets, routines, and sense of identity. Families from Pasadena, Monrovia, Los Angeles, and communities across Southern California arrived each summer by steamship and settled into canvas homes they often returned to year after year. Tent clusters took on the names of hometowns, platforms were decorated with American flags, and evenings were filled with shared meals, music, conversation, and card games beneath the glow of lantern light.

The panoramic views captured during these years reveal how completely Tent City came to define early Avalon. From the hills above Sugarloaf Point, the harbor appears less like a resort town than a canvas city surrounding a small collection of permanent buildings. Tents stretched across nearly every available flat space near the waterfront while steamships arrived daily carrying new visitors to the growing seaside settlement below. Despite its rough appearance, Rag City offered something many visitors found irresistible — an affordable and informal way to experience Catalina’s ocean air, dramatic scenery, and slower pace of life far removed from the increasingly crowded mainland cities.

Historical Notes

This panoramic view of Avalon Bay around 1893 captures Tent City at its most visually striking. Hundreds of canvas tents spread across the harborfront beneath the surrounding hills while the large circular dance pavilion stands prominently near the center of the settlement. High above the harbor, Holly Hill House rises from the hillside overlooking the bay, while at lower right the Community Congregational Church reflects one of the earliest signs that Avalon was beginning to develop institutions associated with a more permanent town. Remarkably, both Holly Hill House and the Community Congregational Church still stand in Avalon today.

The nickname “Rag City” was used affectionately by visitors who embraced the informal atmosphere of Avalon’s tent community. For many families, the tents were not considered temporary hardship accommodations but an essential part of the Catalina experience itself. The combination of ocean air, harbor scenery, wooden dance pavilions, and canvas living created a seasonal community unlike anything then existing elsewhere in Southern California.

This 1892 view captures Avalon during the first year of Banning ownership, when the future of the island was still taking shape. House tents and permanent wooden buildings occupy the foreground in nearly equal numbers while a steamboat trails black smoke approaching Avalon Bay from the mainland. The mixture of temporary and permanent structures reflects a town still balancing between rough encampment and organized resort community.

Within only a few years of purchasing Catalina in 1891, the Banning brothers expanded the Hotel Metropole, planted trees along Avalon’s streets, improved steamship service, and developed roads into the island’s interior. The modest harbor settlement visible here would change dramatically by the turn of the century as tourism and investment continued reshaping the town.

Seen from high above Sugarloaf Point during the late 1890s, Avalon’s rapid growth becomes unmistakable. The Hotel Metropole remains the largest structure in town while tents continue spreading across the flats and hillsides surrounding the harbor. Steamships docked near the pier delivered the steady flow of tourists whose arrival fueled Avalon’s expanding economy.

The elevated vantage point also reveals Avalon’s geographic limitations. Hemmed in by mountains on three sides and the harbor on the fourth, the town possessed only limited flat land for development. As Avalon continued growing during the decades ahead, homes, hotels, and apartment buildings would increasingly climb the surrounding hillsides overlooking the bay.

Historical Notes

By the late 1890s, the trees planted by the Banning brothers along Avalon’s dusty streets were beginning to soften the appearance of the young resort town. House tents filled much of the harbor area while newly planted vegetation gradually transformed the previously barren landscape into a more attractive and welcoming setting for visitors arriving from the mainland.

To encourage tourism, the Banning brothers advertised “Free Camp Grounds, with Water” as part of the steamship fare to Catalina. The strategy proved highly successful. Thousands of visitors arrived each summer, many choosing Tent City accommodations over the more expensive Hotel Metropole. The growing tent community soon became one of Avalon’s defining attractions.

Historical Notes

By the late 1890s, Tent City had become one of Catalina’s most recognizable attractions, appearing frequently in postcards, travel brochures, and promotional advertisements distributed throughout Southern California. The postcard itself reflects Avalon’s growing reputation as a fashionable and widely marketed resort destination.

The organized tent grounds offered visitors an experience that blended camping with many of the conveniences of town life. Water service, furnished tents, nearby stores, restaurants, and organized recreation allowed families to enjoy Catalina’s scenery and ocean climate without the expense of staying in a major hotel. Tent City gradually evolved into a seasonal community that returned year after year.

Historical Notes

Groups from communities throughout Southern California frequently established organized tent camps in Avalon during the summer season. Camp Monrovia, seen here, represented one of many social and civic groups that returned regularly to Catalina each year, creating familiar seasonal neighborhoods within Tent City itself.

During the 1890s, approximately one hundred furnished tents were rented each summer, with the number steadily increasing after the turn of the century. Tent rentals typically included bedding, simple furnishings, cooking equipment, and access to water service. For many middle class families, Tent City offered an affordable way to spend extended vacations beside the ocean.

This large platform tent illustrates the commercial side of Avalon’s canvas economy. Businesses operating from temporary tent structures offered meals, lodging, refreshments, and supplies to the growing number of visitors arriving each summer. American flags flying above the tent and the horse drawn wagon parked nearby suggest a well established seasonal business rather than a simple campsite.

Avalon’s early commercial district depended heavily upon canvas construction during the resort’s formative years. Restaurants, shell shops, grocery stands, bakeries, and lodging camps frequently operated from seasonal tent structures assembled each summer and removed after the tourist season ended. Long before permanent buildings filled Avalon’s streets, much of the town’s economy functioned beneath canvas roofs.

From the hillside above Holly Hill House around 1900, the full scale of Tent City becomes visible. Canvas structures stretch across nearly every flat section of the harbor basin while steamships continue delivering visitors from the mainland below. Although Avalon had grown rapidly since the 1880s, much of the town still retained the appearance of a temporary seasonal settlement.

The view also highlights the dramatic landscape surrounding Avalon Harbor. Beyond the waterfront and tent camps, Catalina remained largely undeveloped, consisting of rugged canyons, steep hillsides, and isolated interior valleys. The contrast between the crowded harbor settlement and the wild terrain beyond helped shape Catalina’s appeal as both resort destination and island escape.

By 1906, Tent City had become such an established part of Avalon life that postcards increasingly referred to it as “Catalina Canvas City,” a name that gave the sprawling tent community a more polished and marketable identity. Streets lined with canvas structures stretched across the harbor flats while visitors moved between camps, stores, restaurants, and recreation areas throughout the busy summer season.

The handwritten postcard message captures the personal and informal nature of the Catalina experience during these years. For thousands of visitors arriving each summer, Canvas City was not merely inexpensive lodging but the center of a unique social community built around ocean travel, outdoor living, and seasonal escape from mainland city life.

This elevated panorama captures Avalon Harbor at the height of the Banning era around 1900. Steamships anchor in the calm waters of the bay while piers, tents, wooden buildings, and hotels cluster tightly along the narrow waterfront beneath the surrounding mountains. Sugarloaf Point still dominates the northern edge of the harbor, years before its eventual removal during construction of the Sugarloaf Casino and later the Catalina Casino.

The protected crescent shape of Avalon Bay helps explain why George Shatto originally selected this location for his resort development during the 1880s. The sheltered harbor offered calm anchorage, scenic beauty, and relatively easy access from the mainland — qualities that helped Avalon become Southern California’s most successful island resort community during the early 20th century.

Avalon Comes of Age

By the turn of the 20th century, Avalon was no longer simply a tent camp surrounding a single hotel. Under the steady management of the Banning brothers, the town had acquired many of the essentials of a functioning resort community: graded streets, water service, growing commercial blocks, expanded steamship operations, and an increasingly active waterfront. The Hotel Metropole had already been enlarged, new homes climbed the hillsides above the harbor, and permanent buildings steadily replaced many of the earlier canvas structures. Avalon was beginning to evolve from seasonal outpost into established seaside town.

The Bannings understood that transportation, infrastructure, and recreation all worked together. Beyond improving Avalon itself, they opened roads into Catalina’s rugged interior, established stagecoach excursions, developed scenic overlooks, and promoted the island as far more than simply a beach destination. Visitors arriving by steamship could now explore the harbor, the hills, the beaches, and the remote interior landscapes that had once been accessible only to ranchers, hunters, and a handful of adventurous travelers.

Historical Notes

Seen from high above Sugarloaf Point around 1900, Avalon appears dramatically different from the isolated settlement of only a decade earlier. Steamships, sailboats, rowboats, and pleasure craft now fill the harbor while the growing town spreads along the shoreline beneath the surrounding mountains. What had once been little more than a scattering of tents and temporary structures was steadily evolving into a recognizable resort community.

The rugged mountains visible beyond the harbor also reveal how geographically isolated Avalon remained despite its rapid growth. Beyond the waterfront settlement, most of Catalina still consisted of steep canyons, rough trails, and undeveloped wilderness. The Banning brothers began opening parts of that interior to visitors through roads, stagecoach routes, scenic excursions, and hunting lodges, allowing tourists to experience far more of the island than the harbor alone.

Historical Notes

This busy street scene captures Avalon at the height of the summer season during the early 1900s. Pedestrians fill the broad unpaved roadway while horse drawn wagons and carriages move between hotels, stores, boarding houses, and tourist businesses lining the street. Holly Hill House rises in the distance above the town while the Hotel Metropole remains the dominant structure near the waterfront.

The Banning brothers had largely fulfilled George Shatto’s original vision for Avalon by transforming the rough harbor settlement into a functioning resort community with expanding infrastructure and organized recreation. In addition to the commercial district visible here, Avalon offered dance pavilions, bath houses, stagecoach excursions, boating, fishing, tennis courts, and scenic tours into Catalina’s interior. Avalon was no longer being invented. It had arrived.

Sugarloaf Point and Avalon Harbor

No natural feature defined the visual identity of early Avalon more completely than Sugarloaf Point. The twin granite outcroppings known as Big Sugarloaf and Little Sugarloaf rose prominently above the northern edge of Avalon Bay and served for generations as a navigational landmark for ships approaching the harbor. Long before the Catalina Casino occupied the site, arriving steamship passengers first recognized Avalon by the distinctive granite formation standing at the entrance to the bay.

Sugarloaf Point also became the social and recreational center of Avalon’s waterfront. Bath houses, beaches, piers, sailboats, and swimming areas clustered around the protected shoreline beneath the granite cliffs while visitors climbed stairways to panoramic overlooks high above the harbor. During the island’s early resort years, few places better captured the combination of dramatic scenery and seaside recreation that made Catalina famous throughout Southern California.

What makes these scenes especially poignant today is knowing what eventually disappeared. Between 1917 and 1929, both Sugarloaf formations were dynamited and removed to make way first for the Sugarloaf Casino dance hall and later for the larger Catalina Casino that stands there today. One of Avalon’s oldest and most recognizable natural landmarks vanished almost completely from the landscape, surviving primarily through photographs, postcards, and the memories preserved in images such as these.

Historical Notes

For decades, Sugarloaf Point served as Avalon Harbor’s defining natural landmark. Steamship passengers approaching Catalina from the mainland often saw the towering granite outcroppings long before the town itself came fully into view. Sailors used the distinctive formations to gain their bearings entering Avalon Bay, and the point quickly became one of the island’s most recognizable visual symbols.

The harbor scene below Sugarloaf reveals the dramatic setting that helped distinguish Avalon from mainland beach resorts. The protected crescent of Avalon Bay, the steep surrounding mountains, and the massive granite formations rising above the shoreline created a sense of enclosure and spectacle unlike anywhere else along the Southern California coast. The image captures a landscape that would remain visually unchanged only a few more decades before the Sugarloaf formations themselves disappeared.

Historical Notes

This colorized scene restores the warmth and atmosphere of Avalon Harbor during the years when Sugarloaf Point still towered above the waterfront. Sailboats rest quietly in the protected bay while the granite cliffs rise behind the growing resort town. The contrast between the rugged natural landscape and the expanding tourist development below became one of Catalina’s defining visual characteristics.

Sugarloaf Point consisted of two major formations known as Big Sugarloaf and Little Sugarloaf connected by a narrow ridge. Both formations were eventually removed during construction projects associated with the Sugarloaf Casino and the later Catalina Casino. Images such as this preserve the appearance of a landmark that shaped Avalon’s identity for generations before vanishing from the harbor entirely.

Historical Notes

As Avalon’s popularity increased, bathing beaches and waterfront recreation became central parts of the Catalina experience. The Catalina Island Bath House provided changing facilities, swimming access, and seaside amenities for visitors spending long summer days along Avalon Bay. Sailboats, rowboats, and swimmers filled the calm harbor waters beneath the shadow of Sugarloaf Point.

Swimming at Catalina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was as much a social activity as a recreational one. Families gathered along the beach, rented bathing suits, strolled the waterfront, and spent hours enjoying the harbor scenery and ocean air. The Bath House helped transform Avalon’s shoreline into one of Southern California’s earliest organized seaside recreation destinations.

This closer view captures the relaxed and social atmosphere that helped define Avalon during its early resort years. Visitors in wool bathing attire gather along the shoreline and shallow waters while others watch from the nearby pier. Even in these informal beach settings, Victorian social customs remained visible in both dress and behavior.

The Bath House itself was modest but essential to Avalon’s growing tourism economy. By providing organized facilities for changing, bathing, and gathering, it made Catalina’s waterfront more accessible and comfortable for the thousands of visitors arriving each summer by steamship from the mainland.

By the early 1900s, beach recreation had become one of Avalon’s greatest attractions. Bath houses, swimming piers, boating excursions, fishing trips, and waterfront promenades transformed Avalon Harbor into a lively center of leisure activity during the busy summer season. Visitors often spent entire days moving between the beach, excursion boats, nearby businesses, and Tent City accommodations spread across the harbor below.

The sign advertising steamer service on the side of the Bath House reflects how closely Catalina’s tourism economy depended upon coordinated transportation and recreation. Steamships carried visitors to the island, while Avalon’s hotels, camps, beaches, and waterfront attractions encouraged them to remain longer and return again in future summers.

Bathing at Avalon

Swimming and beach life were central to the Catalina experience from the resort’s earliest days. The clear, protected waters of Avalon Bay made ocean bathing safer and more comfortable than many mainland beaches, while the dramatic backdrop of Sugarloaf Point gave the shoreline a visual identity visitors remembered long after returning home. By the 1890s, the beach below the Hotel Metropole had become one of the most active stretches of waterfront in Southern California, drawing swimmers, boaters, sunbathers, and casual strollers throughout the summer season.

Beach culture in Victorian era Avalon operated by rules that seem elaborate today. Men and women bathed in heavy wool suits that covered far more than they revealed, while umbrellas shielded fair skin from the sun and social propriety remained carefully observed even in the water. Yet the photographs from these years consistently convey genuine enjoyment — the kind that comes from spending long summer afternoons outdoors beside the sea. The formality of the clothing makes the informality of the setting all the more striking.

The waterfront supporting this recreation was also a working environment. Alongside swimmers and vacationers, fishermen cleaned their catch on the rocks, small boats moved constantly through the harbor, and waterfront labor quietly supported the growing tourist economy surrounding Avalon Bay. Together, these scenes capture both sides of early Catalina life — the leisurely and the practical existing side by side along the same shoreline.

This ca. 1895 beach scene captures Avalon’s waterfront during the height of the summer season in the early Banning era. Families gather beneath umbrellas along the sand while swimmers enjoy the calm waters of Avalon Bay. Offshore, sailboats rest quietly in the harbor beneath Sugarloaf Point, the same granite landmark that guided arriving steamships into Avalon for generations.

Umbrellas at the water’s edge were not merely decorative. Victorian social standards viewed deeply tanned skin as undesirable, and visitors who could afford the luxury protected themselves carefully from the sun. The combination of wool bathing suits, parasols, and formal beach attire made ocean bathing a far more structured activity than it would become in later decades — yet the relaxed expressions and casual atmosphere suggest visitors were thoroughly enjoying the experience.

By the 1890s, Avalon’s waterfront had become the social center of the island resort. Swimmers waded into the bay while boaters pulled their vessels onto the sand nearby, and beachgoers gathered along the shoreline within easy reach of the Hotel Metropole and Tent City beyond. Sugarloaf Point anchors the background of the scene much as it dominated nearly every early harbor photograph of Avalon.

The Banning brothers quickly recognized that beach access was as important to Catalina’s success as steamship service or hotel accommodations. They invested heavily in bath houses, waterfront facilities, and recreational amenities while promoting Avalon’s bathing beaches throughout Southern California. By the close of the century, the Avalon shoreline had become one of the region’s most recognizable resort images.

The wool bathing suits visible in this photograph were standard beach attire throughout the United States during the Victorian era. Heavy, modest, and slow to dry, they covered much of the body and were commonly rented at Avalon’s Bath House to visitors arriving without their own swimwear. The white piping trim seen on several suits reflected contemporary fashion while the bathing caps worn by the women were considered both proper and practical.

Despite the cumbersome clothing, the swimmers appear entirely comfortable in Avalon’s calm protected harbor waters. Catalina played an important role in popularizing ocean recreation throughout Southern California by offering visitors a setting where swimming felt both fashionable and accessible. For many tourists arriving from inland communities, a swim in Avalon Bay represented their first experience entering the Pacific Ocean.

Historical Notes

This relaxed group portrait reflects the growing popularity of Catalina as both a recreational destination and social gathering place during the early 20th century. Visitors frequently posed for photographs beside Sugarloaf Point, whose dramatic granite cliffs had become one of Avalon’s defining visual landmarks and most recognizable tourist attractions.

The image also reveals how much Sugarloaf itself had already begun changing. Big Sugarloaf appears noticeably more angular and pronounced than in earlier photographs after portions of the rock were chiseled away to create an access road curving around the Point. The gradual alteration of the formation foreshadowed the much larger demolition projects that would eventually remove Sugarloaf almost entirely during construction of the Sugarloaf Casino and later the Catalina Casino.

This quietly playful photograph captures something the more formal beach portraits of the era rarely reveal: personality. The young woman’s deliberate gesture — raising her skirt just enough to expose an ankle and calf — would have been considered mildly provocative by Victorian standards, a subtle act of informality in a setting that still operated under strict social expectations.

Catalina’s beach culture created space for this kind of relaxation of mainland conventions. The island setting, ocean air, and informality of resort life gave visitors a degree of social freedom that was often harder to find at home. Avalon’s beaches were becoming places not only for recreation, but also for experimentation with the changing customs and social attitudes of a new century.

This Fourth of July portrait captures a moment repeated countless times during Avalon’s early resort years: visitors posing beside Sugarloaf Point, the island’s most recognizable landmark. Dressed formally despite the summer heat, the Bergin and Forthmann families represent the increasingly prosperous Southern California visitors who helped fuel Catalina’s rapid growth during the Banning era.

The image also preserves Sugarloaf Point near the height of its fame and before the dramatic changes that would reshape the harbor in later decades. Within thirty years, the granite formation beside which these visitors posed would disappear entirely, replaced first by the Sugarloaf Casino dance hall and later by the Catalina Casino that still occupies the site today.

Historical Notes

The man shown in this remarkable waterfront scene was later identified as Joe Ardago, a longtime island character remembered for earning a living through a variety of harbor jobs. Here he cleans abalone shells while feeding the discarded meat to surrounding seagulls. The polished shells themselves were sold to tourists, who prized Catalina abalone as souvenirs of their island visits.

Workers like Ardago occupied the edges of Avalon’s growing resort world while quietly helping sustain it. Behind the beaches, hotels, and excursion boats existed an active working waterfront supported by fishermen, shell collectors, guides, boatmen, freight handlers, and countless seasonal laborers. This rare candid photograph preserves a side of Avalon life seldom emphasized in formal tourist imagery.

Historical Notes

By the early 1900s, photographing Catalina had become part of the tourist experience itself. In this stereoscopic view, a woman stands beside Avalon Harbor carefully aiming her camera toward Sugarloaf Point, preserving the island’s most recognizable landmark through the rapidly growing hobby of amateur photography.

The image quietly reflects several important cultural changes taking place during the period. Cameras were becoming more portable and affordable, tourism was expanding rapidly, and visitors increasingly viewed travel as something meant to be documented and shared with others back home. Long before smartphones and vacation selfies, tourists at Catalina were already recording personal experiences against the backdrop of the island’s famous scenery.

Climbing Sugarloaf

Of all the attractions Avalon offered its early visitors, few combined adventure, scenery, and spectacle quite like climbing Sugarloaf. The twin granite outcroppings rising above the entrance to Avalon Bay quickly became one of Catalina’s most popular destinations, drawing tourists eager to reach the summit for sweeping views of the harbor, the surrounding mountains, and the open Pacific beyond. Like its famous namesake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sugarloaf became both a landmark and an experience.

In the earliest years, reaching the summit required scrambling up steep granite surfaces using little more than handholds and determination. By 1896, the Banning brothers responded to the rock’s growing popularity by constructing a wooden stairway up its face, transforming Sugarloaf from a difficult climb into one of Avalon’s best known tourist attractions. Visitors in formal clothing and dress shoes now climbed steadily toward the summit platform, stopping along the way to admire the harbor scenery and pose for photographs.

The climb would not last forever. By 1917, signs appeared forbidding access to the rock, and the stairway was eventually removed. Within only a few years, Big Sugarloaf was dynamited to make room for the Sugarloaf Casino dance hall, while Little Sugarloaf disappeared in 1929 during construction of the Catalina Casino. The granite landmark that had defined Avalon Harbor for generations vanished almost entirely from the landscape. The photographs that survive today preserve not only the climb itself, but also the memory of one of Catalina’s most recognizable lost landmarks.

Historical Notes

This early photograph captures Sugarloaf climbing before stairways, platforms, or safety railings transformed the ascent into a formal tourist attraction. Visitors carefully work their way up the steep granite face using whatever handholds the rock provided while others pose proudly atop the summit above Avalon Harbor. Reaching the top required genuine effort, confidence, and a willingness to navigate uneven and potentially dangerous surfaces.

Like the Sugarloaf formation in Rio de Janeiro that inspired its name, Catalina’s Sugarloaf quickly became both a landmark and a symbol of the island itself. It appeared in nearly every early harbor photograph, helped orient arriving steamships, and anchored Avalon’s visual identity for decades. The climbers seen here were participating in one of Catalina’s earliest and most memorable tourist traditions.

Historical Notes

The wooden stairway constructed in 1896 transformed Sugarloaf from a challenge into an attraction accessible to far more visitors. Bolted directly onto the granite face and rising steeply toward the summit platform, the stairway allowed tourists in ordinary street clothes and formal shoes to experience views that previously required a difficult climb.

The panoramic view from the top rewarded the effort. From the summit platform, visitors could see the entire crescent of Avalon Bay spread below them, with the Hotel Metropole, Tent City, Avalon Harbor, anchored steamships, and the rugged mountains beyond all visible at once. Few locations on the island offered a clearer sense of Catalina’s dramatic geography and growing resort community.

This close view of the stairway reveals the substantial timber construction required to anchor the structure directly onto Sugarloaf’s steep granite surface. Brothers G.P. and Russel Raymond Jennett descend carefully while gripping the handrails, their posture reflecting both the steep angle of the climb and the caution required navigating the narrow wooden steps.

The Jennett family photographs remain among the most valuable visual records of early Catalina because of their informal and personal quality. Rather than presenting idealized tourist scenes alone, the images capture real people interacting naturally with Avalon’s landscapes and attractions during the island’s formative resort years.

By 1917, the Santa Catalina Island Company had closed public access to Sugarloaf Point. Warning signs posted across the formation informed visitors that climbing was now forbidden while the aging stairway was condemned and gradually removed. Although safety concerns likely played some role, the restriction also reflected larger plans already developing for Avalon’s waterfront.

Within only a few years, Big Sugarloaf would be dynamited to clear space for the Sugarloaf Casino dance pavilion. The signs visible in this photograph marked the end of nearly three decades of public climbing on one of Avalon’s most famous landmarks. What had once been a centerpiece of the Catalina experience was about to disappear permanently from the harbor landscape.

Historical Notes

This quiet shoreline scene captures Sugarloaf Point during the final years before major alterations permanently changed its appearance. The granite formation still rises almost fully intact above Avalon Harbor while the calm waters and rocky shoreline preserve the slower pace that characterized Avalon during the early 20th century.

Within little more than a decade after this photograph was taken, the landscape visible here would change dramatically. Roads, casinos, and waterfront redevelopment gradually erased the original contours of Sugarloaf Point until the once familiar granite landmark vanished almost entirely from Avalon Bay.

This graceful harbor scene captures a quieter and more personal side of the Catalina experience. Rowboats could be rented along Avalon’s waterfront, allowing visitors to explore the calm protected waters of the harbor at their own pace while drifting beneath the towering granite cliffs of Sugarloaf Point.

The image also preserves one of the clearest views of Sugarloaf before major alterations reshaped its profile. Both granite outcroppings remain fully visible, connected by the narrow ridge that gave the formation its distinctive appearance for generations of arriving visitors and sailors entering Avalon Harbor.

Few surviving photographs capture the atmosphere of early Avalon more effectively than this sunset view of Sugarloaf Point rising above the calm harbor waters. Small boats rest quietly in the foreground while fading light reflects across the bay and silhouettes the granite formation against the evening sky.

The image helps explain why Sugarloaf became the most photographed natural feature in Avalon during the island’s early resort years. Its dramatic shape, position at the entrance to the harbor, and constantly changing appearance in different light conditions made it both a navigational landmark and a source of artistic fascination for generations of photographers and visitors.

This 1901 view of the S.S. Hermosa passing Sugarloaf Point illustrates the formation’s importance as a navigational landmark during the Banning era. Every steamship entering or departing Avalon Harbor rounded the Point, whose distinctive silhouette helped crews orient themselves while crossing the channel between Catalina and the mainland.

The original S.S. Hermosa served Catalina from 1888 until 1902, carrying thousands of visitors to Avalon during the island’s formative resort years. The ship visible here and the granite landmark rising behind it would both disappear within only a few decades — one retired ceremonially, the other removed by dynamite during redevelopment of Avalon’s waterfront.

This close view provides one of the clearest surviving images of the wooden stairway constructed on Sugarloaf’s steep granite face. Timber supports bolted directly into the rock carried visitors upward toward the small viewing platform near the summit while the S.S. Hermosa passes beyond the harbor in the background.

For approximately twenty years, climbing Sugarloaf became a standard part of the Catalina itinerary. The summit platform offered panoramic views unmatched elsewhere in Avalon, allowing visitors to see the harbor, Tent City, hotels, mountains, and open Pacific from a single dramatic vantage point high above the bay.

This elevated view captures Sugarloaf Point near the end of its years as a public attraction. The granite formation remains largely intact while the S.S. Cabrillo moves through Avalon Harbor in the distance, continuing the steamship tradition that connected Catalina to mainland Southern California throughout the Banning era.

By this time, however, portions of Big Sugarloaf had already begun changing due to road construction and expanding waterfront development. The gradual reshaping of the Point unfolded over many years, making the transformation easy to overlook until photographs from different decades are compared side by side.

Low tide exposed a broad rocky platform at the base of Sugarloaf where visitors gathered to relax, explore tide pools, pose for photographs, and enjoy views across Avalon Harbor. The informal poses and relaxed atmosphere visible here suggest that the shoreline beneath Sugarloaf served as both scenic attraction and social gathering place.

For many visitors, the appeal of Sugarloaf extended beyond the climb itself. Families picnicked along the rocks, photographers framed portraits against the harbor backdrop, and couples wandered the shoreline beneath the towering granite cliffs. The Point functioned as both natural landmark and public recreational space during Avalon’s earliest resort decades.

This family portrait near Sugarloaf Point captures the balance between nature and resort life that defined Avalon during the Banning era. The Hotel Metropole and waterfront buildings visible across the harbor represent Avalon’s organized tourist infrastructure while the granite shoreline in the foreground reflects the rugged landscape that originally drew visitors to Catalina.

The scene also preserves a harbor landscape that would soon change dramatically. The Hotel Metropole would be destroyed by fire in 1915 while Sugarloaf itself would begin disappearing only a few years later during construction of Avalon’s casino complexes. Photographs such as this preserve one of the last glimpses of Avalon Harbor before redevelopment permanently transformed its historic waterfront.

The Harbor at the Turn of the Century

By the turn of the 20th century, Avalon Harbor had become one of the busiest and most recognizable resort waterfronts in Southern California. The steady expansion of steamship service under the Banning brothers brought thousands of visitors across the channel each summer, transforming what had once been a quiet anchorage into a lively harbor filled with passenger steamers, sailboats, fishing craft, launches, and pleasure boats. Along the waterfront, bath houses, hotels, bait shops, boat rentals, tent camps, and commercial piers worked together to support a tourism economy centered almost entirely around the bay.

For most visitors, the harbor provided their first experience of Catalina. Passengers crowded the railings of arriving steamships while watching Sugarloaf Point, the Hotel Metropole, and the growing town gradually come into view beneath the surrounding mountains. After disembarking, tourists stepped directly into the activity of the waterfront where fishermen cleaned their catch beside the piers, rowboats waited for hire along the beach, and excursion operators competed for attention among the crowds arriving from the mainland.

The photographs from these years capture Avalon during the final decades of the Banning era before William Wrigley Jr. purchased controlling interest in Catalina in 1919. Although the harbor already appeared active and mature, many of the most dramatic changes to Avalon’s waterfront still lay ahead. These images preserve the harbor at the peak of one chapter in Catalina’s history and on the threshold of another.

This panoramic 1904 view from the northwestern shore of Avalon Bay captures the harbor at the height of the summer season. A canopy covered pleasure boat carrying visitors crosses the center of the bay while sailboats and working vessels rest at anchor nearby. At far right, Avalon stretches along the waterfront beneath the surrounding hills, its growing cluster of wooden buildings reflecting nearly two decades of rapid resort development.

The northwestern shoreline from which this photograph was taken remained relatively undeveloped during these years, allowing unobstructed views across the entire harbor. The image reveals how completely Avalon Bay had been transformed into a center of both recreation and commerce, with pleasure craft, excursion boats, steamships, and working vessels all sharing the same protected waters.

This 1903 portrait of the Jennett family captures the informal and personal side of a Catalina vacation during the Banning era. The family poses comfortably in a striped canopy boat pulled onto the beach while Sugarloaf Point rises behind them at the edge of Avalon Harbor. Unlike formal studio portraits common during the period, photographs such as this preserved genuine moments of family recreation and travel.

The Jennett Family Collection remains one of the most valuable visual records of early Catalina life because of its intimacy and authenticity. Rather than focusing only on hotels, landmarks, or promotional scenes, the photographs document how ordinary visitors actually experienced Avalon through boating, sightseeing, family outings, and everyday moments along the waterfront.

Historical Notes

The Warrior II and Falcon were among the vessels serving Avalon Harbor during the busiest years of the Banning Company’s steamship operations. The Warrior II dominates this harbor scene with passengers crowding both upper and lower decks while smaller craft gather around the waterfront nearby. In the foreground, canopy covered boats rest on the beach awaiting tourists interested in exploring Avalon Bay from the water.

Avalon’s harbor economy depended upon a constant movement of ships, supplies, freight, luggage, and passengers between Catalina and the mainland. According to Hancock Banning Jr., the Warrior II was later converted into a tug and eventually served as a fireboat in San Pedro Harbor. Its after cabin even briefly functioned as office quarters and summer living space for members of the Banning family, reflecting the practical and often improvised character of the island’s early maritime operations.

Historical Notes

This arrival scene captures the daily rhythm of Avalon Harbor during the Banning era. Passengers stream down the gangway from the S.S. Hermosa while businesses along the waterfront prepare to meet their needs almost immediately upon arrival. The sign advertising boats, bait, and fishing tackle reflects how quickly Avalon’s waterfront economy organized itself around the steamship schedule and the steady flow of visiting tourists.

The original S.S. Hermosa served Catalina from 1888 until 1902 and became one of the island’s most recognizable steamships. Elegantly appointed for its time, the vessel carried visitors across the channel in relative comfort while helping establish Avalon as Southern California’s premier island resort destination during the late 19th century.

Historical Notes

This waterfront view from the Hotel Metropole captures the social geography of early Avalon at its most characteristic. Visitors carrying umbrellas stroll casually along the beach while others gather near the pier awaiting departure aboard the Hermosa for the return trip to San Pedro. Behind the photographer stood the Hotel Metropole, the center of Avalon’s social life, while the pier ahead connected the island directly to the mainland.

By 1900, the Banning Company operated an increasingly sophisticated fleet that included the Hermosa, Falcon, Hattie, La Paloma, and Oleander. Together the vessels transported passengers, freight, mail, and supplies that sustained Avalon’s growing tourism economy. The harbor visible here represented both the beginning and ending point of nearly every Catalina vacation during the period.

This ca. 1892 panorama ranks among the earliest broad harbor views taken after the Banning brothers purchased Catalina in 1891. Sailboats, launches, and working vessels crowd Avalon Bay while the S.S. Hermosa anchors at left beside the growing waterfront settlement. The Bath House and Hotel Metropole already dominate the shoreline, signaling the rapid development taking place around the harbor during the island’s first major tourism boom.

The variety of vessels visible here reflects the layered character of Avalon’s early maritime economy. Passenger steamships carried tourists from the mainland while fishing boats, private craft, sailing vessels, and harbor launches all shared the same protected waters. Within only a few years, the harbor had evolved from a relatively isolated anchorage into one of Southern California’s busiest recreational ports.

Catalina Fishing

Long before William Wrigley Jr. built the Casino or the Chicago Cubs arrived for spring training, fishing was the activity that gave Catalina national attention among sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts. The waters surrounding the island were among the richest along the Pacific Coast, filled with yellowtail, barracuda, white sea bass, tuna, and the enormous Giant Black Sea Bass that could exceed 500 pounds. By the late 1890s, word had spread through Southern California sporting circles that Catalina offered fishing unlike anything available along the mainland coast.

Fishing soon became woven into nearly every aspect of Avalon’s waterfront culture. Boat rentals, bait stands, charter launches, guides, fish racks, and excursion operators crowded the beaches beside Avalon Harbor while visiting anglers proudly posed for photographs with their catches in front of the Hotel Metropole and along Crescent Avenue. Sport fishing helped distinguish Catalina from other resort destinations by offering visitors not only scenery and relaxation, but also excitement, competition, and the possibility of landing record breaking fish in the waters just offshore.

The man most responsible for shaping Catalina’s fishing reputation was Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, a naturalist, writer, and passionate sportsman who arrived on the island during the 1890s. Holder promoted rod and reel fishing as both a sporting and ethical alternative to commercial methods such as harpoons and heavy netting. In 1898 he founded the Tuna Club of Avalon, establishing principles of fair play, conservation, and sporting conduct that helped shape modern big game sport fishing internationally. The photographs in this section preserve both the extraordinary abundance of Catalina’s early fishing era and the reminder that such abundance was not endless. Species like the Giant Black Sea Bass eventually declined sharply from overfishing before later conservation efforts helped begin their slow recovery in California waters.

Historical Notes

This ca. 1901 fishing portrait captures one of Avalon’s most recognizable traditions during the Banning era: anglers proudly displaying their catches in front of the Hotel Metropole. The fish shown here — white sea bass, yellowtail, and barracuda — were all taken using rod and reel tackle, an important distinction at a time when sport fishing was increasingly promoted as a test of patience, skill, and technique rather than brute force.

Fishing activity became so intense around Avalon Harbor during the early 1900s that the beaches grew crowded with launches, rowboats, fish racks, bait stands, and charter operators competing for business. Sea lions gathered nearby hoping for scraps while visitors moved constantly between fishing excursions, hotels, bath houses, and waterfront businesses. Avalon’s identity as a resort town became inseparable from its growing reputation as a sport fishing center.

Historical Notes

Dr. Charles Frederick Holder stands at center beside three enormous Giant Black Sea Bass, the kind of catch that helped make Catalina famous among early sport fishermen. Holder founded the Tuna Club of Avalon in 1898 and became one of the most influential figures in the development of modern big game sport fishing. Through books, magazine articles, lectures, and organized competitions, he promoted Catalina as one of the world’s premier fishing destinations.

Holder also helped establish many of the ethical standards associated with sport fishing during the early 20th century. Tuna Club rules emphasized rod and reel methods, limited tackle, and fair competition between angler and fish. These principles eventually influenced big game fishing practices far beyond Catalina itself.

The Giant Black Sea Bass shown here were once common in Southern California waters, where some specimens exceeded 600 pounds. During the first half of the 20th century, however, the species declined sharply because of commercial harvesting and trophy fishing pressure. Today the Giant Black Sea Bass is fully protected in California waters, and sightings near Catalina are now considered both rare and memorable.

Historical Notes

Captain Russel Jennett’s pose beside this enormous Giant Black Sea Bass follows the conventions of trophy fishing photography already well established by the early 1900s. The angler stands beside the suspended fish so viewers can fully appreciate the scale of the catch, turning the photograph itself into part of the achievement.

The Jennett Family Collection remains one of the most valuable visual records of early Catalina because it preserves both formal tourist imagery and everyday island life. Fishing was not simply a recreational activity at Avalon. It became part of the harbor’s identity and influenced everything from local businesses and excursion services to photography, tourism advertising, and waterfront culture itself.

At the time this photograph was taken, Giant Black Sea Bass were still abundant in Southern California waters. Their tremendous size and slow powerful movements made them especially prized among visiting anglers, helping establish Catalina’s reputation as one of the leading sport fishing destinations on the Pacific Coast.

Historical Notes

Edward Beach Llewellyn’s 425 pound Giant Black Sea Bass became one of the most celebrated catches in Catalina fishing history. Landed on August 26, 1903, after a forty one minute struggle, the fish established a new world record for the species at the time. Photographs of record catches such as this circulated widely through newspapers, sporting journals, and promotional materials, helping spread Catalina’s reputation far beyond Southern California.

The catch was remarkable not only for the fish’s size but also for the challenge of landing such a powerful animal using rod and reel tackle available during the early 1900s. Long before modern reels, synthetic fishing lines, or advanced fighting equipment, anglers depended heavily upon physical endurance, patience, and experience to land giant fish successfully.

Today, photographs such as this carry a different historical perspective as well. The enormous Giant Black Sea Bass that once seemed almost limitless in California waters eventually became increasingly rare because of decades of heavy fishing pressure. Their gradual return to Catalina waters in recent decades reflects the importance of long term marine conservation and changing attitudes toward ocean wildlife.

The Hotel Metropole: Resort Life and Island Excursions

By the turn of the 20th century, the Hotel Metropole had grown far beyond the modest three story wooden hotel George Shatto opened in 1888. Major expansions completed in 1893 and 1897 transformed the Metropole into Avalon’s largest and most prominent resort building, adding dozens of guest rooms, a grand reception hall, broad verandas, and a ballroom overlooking Avalon Harbor. Standing just steps from the beach and pier along Crescent Avenue, the hotel became the center of nearly everything that defined Catalina’s early resort life — arrivals and departures, fishing excursions, social gatherings, waterfront recreation, and organized tours into the island’s rugged interior.

The excursion economy that developed around the Metropole was one of the Banning brothers’ most successful ideas after purchasing Catalina in 1891. Horse drawn wagons and stagecoaches gathered daily outside the hotel carrying visitors toward Descanso Beach, Lovers Cove, scenic overlooks, hunting lodges, and the winding Stage Roads that climbed high above Avalon Harbor. Along the waterfront directly in front of the hotel, boat rentals, fishing guides, bait stands, and excursion launches lined the beach, making the Metropole the departure point for adventures in nearly every direction.

The photographs in this section capture the Hotel Metropole during the height of the Banning era, when Avalon was evolving from seasonal seaside settlement into a mature island resort town. They preserve a waterfront atmosphere where fishing boats rested directly on the sand, horse drawn wagons waited outside hotel entrances, and tourists moved easily between harbor recreation and inland exploration. Within only a few years, however, much of the world visible in these photographs would disappear. In the early morning hours of November 29, 1915, a devastating fire destroyed the Hotel Metropole along with much of Avalon’s waterfront district, marking the symbolic end of the Banning era just before William Wrigley Jr. began reshaping Catalina into the island resort known today.

Historical Notes

This waterfront view of the Hotel Metropole captures Avalon’s commercial and recreational life at the turn of the century. Dozens of small boats rest directly on the sand in front of the hotel while visitors stroll between the beach, harbor, and Crescent Avenue businesses nearby. The Bert Harding sign advertising boat rentals, bait, and fishing tackle reflects how closely Avalon’s economy remained tied to fishing, boating, and waterfront recreation during the Banning era.

The Hotel Metropole expanded rapidly as Catalina’s popularity increased. Additions completed in 1893 and 1897 transformed the original hotel into Avalon’s dominant architectural and social landmark, adding guest rooms, reception areas, parlors, and a large ballroom overlooking the harbor. By 1900, the Metropole stood at the center of a growing district of hotels, shops, excursion offices, and waterfront businesses that together formed the heart of Avalon’s tourism economy.

Historical Notes

The horse drawn wagons gathered outside the Hotel Metropole formed part of the transportation network that connected Avalon Harbor to the rest of the island. Arriving passengers were carried from the pier to nearby hotels while excursion wagons departed regularly toward beaches, scenic overlooks, and the growing system of Stage Roads opening Catalina’s interior to tourism.

The Metropole itself remained the center of Avalon’s public life throughout the Banning era. Guests gathered along its broad verandas overlooking the harbor while excursion operators arranged fishing trips, sightseeing tours, and inland stagecoach outings directly from the hotel entrance. The activity visible here reflects Avalon during the years when tourism was rapidly transforming the once isolated harbor settlement into a mature resort community.

Historical Notes

Richard Holoff’s colorized restoration helps bring the atmosphere of early Avalon vividly back to life. The warm wood tones of the Hotel Metropole, the sandy waterfront streets, and the patient horses waiting outside the entrance reveal the informal and closely connected nature of Avalon’s harbor district during the early 1900s. Boats remained pulled directly onto the beach while pedestrians, wagons, and excursion traffic moved constantly between the waterfront and Crescent Avenue.

The destruction of the Hotel Metropole in the fire of November 29, 1915 had consequences far beyond the loss of a single building. Much of Avalon’s commercial district burned alongside the hotel, overwhelming the town’s small fire department and forcing extensive rebuilding across the waterfront. Facing the enormous cost of reconstruction after years of financial struggle, the Banning family eventually sold Catalina to William Wrigley Jr. in 1919. The transformation that followed would permanently reshape Avalon’s architecture, infrastructure, and identity.

Historical Notes

The stagecoaches gathered outside the Hotel Metropole represented one of the clearest expressions of the Banning brothers’ vision for Catalina as more than simply a seaside resort. After acquiring the island in 1891, they invested heavily in roads and transportation routes that opened previously isolated sections of Catalina to organized tourism and sightseeing.

Visitors staying at the Metropole could now travel beyond Avalon Harbor toward Descanso Beach, Lovers Cove, mountain overlooks, hunting lodges, and the winding Stage Roads climbing into the island’s rugged interior. A tourist could arrive by steamship from Los Angeles, settle into the Metropole, and within hours be traveling through mountain canyons and along remote coastal ridges that few Southern Californians had ever seen. The stagecoach visible here served as the link between the comfortable resort world of Avalon Harbor and the far wilder island landscape beyond it.

Stage Roads and Interior Exploration

When the Banning brothers purchased Catalina in 1891, most visitors experienced only the narrow strip of waterfront surrounding Avalon Harbor. Beyond the hotels, beaches, and piers lay an island that remained largely wild — a rugged landscape of steep ridges, deep canyons, isolated valleys, and dramatic coastal cliffs that few tourists ever saw. The Bannings recognized that Catalina’s interior was not an obstacle to development but one of the island’s greatest attractions, and they quickly began building roads that would open those landscapes to organized tourism.

Beginning in the mid 1890s, crews carved Stage Roads directly into Catalina’s mountainous terrain, creating routes that climbed high above Avalon Harbor and wound deep into the island’s interior. Horse drawn stagecoaches soon carried visitors toward scenic overlooks, hunting lodges, Descanso Beach, Lovers Cove, and remote sections of coastline previously accessible only by horseback or foot. The excursions combined sightseeing with genuine adventure as six horse teams navigated steep grades, sharp switchbacks, and narrow ledges overlooking the Pacific far below.

The photographs in this section preserve Catalina during the height of the stagecoach era, when exploring the island meant traveling slowly through landscapes that still felt raw, remote, and largely untouched. For many mainland visitors arriving from increasingly urban Southern California communities, the stage road excursions offered something they could not easily find at home — a sense of distance, wilderness, and discovery beyond the familiar resort life of Avalon Harbor.

Historical Notes

Farnsworth Loop became one of the most famous and photographed sections of Catalina’s Stage Road system during the Banning era. Named for Samuel Farnsworth, the dramatic circular turn allowed heavily loaded six horse stagecoaches to reverse direction safely on steep terrain where a conventional switchback would have been impossible.

For passengers riding inside the coaches, the loop combined excitement with spectacular scenery. As the stagecoach rounded the curve, Avalon Harbor and the Pacific Ocean opened suddenly below while the narrow mountain road clung tightly to the hillside. The engineering required to construct and maintain roads through Catalina’s rugged terrain was considerable for the period and reflected the seriousness of the Banning brothers’ investment in tourism infrastructure.

Historical Notes

This dramatic mountain road scene captures the essential character of Catalina’s stagecoach excursions during the early 1900s. The narrow road has been carved directly into the mountainside, with steep terrain rising on one side and the Pacific visible far below on the other. Guiding heavy horse drawn coaches safely through such terrain required considerable skill, particularly on steep grades and sharp turns.

The Banning brothers promoted these excursions heavily throughout Southern California because they offered visitors an experience unlike anything available at mainland beach resorts. For many tourists arriving from Los Angeles and surrounding communities, the combination of rugged scenery, mountain roads, and expansive ocean views created a sense of adventure that became one of Catalina’s defining attractions.

Historical Notes

The Stage Roads built during the Banning era opened large portions of Catalina’s interior to organized tourism for the first time. Coaches regularly carried visitors toward hunting lodges, scenic overlooks, remote coves, and interior valleys that had previously remained difficult to access except by horseback or on foot.

The roads themselves soon became attractions. Travelers described the excitement of riding along exposed mountain grades where panoramic ocean views stretched in multiple directions at once. Although carefully engineered for the period, the narrow roads and steep terrain still created a genuine sense of risk and adventure that became central to the Catalina excursion experience.

The Ernest Marquez Collection remains one of the most important visual records of early Southern California and preserves valuable images of landscapes and transportation systems that changed rapidly during the early 20th century.

Historical Notes

Devils Elbow was among the most dramatic and intimidating sections of Catalina’s Stage Road network. The steep descent and sharp hairpin curves tested both drivers and horses while providing passengers with exactly the kind of thrilling experience the Banning brothers hoped would distinguish Catalina from competing resort destinations.

The return journey toward Avalon often felt even more exciting than the ascent into the mountains. Coaches that climbed slowly and cautiously through steep switchbacks frequently descended at greater speed, giving passengers an entirely different perspective on the same terrain. For many visitors, the combination of danger, scenery, and exhilaration made the stagecoach excursions the most memorable part of their Catalina vacation.

Historical Notes

This panoramic view reveals the dramatic geography surrounding Avalon Harbor during the early 1900s. From the heights above Stage Road, visitors could look down upon the crescent of Avalon Bay, the Hotel Metropole, Tent City, steamships gathered at the piers, and the growing waterfront settlement compressed tightly between the mountains and sea.

The elevated views from Stage Road became one of Catalina’s greatest attractions. Visitors who experienced Avalon only from the waterfront often discovered from these heights how small the town actually appeared within the island’s much larger and more rugged landscape. The stagecoach roads gave tourists a perspective on Catalina that transformed the island from a simple seaside resort into a place of genuine geographic drama.

Historical Notes

Richard Holoff’s colorized restoration helps convey the visual warmth of Catalina’s interior during the stagecoach era. Dry golden hillsides descend toward the blue waters of Avalon Bay while the small harbor town appears almost hidden beneath the surrounding mountains.

The colorization also highlights how undeveloped the hillsides above Avalon remained at the turn of the century. Much of the landscaping and tree planting associated with modern Avalon had not yet occurred, leaving the island’s terrain looking far more rugged and exposed than it does today. The Stage Roads carried visitors through landscapes that still felt raw, isolated, and largely untouched beyond the harbor below.

Historical Notes

By 1909, stagecoach excursions had become one of Catalina’s most popular attractions. Visitors traveling high above Avalon Harbor frequently stopped at scenic overlooks where they could watch steamships arriving from the mainland far below. The S.S. Cabrillo, visible in this photograph, entered Catalina service in 1904 and quickly became one of the island’s most important passenger vessels.

The image also reveals how integrated Catalina’s tourism system had become during the late Banning era. Steamships transported visitors across the channel while hotels, waterfront businesses, fishing excursions, glass bottom boats, and stagecoach tours worked together to create a carefully organized resort experience that filled nearly every hour of a tourist’s stay on the island.

Historical Notes

This elevated 1903 view from the hills above Avalon captures the harbor at the height of the Banning era resort years. The steamship Hermosa II sits at the dock while sailboats, excursion launches, and the glass bottom boat Cleopatra move through the protected waters of Avalon Bay below.

The Hermosa II entered service in 1902 as the successor to the original Hermosa and represented the growing sophistication of Catalina’s steamship operations during the early 20th century. The variety of vessels visible here reflects how rapidly Avalon’s tourism economy expanded during these years, offering visitors fishing trips, sightseeing excursions, harbor cruises, glass bottom boat tours, and inland stagecoach adventures within the same small island resort community.

The forested hillsides visible above Avalon also reveal how much the town had changed since the early 1890s. Areas that once appeared largely barren had gradually been softened through landscaping and tree planting during the Banning years, helping transform Avalon into a more mature and visually refined resort town before the even larger changes introduced during the Wrigley era.

Crescent Avenue and the Growth of Avalon

Crescent Avenue curves gracefully along Avalon Bay, following the same shoreline that first attracted developers, tourists, and steamship passengers to Santa Catalina Island in the late nineteenth century. Known locally as The Strand or Front Street, the avenue quickly became the center of Avalon after Michigan businessman George Shatto purchased the island in 1887 and laid out the original townsite facing the bay. What began as a modest waterfront road lined with tents, wooden storefronts, and boarding houses soon evolved into the island’s commercial and social heart.

After Shatto’s financial collapse, the Banning brothers acquired Catalina in 1892 and transformed Avalon into one of Southern California’s leading resort destinations. Steamships arrived daily from San Pedro carrying visitors eager to experience the island’s cool ocean air, rugged scenery, fishing excursions, dance pavilions, golf links, and growing collection of waterfront hotels. Nearly every tourist passed through Crescent Avenue upon arrival, making the street the first impression of Avalon and the center of nearly all island activity.

These photographs trace the growth of Crescent Avenue during Avalon’s formative years, from the rustic wooden resort town of the Banning era to the more refined waterfront promenade shaped during the Wrigley years after the devastating fire of 1915. Together, they capture the architecture, businesses, crowds, and atmosphere that defined Avalon during its rise as one of California’s most recognizable seaside resorts.

Postcards such as this helped promote Avalon throughout Southern California and beyond during the early twentieth century. The Hotel Metropole became one of the island’s best known landmarks and frequently appeared in tourist literature advertising Catalina as an elegant but relaxed coastal escape.

The contrast between the developed waterfront and the rugged undeveloped hillsides behind it reflected one of Avalon’s greatest attractions. Visitors could enjoy modern resort comforts along Crescent Avenue while remaining surrounded by dramatic island terrain that still felt remote and untouched compared with the rapidly growing mainland.

The Hotel Metropole was Avalon’s first major hotel and quickly became the centerpiece of the growing waterfront resort district. Originally completed in 1888 under George Shatto, the large wooden structure faced Avalon Bay directly from Crescent Avenue and served as both a hotel and gathering place for visitors arriving by steamship from the mainland.

The surrounding storefronts show how quickly commercial activity developed along Crescent Avenue during the 1890s. Businesses such as E.E. Beeson & Co. supplied groceries, baked goods, and daily necessities to tourists and residents alike, while service businesses such as Troy Laundry supported the growing resort economy. The relaxed mix of pedestrians, swimmers, and horse drawn transportation captures Avalon at a time when the town still retained much of its small seaside village character despite its growing popularity.

Historical Notes

By 1903, Avalon Harbor had become one of the busiest resort anchorages on the Southern California coast. Steamships arriving from Los Angeles and San Pedro brought tourists, freight, mail, and supplies directly into the bay, while smaller pleasure boats supported fishing trips, sightseeing tours, and glass bottom boat rides.

The Banning brothers invested heavily in Avalon during this period, improving roads, utilities, communications systems, and visitor facilities. Crescent Avenue served as Avalon’s main business street, waterfront promenade, and arrival route for visitors, connecting the harbor to the growing collection of hotels, restaurants, bathhouses, and attractions lining the bay.

Historical Notes

This lively street level view captures Crescent Avenue during Avalon’s early resort boom. Small shops selling candy, refreshments, souvenirs, and excursion services lined the avenue, catering directly to the thousands of visitors arriving each summer season.

George Shatto’s original town plan intentionally faced Avalon toward the bay, ensuring that Crescent Avenue would become the visual and commercial center of island life. By the early 1900s, the avenue had developed into a busy pedestrian corridor where tourists gathered to stroll the waterfront, arrange excursions, shop, dine, and watch steamships arrive and depart from Avalon Harbor.

Historical Notes

This remarkable view captures Crescent Avenue at the height of Avalon’s Edwardian era resort popularity. Nearly every visible business catered directly to tourism, reflecting how completely the island’s economy depended upon seasonal visitors arriving by steamship from the mainland.

The signs visible throughout the scene reveal the wide range of attractions available in Avalon during this period, including golf, tennis, dining, sightseeing excursions, and aquarium displays showcasing Catalina’s marine life. The Glenmore Hotel, visible among the signs, survives today as Avalon’s oldest remaining hotel and one of the few major structures to survive the devastating fire of 1915 that destroyed much of the original waterfront district.

Equally striking is the absence of automobiles. Most visitors explored Avalon on foot, giving Crescent Avenue the relaxed pedestrian character that still defines the waterfront promenade more than a century later.

Historical Notes

This enhanced and colorized view offers a vivid glimpse into the appearance of Crescent Avenue during Avalon’s early resort years. The wooden storefronts, awnings, dirt roadway, and dense pedestrian activity become easier to visualize through the carefully restored image, helping modern viewers connect more directly with the atmosphere of the era.

Only a decade after this photograph was taken, much of the waterfront district would be destroyed in the fire of November 29, 1915. The disaster consumed many of the wooden hotels and commercial buildings that defined early Avalon, including the Hotel Metropole. The fire and declining tourism during World War I eventually forced the Banning family to sell the island in 1919 to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., whose redevelopment efforts permanently reshaped Crescent Avenue and Avalon Bay.

Historical Notes

As Avalon’s popularity continued to grow, additional hotels and boarding houses appeared along Crescent Avenue to help meet the demand for lodging. The Bay View Hotel was among several smaller establishments that opened during the early twentieth century to accommodate the island’s expanding tourist trade.

Although Crescent Avenue was still lined mainly with modest wooden buildings, the avenue had already developed into the center of Avalon’s resort economy. During peak summer periods, thousands of visitors crowded the waterfront district, filling the hotels, nearby Tent City, restaurants, excursion boats, and amusement attractions that defined the Catalina experience during the Banning era.

Historical Notes

The modern appearance of Crescent Avenue reflects the extensive redesign carried out during the Wrigley era in the 1920s and 1930s. Philip K. Wrigley introduced a more unified Spanish Colonial character to the waterfront, adding decorative tile work, palm trees, landscaped public spaces, and the serpentine seawall that still lines the bay today.

The Catalina Casino, visible at the northern end of the harbor, opened in 1929 and became Avalon’s defining architectural landmark. Although the avenue has changed considerably since the wooden resort town seen in the early photographs, Crescent Avenue continues serving the same role it did more than a century ago: welcoming visitors to Avalon and functioning as the island’s primary social and commercial promenade.

Crescent Avenue Through Time

For more than a century, Crescent Avenue has remained the visual and social center of Avalon. Fires, redevelopment projects, and changing tourism patterns transformed many of the original buildings that once lined the waterfront, yet the graceful curve of Avalon Bay and the avenue’s role as the island’s gathering place have endured across generations.

The following comparison illustrates both the dramatic changes and the remarkable continuity that still connect modern Avalon with the resort town that emerged during the island’s earliest years.

Historical Notes

More than a century separates these two views of Crescent Avenue. The upper photograph captures Avalon during its early resort years when wooden hotels, storefronts, and unpaved streets lined the waterfront. The lower image reflects Avalon after decades of rebuilding, modernization, and tourism growth, including the addition of the Catalina Casino and the Spanish Colonial inspired redesign introduced during the 1930s.

Despite these changes, the essential relationship between Crescent Avenue and Avalon Bay remains remarkably intact. The avenue still curves naturally along the harbor, continues functioning as Avalon’s primary pedestrian promenade, and remains the first experience most visitors encounter upon arriving on Catalina Island.

Arch Rock

Arch Rock was a natural stone arch located at Long Point, the widest part of Santa Catalina Island, roughly eight miles northwest of Avalon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the formation became one of Catalina’s best known natural attractions, drawing tourists who traveled by launch or stagecoach to see the dramatic coastal scenery beyond Avalon. Excursion boats regularly stopped at Arch Rock alongside nearby sea caves, secluded coves, and Buttonshell Beach, helping establish the area as one of the island’s most photographed destinations.

The arch did not survive the early twentieth century intact. Some accounts state that vandals damaged the formation before 1910, while others report that the keystone collapsed naturally sometime during the first quarter of the century. Whatever the cause, Arch Rock disappeared long before modern Catalina tourism emerged, leaving only photographs, postcards, and written accounts to document one of the island’s earliest coastal landmarks.

Historical Notes

Arch Rock stood along the rugged shoreline at Long Point, where centuries of wind and wave erosion carved a natural opening through the coastal rock. By the late nineteenth century, the formation had become a popular destination for sightseeing excursions promoted by the Banning brothers as part of the Catalina experience. Launch captains regularly brought visitors to the area to view the arch, nearby sea caves, and the island’s dramatic coastline beyond Avalon.

The scale of the formation is clearly visible in this photograph, with the small rowboat emphasizing the size of the stone arch and surrounding cliffs. Images such as this helped promote Catalina’s rugged natural beauty during the island’s early resort years, when visitors sought scenery and experiences that felt far removed from the rapidly growing mainland cities of Southern California.

Historical Notes

This photograph by noted Southern California photographer C. C. Pierce captures Arch Rock shortly before its disappearance. The image illustrates why the formation became such a popular attraction during the early 1900s. The combination of rugged cliffs, isolated shoreline, and the naturally formed stone arch created one of Catalina Island’s most distinctive coastal scenes.

Buttonshell Beach, visible in the distance, lay along a sheltered cove near Long Point and was known for the small shells that collected along the shoreline. Visitors often stopped there while exploring the area by launch or small boat. Accounts differ regarding the exact circumstances surrounding Arch Rock’s destruction. Some sources attribute the collapse to natural structural failure after the keystone gave way, while others report that vandals damaged the formation before 1910. By the mid-1910s, however, the arch no longer stood intact.

Ning-Po Smuggling Ship

Among the more unusual attractions on Santa Catalina Island during the early twentieth century was the Ning-Po, an aging Chinese junk ship displayed first near Avalon and later at Catalina Harbor near the Isthmus. Promoted as one of the oldest vessels in the world, the ship became a floating museum, tourist attraction, restaurant, and motion picture backdrop during its years in Southern California.

Originally built in China around 1753 under the name Kin Tai Foong, meaning “Golden Typhoon,” the vessel carried with it stories of piracy, smuggling, rebellion, and imprisonment that helped create an atmosphere of mystery and adventure around the aging junk. Although some parts of the ship’s history were likely exaggerated over time for promotional purposes, the Ning-Po became one of Catalina’s most memorable early tourist curiosities.

Historical Notes

The Ning-Po arrived in Southern California in 1913 after crossing the Pacific from China under the ownership of Pasadena businessman W. M. Milne. Built of ironwood and camphor, the vessel measured roughly 138 feet in length and immediately attracted public attention because of its unusual appearance and sensational history. Stories connected to the ship included piracy, smuggling, prison service, and participation in Chinese conflicts during the nineteenth century.

After briefly operating near Avalon as a floating attraction and restaurant, the Ning-Po was eventually moved to Catalina Harbor at the Isthmus, where it became a popular stop for visitors exploring the quieter northern portion of the island. Its towering stern, oversized wooden anchor, and unfamiliar rigging made the vessel unlike anything most American tourists had ever seen.

Historical Notes

The Ning-Po drew steady crowds during the 1910s and 1920s as tourists boarded the aging junk to explore its weathered decks and examine displays describing the ship’s long and often sensationalized history. Signs and promotional materials highlighted tales of piracy, smuggling, rebellion, and imprisonment, transforming the vessel into both a floating museum and a form of entertainment.

The attraction reflected a broader pattern in early Catalina tourism, when island promoters emphasized unusual sights, adventure, and exotic attractions alongside Avalon’s beaches, hotels, and recreational activities. The Ning-Po fit naturally into an era when visitors sought experiences that felt mysterious, theatrical, and far removed from everyday life on the mainland.

Historical Notes

The chronology sign aboard the Ning-Po played an important role in shaping the vessel’s legendary reputation. The display traced the ship’s supposed history through decades of voyages, smuggling activity, rebellion, imprisonment, and ownership changes, giving visitors a dramatic narrative to accompany their tour of the aging junk.

Accounts of the Ning-Po’s final fate differ somewhat, though most agree that the vessel was destroyed by fire during the 1930s after years of deterioration at Catalina Harbor. One widely repeated version states that the junk was accidentally set ablaze during the filming of a motion picture when a burning prop vessel drifted too close. Whatever the exact circumstances, the destruction of the Ning-Po brought an end to one of Catalina Island’s most unusual and memorable early tourist attractions.

Steamships and Arrival at Avalon Harbor

Arriving at Avalon meant arriving by water. For nearly every visitor who stepped onto Santa Catalina Island during the early twentieth century, the journey began with a steamship crossing from San Pedro to Avalon Harbor. Long before automobiles and modern ferries transformed Southern California travel, passenger steamers carried tourists across the channel to the growing island resort, turning Avalon Harbor into one of the busiest and most recognizable waterfront destinations on the Pacific coast.

The Banning brothers understood that transportation was essential to Catalina’s success as a tourist destination. Through their Wilmington Transportation Company, they expanded steamship service to Avalon and introduced larger, more modern vessels capable of carrying growing numbers of visitors. Steamships such as the Hermosa II and Warrior II helped transform Avalon from a remote island settlement into one of Southern California’s leading seaside resorts.

Approaching Avalon Harbor, passengers saw the curve of the bay, the Hotel Metropole facing the waterfront along Crescent Avenue, and Sugarloaf Point rising near the harbor entrance with its wooden staircase and viewing platform installed by the Bannings during the 1890s. The arrival itself became part of the Catalina experience, blending dramatic scenery with the excitement of entering one of California’s most fashionable early resort towns.

Historical Notes

Launched in 1902, the S.S. Hermosa No. II was considered one of the most luxurious steamers operating in Southern California waters during the early twentieth century. Built for the Banning brothers’ Wilmington Transportation Company, the 139-foot vessel carried passengers between San Pedro and Avalon at a time when Catalina tourism was expanding rapidly. Its 700-passenger capacity reflected the dramatic increase in visitor traffic to the island during the steamship era.

The launch of Hermosa II was celebrated in Avalon with unusual fanfare. On July 4, 1902, the older Hermosa I was anchored in Avalon Harbor and transformed into the centerpiece of a large bonfire and fireworks display marking the arrival of the new vessel. Rockets and Roman candles reportedly fired from the burning ship as crowds gathered along the waterfront to watch the spectacle. The event symbolized both the growing popularity of Catalina tourism and the rapid modernization of steamship travel linking Avalon to the mainland.

This harbor view captures the Hermosa II tied alongside Avalon’s busy waterfront wharf during Catalina’s early tourism boom. Steamship arrivals brought tourists, freight, mail, and supplies directly into Avalon Harbor, making the pier one of the island’s most active and important locations.

Sugarloaf Point, visible in the background, served as both a scenic landmark and a familiar visual marker for arriving passengers. The Bannings added a staircase and viewing platform to the rocky formation during the 1890s, turning it into a popular attraction for visitors exploring the harbor. Sugarloaf Point remained one of Avalon’s best known natural landmarks until it was gradually removed between the late 1910s and 1929 to make way for the construction of the Catalina Casino.

The Warrior II was one of several steamers operating between the mainland and Catalina Island during the early twentieth century. Built in 1900 for the Wilmington Transportation Company, the vessel supplemented the larger Hermosa II during busy travel periods as visitor traffic to Avalon continued growing each season.

This photograph also provides an excellent view of Avalon’s expanding waterfront district during its first major tourism boom. The Hotel Metropole and Grand View Hotel dominate the shoreline while rowboats, launches, and excursion craft fill the harbor. By the mid-1900s, Avalon Harbor had become a lively transportation center where steamships, pleasure boats, fishing excursions, and sightseeing tours all operated side by side.

The pier at Avalon served as both the island’s transportation gateway and one of its most important gathering places. Visitors arriving by steamer stepped directly onto the waterfront pier before entering Crescent Avenue and the resort district surrounding Avalon Bay. Between steamship arrivals, tourists and residents gathered there to watch harbor activity, observe small boats crossing the bay, and scan the channel for approaching vessels from the mainland.

The woman with binoculars reflects the close connection between Avalon Harbor, arriving steamships, and the resort life centered around the Metropole Hotel. Positioned between the harbor and the waterfront hotels, the pier formed the social and visual center of Avalon during the island’s early resort years.

Once ashore, visitors entered a lively waterfront resort centered around Avalon Bay, the Hotel Metropole, and the beaches that quickly became the social heart of the island.

Along the Waterfront: The Metropole and Avalon Beach

For visitors stepping off the steamships at Avalon Harbor, the waterfront was the island. Crescent Avenue ran directly in front of the Hotel Metropole while the beach between the avenue and the bay functioned as Avalon’s outdoor gathering place during the summer months. Tourists strolled along the shoreline, watched boating activity in the harbor, rented rowboats, attended water events, and gathered wherever crowds formed beside the bay.

By the early 1900s, the Banning brothers had spent more than a decade developing Avalon into a full scale seaside resort. Hotels, restaurants, excursion offices, bathhouses, golf links, tennis courts, and sightseeing attractions clustered around the waterfront district surrounding the Metropole. The harbor, beach, and Crescent Avenue together formed the social center of island life.

This lively waterfront scene captures Avalon during the height of its early resort popularity. Tourists filled the beach in front of the Hotel Metropole, where visitors gathered to socialize, stroll along the shoreline, swim, and enjoy the cool ocean climate that helped make Catalina one of Southern California’s most fashionable vacation destinations.

The numerous hotel and business signs visible along Crescent Avenue illustrate how quickly Avalon’s commercial district expanded during the early twentieth century. Restaurants, lodging houses, billiard parlors, cigar shops, and excursion businesses all catered directly to the growing tourist trade, helping transform the once isolated island settlement into a thriving seasonal resort community.

The Hotel Metropole dominated Avalon’s waterfront during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Originally completed in 1888 under George Shatto and later expanded during Banning ownership, the large Victorian structure became the architectural and social centerpiece of Avalon Bay.

This view from the water emphasizes the hotel’s close relationship to the harbor and shoreline. Steamship passengers arriving in Avalon would have seen the Metropole almost immediately upon entering the bay, reinforcing its role as both a landmark and gathering place for visitors exploring Catalina during its formative resort years. The hotel remained the visual anchor of Avalon’s waterfront until its destruction in the fire of 1915.

Water events, boat races, swimming contests, holiday celebrations, and public spectacles were common attractions along Avalon’s waterfront during the early twentieth century. The Banning brothers regularly organized activities designed to entertain visitors and encourage longer stays on the island, turning Avalon Bay itself into a stage for recreation and public gatherings.

This photograph captures the communal atmosphere that defined Avalon during its early resort years. The beaches, harbor, hotels, and waterfront promenade all functioned together as parts of a shared public space where tourists and residents gathered beside the bay. The Hotel Metropole, visible in the background, remained the dominant visual landmark of Avalon’s waterfront until the devastating fire of November 29, 1915.

Arriving at Catalina

For generations of Southern Californians, the journey to Santa Catalina Island began aboard a steamship crossing the channel from the mainland. Long before modern ferries and private boats became common, visitors traveled to Avalon on vessels such as the S.S. Cabrillo, stepping ashore beside a waterfront lined with hotels, excursion offices, beaches, and bustling crowds. The arrival itself became part of the vacation experience, combining ocean travel, dramatic scenery, and the excitement of entering one of California’s most fashionable early resort towns.

By the early twentieth century, Catalina had become one of the leading tourist destinations on the Pacific coast. Steamship arrivals were greeted with celebrations, sightseeing excursions, and local traditions that quickly became part of Avalon’s identity. Among the most famous were the boys who dove into the harbor waters to retrieve coins tossed by arriving passengers, a practice that survived for decades and became one of Avalon’s best known waterfront customs.

Together, these images capture the excitement, spectacle, and atmosphere of arriving at Catalina during the height of the steamship era.

Avalon’s waterfront pier served as the main point of entry for nearly every visitor arriving on Santa Catalina Island during the steamship era. Passengers crossing the channel from San Pedro or Los Angeles first encountered Avalon here before entering the busy waterfront district surrounding the Hotel Metropole and Crescent Avenue.

By 1904, the Wilmington Transportation Company was carrying tens of thousands of tourists annually to Avalon Harbor, helping transform the island into one of Southern California’s leading resort destinations. The Hotel Metropole, visible in the background, quickly became one of Avalon’s best known landmarks and helped establish the elegant resort atmosphere promoted by the Banning brothers during Catalina’s tourism boom years.

The S.S. Cabrillo became one of the best known steamships operating between the mainland and Catalina Island during the early twentieth century. Built for the Wilmington Transportation Company, the vessel was designed specifically for the growing Catalina tourist trade and quickly gained a reputation for speed, comfort, and reliability.

Views such as this were widely promoted through postcards and tourism literature advertising the Catalina experience. Passengers approaching Avalon Harbor were greeted by the curve of the bay, the waterfront hotels, Sugarloaf Point, and the steep hillsides rising behind the town. For many visitors, the harbor approach itself became one of the most memorable parts of the journey to Catalina.

The arrival of the S.S. Cabrillo in Avalon during 1904 was celebrated as a major public event. Crowds gathered along the waterfront to welcome the new steamship, which represented the continued expansion of Catalina tourism during the Banning era.

Named after explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the vessel quickly became one of the most recognizable passenger steamers serving Catalina Island. Its introduction reflected the increasing demand for transportation to Avalon as tourism expanded rapidly during the years before widespread automobile travel reshaped recreation in Southern California.

Coin diving became one of Avalon’s most famous waterfront traditions during the steamship era. As passenger vessels approached the pier, tourists tossed coins into the harbor while local boys dove into the clear waters below to retrieve them. The practice provided entertainment for visitors while offering the boys an opportunity to earn money from arriving tourists.

Photographers frequently captured the spectacle, helping transform the coin divers into one of Catalina Island’s most recognizable tourist images during the early twentieth century. The tradition survived for decades and became closely tied to Avalon’s playful and informal harbor culture.

This colorized version of the famous coin diving scene helps bring added life and atmosphere to one of Avalon’s best known harbor traditions. The clear waters of Avalon Bay, the wooden pier, and the crowds of arriving visitors all contributed to the lively environment surrounding the waterfront during Catalina’s tourism boom years.

Although Avalon changed dramatically during the twentieth century, the image of young divers leaping into the harbor remained closely associated with Catalina’s identity. The tradition symbolized the relaxed and carefree atmosphere that distinguished Avalon from many mainland resort communities during the steamship era.

Beyond the excitement of arrival, Avalon Harbor itself operated as the center of Catalina’s growing steamship and tourism economy.

Avalon Harbor and the Steamship Era

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Avalon Harbor functioned as the transportation, commercial, and social center of Santa Catalina Island. Steamships arriving from San Pedro carried thousands of visitors each season, transforming Avalon from a small island settlement into one of Southern California’s leading resort destinations. Hotels, bathhouses, excursion offices, beaches, and boating facilities clustered around the waterfront, creating a lively harbor district built almost entirely around tourism and recreation.

The steamship era also shaped the visual character of Avalon Bay. Passenger vessels tied up at the pier while rowboats, launches, fishing craft, and excursion boats crowded the harbor. From mainland departure terminals to the busy waterfront surrounding Avalon Bay, Catalina tourism revolved around the steady rhythm of steamship arrivals and departures.

Avalon’s beaches quickly became one of the island’s main attractions during the early twentieth century. Visitors arrived seeking ocean swimming, boating, fishing, and relief from summer heat on the mainland. Bathhouses along the waterfront provided changing rooms, bathing suits, and beach services for the growing number of tourists crowding Avalon Bay.

This scene captures the lively atmosphere surrounding the waterfront during Catalina’s tourism boom years. The combination of beaches, steamships, hotels, and recreational activities helped establish Avalon as one of California’s earliest large scale seaside resort communities.

By 1908, the S.S. Cabrillo had become one of the principal steamships serving Catalina Island. The vessel regularly transported passengers between San Pedro and Avalon, helping accommodate the growing tourist trade that fueled the island’s economy during the Banning years.

This harbor scene illustrates the increasingly busy character of Avalon Bay during the early twentieth century. Steamships shared the waterfront with rowboats, launches, fishing vessels, and excursion craft, creating a harbor environment that combined transportation, recreation, and sightseeing activity within a relatively compact area.

This panoramic view illustrates the rapid growth of Avalon during the early years of Catalina tourism. Hotels, boarding houses, commercial buildings, beaches, and piers lined the shoreline surrounding Avalon Bay while steep hillsides rose dramatically behind the developing resort town.

By the early 1900s, the Banning brothers had transformed Avalon into a highly organized tourist destination offering steamship excursions, fishing trips, golf, tennis, dance pavilions, and sightseeing tours. The harbor itself remained the center of nearly all island activity, serving simultaneously as Avalon’s transportation hub, recreational playground, and public gathering place.

Organized excursions to Catalina became increasingly popular during the early twentieth century as social organizations, businesses, and clubs arranged group outings to Avalon. Steamships such as the Cabrillo made these large scale excursions possible by carrying hundreds of passengers comfortably across the channel.

The Shriners excursion shown here reflects the broader popularity of Catalina tourism during the steamship era. Trips to Avalon were promoted not only as vacations, but also as social events that combined sightseeing, recreation, entertainment, and ocean travel into a single experience.

This elevated harbor view captures Avalon during one of its busiest periods of early development. The S.S. Hermosa II, visible at the dock, was among the steamships responsible for carrying growing numbers of tourists to Catalina during the first decade of the twentieth century.

The tightly packed waterfront buildings, crowded harbor, and expanding pier facilities demonstrate how completely Avalon’s economy revolved around tourism. Nearly every visible structure and activity within the scene was connected in some way to the steady stream of visitors arriving by steamship from the mainland.

Seen from the hillsides above Avalon, the harbor appears as a compact resort community nestled between steep terrain and the protected waters of Avalon Bay. Steamships approaching the pier provided a constant visual reminder of the island’s dependence upon maritime transportation during the early tourism era.

This photograph also preserves the appearance of Avalon before many later changes reshaped the harbor district. Sugarloaf Point still dominates the waterfront near the entrance to the bay while the dense collection of hotels, commercial buildings, piers, and beaches reflects the rapid expansion of the resort community during the Banning years.

Rising above the harbor and waterfront district was Sugarloaf Point, where the Banning family maintained scenic overlooks and their island residence above Avalon Bay.

Sugarloaf Point and the Banning Residence

Before the construction of the Catalina Casino transformed the northern end of Avalon Harbor, Sugarloaf Point stood as one of the island’s most recognizable natural landmarks. Rising prominently beside the entrance to Avalon Bay, the rocky formation became both a scenic attraction and a symbol of early Catalina tourism during the Banning years. Visitors climbed stairways built into the hillside to enjoy sweeping views of the harbor and surrounding coastline.

The slopes surrounding Sugarloaf Point also became home to the Banning family residence known as Descanso. From this elevated setting overlooking Avalon Bay, the Bannings maintained gardens, terraces, and private grounds that contrasted sharply with the busy waterfront district below. Together, these images preserve the appearance of Sugarloaf Point and the surrounding landscape before the area was dramatically altered during construction of the Catalina Casino in 1929.

Historical Notes

This view from the Banning property captures Sugarloaf Point during the height of Avalon’s early resort years. Steamships approaching the harbor passed directly beside the rocky formation before entering Avalon Bay, making Sugarloaf one of the first landmarks visible to arriving passengers.

The gardens surrounding the Banning residence reflected the family’s effort to create a refined private retreat overlooking the growing resort community below. From these elevated grounds, the Bannings enjoyed panoramic views of the harbor, waterfront hotels, and arriving steamships that shaped daily life in Avalon.

Historical Notes

The Banning residence known as Descanso stood on the hillsides above Avalon near Sugarloaf Point during the early twentieth century. The home served as both a private residence and a symbol of the family’s central role in developing Catalina Island into a major tourist destination.

Positioned above the harbor, the residence provided commanding views of Avalon Bay and the surrounding coastline. The property remained closely associated with the Banning family until the island was sold to William Wrigley Jr. in 1919, marking the end of the Banning era on Catalina.

This informal family scene provides a glimpse of life on the private grounds surrounding the Banning residence during Avalon’s early resort years. The carefully maintained lawn and landscaped setting contrasted sharply with the crowded waterfront district developing below along Avalon Bay.

The Banning family occupied a unique position in Catalina’s history, functioning simultaneously as island owners, resort developers, transportation operators, and promoters of tourism. From their hillside property near Sugarloaf Point, they oversaw the rapid transformation of Avalon into one of Southern California’s leading seaside destinations.

Although passenger steamships dominated Catalina tourism during the early twentieth century, sailing vessels and smaller commercial craft continued operating throughout Avalon Harbor. Schooners such as the one seen here transported freight, supplies, and materials necessary to support the growing island resort community.

This image also preserves an important view of Sugarloaf Point before later development reshaped the harbor entrance. The rocky promontory remained one of Avalon’s defining geographic features until its gradual removal during the 1920s to accommodate construction of the Catalina Casino.

Historical Notes

Roads and pathways gradually expanded across the hillsides surrounding Avalon as tourism increased during the early twentieth century. Access routes near Sugarloaf Point allowed visitors to reach scenic overlooks, private residences, and excursion areas beyond the crowded waterfront district.

The smaller boats gathered near shore illustrate the variety of watercraft operating around Avalon during this period. Rowboats, launches, fishing boats, and excursion vessels all formed part of the active harbor environment that developed alongside Catalina’s growing tourism economy.

This panoramic view captures Avalon during the final years before major changes reshaped the harbor landscape. The waterfront district had expanded rapidly during the Banning years, filling the shoreline with hotels, piers, beaches, and commercial buildings centered around Avalon Bay.

Within two decades, much of the landscape visible here would be transformed. Sugarloaf Point itself would be largely removed during construction of the Catalina Casino while Avalon continued evolving from a rustic Victorian era resort town into the more modern tourist destination associated with the Wrigley years.

Avalon Bowl and Catalina’s Summer Concerts

By the early 1900s the Banning brothers had assembled a full entertainment program for Avalon’s summer visitors: steamship excursions, glass-bottom boat rides, stagecoach tours into the island interior, golf, tennis, and nightly dancing along the waterfront. To expand Avalon’s evening attractions even further, the Bannings constructed a large outdoor amphitheater on the hillside at the south end of Crescent Avenue overlooking Avalon Bay.

Known as the Avalon Bowl, the Greek Amphitheater, or simply the Bandstand, the venue seated hundreds of spectators on long tiered wooden benches built into the natural slope of the hillside. Evening concerts beneath the open sky became one of Avalon’s most popular social activities during the steamship era, combining music, cool ocean air, and panoramic views of the harbor landscape surrounding Sugarloaf Point and Holly Hill House.

The primary performers at the amphitheater were Porter’s Catalina Island Marine Band, which played regular summer concerts there from 1904 to 1927 before continuing performances later in the evening at Avalon’s dance pavilion. Together, the concerts, waterfront attractions, and steamship excursions helped transform Catalina from a rustic island getaway into one of Southern California’s leading resort destinations.

Historical Notes

The Avalon Bowl amphitheater occupied a hillside site at the southern end of Crescent Avenue that naturally formed a bowl-shaped setting for outdoor performances. The venue seated approximately 750 spectators on long wooden benches arranged along the slope above the covered stage. Built during Avalon’s tourism boom years, the amphitheater gave the island a large outdoor entertainment venue capable of serving crowds arriving daily aboard steamships from the mainland.

Holly Hill House, visible above the amphitheater, was built by civil engineer Peter Gano between 1888 and 1890 and remains one of Avalon’s oldest surviving homes. Its distinctive Queen Anne tower became one of Avalon’s most recognizable landmarks and appears prominently in many early photographs of the Avalon Bowl. The amphitheater itself was demolished in 1931 during the Wrigley era.

Historical Notes

Advertising played an essential role in Catalina’s tourism growth during the early twentieth century. Southern California newspapers regularly promoted steamship excursions to Avalon, emphasizing the island’s beaches, accommodations, concerts, and recreational attractions. The Banning brothers carefully marketed Catalina as a complete resort experience combining transportation, entertainment, scenery, and outdoor recreation.

Advertisements from this period frequently promoted free campground space and fresh water for visitors staying in Avalon’s tent communities. Evening performances by Porter’s Catalina Island Marine Band at the Avalon Bowl were also featured prominently in Banning Line advertising, helping attract visitors seeking both recreation and organized social entertainment during their stay on Catalina Island.

Historical Notes

Porter’s Catalina Island Marine Band became one of the defining entertainment attractions of Banning-era Avalon. The group performed evening concerts at the Avalon Bowl throughout the summer season, helping establish music and public performances as an important part of the Catalina visitor experience.

Charles H. Porter managed the band and frequently entertained audiences between musical selections by reading poems or telling jokes from the stage. The band’s longtime conductor was George Mulford. After completing performances at the amphitheater, the musicians often continued playing later in the evening at Avalon’s waterfront dance pavilion, creating a continuous entertainment program for visitors during the busy summer months.

Historical Notes

This photograph provides one of the clearest surviving views of the Avalon Bowl at the height of its popularity during the steamship era. The large audience filling the hillside benches demonstrates the important role that concerts and public entertainment played in Avalon’s growing tourism economy during the early twentieth century.

The amphitheater’s open-air design took advantage of Avalon’s natural terrain while offering spectators views of the surrounding hillsides and harbor district below. Admission to the evening concerts was commonly included as part of the broader Catalina excursion experience promoted by the Banning brothers, reinforcing the idea that entertainment, transportation, and recreation were all closely connected parts of a visit to Avalon.

As Avalon expanded beyond the waterfront, new attractions carried visitors into the hills above the harbor, offering panoramic views, tea houses, and excursions to Lovers Cove.

Santa Catalina Incline Railway

(also known as the Island Mountain Railway)

Among the more unusual attractions introduced during Catalina’s tourism boom was the Santa Catalina Incline Railway, a hillside funicular system built above Avalon during 1905 and opened for regular service in early 1906. Constructed on the steep slopes overlooking Avalon Bay, the railway carried visitors from the area near the Avalon Bowl to scenic overlooks high above the harbor before descending toward Pebbly Beach and Lovers Cove on the opposite side of the ridge.

The incline railway reflected the Banning brothers’ continuing effort to transform Catalina into a fully developed resort destination filled with engineered attractions that took advantage of the island’s dramatic terrain. Visitors could ride to hilltop tea houses, enjoy panoramic views of Avalon Harbor, or continue to Lovers Cove for glass-bottom boat excursions along Catalina’s rocky shoreline. During its years of operation, the incline railway became one of Avalon’s most photographed and distinctive tourist attractions.

Historical Notes

Construction of the incline railway began during the summer of 1905 as workers carved a route into the steep hillsides above Avalon Harbor. The lower terminal stood near the base of the Avalon Bowl amphitheater, making the railway a natural extension of the entertainment district developing at the south end of Crescent Avenue.

The Holly Hill House visible below the railway was built between 1888 and 1890 by civil engineer Peter Gano and remains one of Avalon’s oldest surviving homes. Positioned directly beneath the railway route, the house became closely associated with the hillside attractions that transformed this part of Avalon during the Banning years.

Historical Notes

The Santa Catalina Incline Railway consisted of two connected funicular lines operating on opposite sides of the ridge above Avalon. One line climbed from the amphitheater area to Buena Vista Point at the summit, while the second descended toward Pebbly Beach and Lovers Cove on the far side of the hill.

The railway was designed as part transportation system and part sightseeing attraction. Passengers ascending the western slope enjoyed expanding views of Avalon Harbor and the surrounding coastline before reaching the summit tea house overlooking the channel nearly 500 feet above the bay.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures the close physical relationship between the Avalon Bowl and the incline railway during Catalina’s tourism boom years. Together, the amphitheater, hillside railway, summit tea house, and waterfront attractions formed a connected entertainment district extending from Crescent Avenue into the hills above Avalon Harbor.

The image also preserves the appearance of Avalon before major changes reshaped the harbor landscape. Holly Hill House still overlooks the amphitheater while Sugarloaf Point remains visible in the distance near the entrance to Avalon Bay. Within two decades, both the amphitheater and the incline railway would disappear while Sugarloaf itself would be largely removed during construction of the Catalina Casino.

Historical Notes

Postcards frequently featured the incline railway because of its dramatic setting and unusual appearance. Funicular systems remained relatively uncommon in Southern California during the early twentieth century, making the Catalina railway both a practical transportation system and a tourist curiosity.

The steep ascent provided riders with increasingly expansive views of Avalon Harbor, the waterfront hotels, and the surrounding coastline. Images such as this circulated widely through postcards and tourism literature, helping promote the incline railway as one of Catalina’s signature attractions during the steamship era.

Historical Notes

Passengers reaching Buena Vista Point at the summit could continue down the eastern slope toward Lovers Cove and Pebbly Beach, where glass-bottom boat excursions operated along Catalina’s rocky shoreline. A pier constructed near the cove allowed visitors to transfer directly from the incline railway to marine sightseeing tours in the clear waters below.

The summit itself contained a tea house and powerhouse serving the railway system. During its years of operation, the incline railway became known by several names, including the Santa Catalina Incline Railway, the Island Mountain Railway, and occasionally “Angel’s Flight.” Although initially successful, the system declined following the devastating Avalon fire of 1915 and permanently closed in 1923.

Historical Notes

This lower station view captures the Island Mountain Railway near the height of its operation. Signs posted at the landing advertised fares between Avalon, the summit station, and Lovers Cove, while passengers could request rides by pressing a button at the station platform. Adult round-trip fares generally cost 25 cents while children rode for 15 cents.

The landscaped station area reflected the Banning brothers’ effort to present even transportation facilities as part of Catalina’s resort experience. Visitors arriving at the lower landing could continue directly to Lovers Cove for boating excursions or return uphill toward panoramic viewpoints overlooking Avalon Harbor. Although the railway disappeared more than a century ago, portions of its old right-of-way reportedly remained visible on the hillsides above Avalon for many years afterward.

Glass Bottom Boats and Undersea Tours

Before visitors could scuba dive or snorkel, the glass bottom boat offered one of the only ways to see the underwater world beneath the waters of Avalon Bay. The idea grew out of a practical technique used by local fishermen who placed panes of glass in the bottoms of their rowboats to spot fish and abalone below the surface. Around 1890, Avalon abalone harvester Charley Feige adapted the concept for tourists, allowing visitors to peer into the kelp forests and marine life surrounding the island. Within only a few years, glass bottom boat excursions had become one of Catalina’s defining attractions.

The man most responsible for transforming the idea into a thriving industry was Captain J. E. “Pard” Mathewson, a Massachusetts-born boatbuilder who arrived in Avalon in 1892 and established Avalon Boat Works. Recognizing the growing demand, Mathewson began constructing larger purpose-built vessels equipped with increasingly sophisticated glass viewing panels. His Mon Ami, launched in 1902, was considered the island’s first true glass bottom powerboat. Larger boats soon followed, including the Cleopatra, Lady Lou, and eventually the Empress, which carried more than 100 passengers and became one of the most recognizable vessels in Avalon Harbor.

The marine environment viewed through those early glass panels was extraordinary. Lover’s Cove and the waters surrounding Sugarloaf Point offered unusually clear visibility over rocky reefs and giant kelp forests filled with Garibaldi fish, bat rays, sea anemones, and other marine life. Captains often served as narrators, blending natural history with local lore while guiding visitors through Catalina’s “marine gardens.” More than a century later, modern glass bottom boat tours still follow many of the same routes first explored by those early operators, preserving one of the island’s oldest and most enduring traditions.

Historical Notes

Lover’s Cove, located just east of Avalon Bay below the bluffs of Abalone Point, became one of the primary destinations for Catalina’s early glass bottom boat excursions. The cove’s calm water, rocky bottom, and exceptional water clarity created ideal viewing conditions for observing fish, kelp forests, and marine life beneath the surface. Captains would slowly maneuver their boats across the reefs while passengers gathered around the glass viewing panels built into the hull.

The small rowboat seen here served as a tender, transporting passengers between the moored launch and the shore at Pebbly Beach. Before specialized docking facilities were constructed near Lover’s Cove, this type of transfer system was common. The photograph also captures the transition from simple rowboat excursions to larger motorized launches that were beginning to dominate Catalina’s growing marine tourism industry during the early 1900s.

Historical Notes

Glass bottom boat tours originated not as a tourist attraction but as a practical fishing technique. Local fishermen working the kelp beds around Catalina had long used glass panels set into the bottoms of small boats to locate fish and abalone beneath the water. Around 1890, Charley Feige realized visitors were just as fascinated by the underwater scenery as the fishermen themselves and began charging tourists for guided marine viewing excursions.

Sugarloaf Point, visible in the distance, marked the eastern edge of Avalon Bay and became one of the island’s best-known landmarks during the resort era. The surrounding waters were famous for their clarity and abundance of sea life. Early visitors described seeing brilliant orange Garibaldi fish, swaying kelp forests, sea urchins, bat rays, and sea anemones through the glass panels beneath their feet, an experience few mainland tourists had ever encountered before.

Historical Notes

Captain J. E. “Pard” Mathewson played a central role in developing Catalina’s glass bottom boat industry. After arriving in Avalon in 1892 and opening Avalon Boat Works, Mathewson recognized the commercial potential of the island’s growing marine tourism trade. In 1902, his boatyard launched the Mon Ami, a 38-foot side-wheel gas launch considered the island’s first true glass bottom powerboat. Additional vessels soon followed, including the Cleopatra, Lady Lou, and eventually the much larger Empress.

The side-wheel design seen in this photograph proved especially effective for operating above Catalina’s rocky reefs and kelp beds. Paddle wheels allowed captains to maneuver slowly and maintain steady positioning without disturbing the water beneath the hull. This stability was important because passengers relied on clear visibility through the glass viewing panels to observe the underwater world below.

Historical Notes

Launched in 1906 for the Meteor Boat Company, the Empress represented a major advance in Catalina’s growing glass bottom boat fleet. Built at Terminal Island, the vessel measured approximately 80 feet in length and could accommodate more than 100 passengers, making it one of the largest excursion boats operating in Avalon Harbor at the time. Electric lighting, expanded observation areas, and increased passenger capacity reflected the rapidly growing popularity of Catalina tourism during the early twentieth century.

By the 1910s and 1920s, the Empress had become one of Avalon’s best-known harbor vessels and appeared regularly in postcards, travel brochures, and promotional materials advertising Catalina Island. Together with companion vessels such as the Cleopatra and Lady Lou, the Empress helped establish the glass bottom boat excursion as an essential part of the Catalina visitor experience.

Historical Notes

The years surrounding World War I marked the height of Catalina’s early glass bottom boat era. Improved steamship connections between Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Avalon brought steadily increasing numbers of visitors to the island, and marine garden excursions became one of the most heavily promoted attractions. Companies operating the boats emphasized safety, comfort, and the uniqueness of Catalina’s underwater scenery in newspaper advertisements and travel literature throughout Southern California.

Catalina’s association with glass bottom boats eventually extended into popular culture, including the 1966 MGM comedy The Glass Bottom Boat starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor. More than a century after the first commercial excursions began, modern vessels still follow many of the same routes pioneered by Catalina’s early operators.

Historical Notes

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, Catalina’s marine garden excursions had become highly refined tourist experiences. Larger vessels, improved narration, and carefully planned sightseeing routes allowed visitors to explore some of the island’s most scenic underwater environments. The term “marine gardens” became widely used in advertisements and promotional brochures describing the kelp forests and reef systems surrounding Lover’s Cove and Sugarloaf Point.

Many visitors described the experience of looking through the glass panels as unforgettable. For people who had never seen beneath the ocean’s surface, the sight of colorful fish moving silently through the kelp below the boat created a sense of wonder unlike anything available on the mainland. The excursions helped shape Catalina’s reputation as both a resort destination and a place uniquely connected to the natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean.

Historical Notes

The Cleopatra, launched in 1903, represented a significant expansion of Catalina’s marine excursion industry. Designed to carry substantially more passengers than the earlier rowboat-style vessels, the boat helped meet the rapidly growing demand created by Southern California’s booming tourism market. When the much larger Empress joined the fleet only a few years later, the Meteor Boat Company gained the ability to transport large numbers of visitors through Avalon’s marine gardens during even the busiest summer seasons.

Photographs such as this became common in Catalina advertising during the 1900s and 1910s as glass bottom boats evolved into symbols of Avalon itself. Alongside steamships, pleasure craft, bathhouses, and seaside hotels, the vessels helped create the lively harbor atmosphere that defined Catalina’s early resort era and established the island as one of Southern California’s most distinctive tourist destinations.

Avalon Harbor Comes of Age

By 1910, the rough harbor settlement that George Shatto had established along the shoreline two decades earlier bore little resemblance to what visitors found when their steamship rounded Sugarloaf Point and entered Avalon Bay. Under the management of the Banning brothers, Avalon had grown from a seasonal tent community into a functioning resort town with graded streets, water service, electric lights, multiple piers, and a commercial district stretching along Crescent Avenue from the Hotel Metropole in both directions. The harbor itself had become one of the busiest recreational anchorages in Southern California, filled on summer days with steamships, sailing vessels, fishing launches, glass bottom boats, and rented rowboats exploring the cove.

The panoramic photographs and postcard views from this period capture Avalon at the height of its early resort years and on the threshold of an even larger transformation. Holly Hill House still overlooks the bay much as it had since 1890. Sugarloaf Point continues to anchor the northern edge of the harbor, years before its removal. The hotels, bathhouses, excursion offices, and waterfront promenades lining Crescent Avenue reflect nearly three decades of steady resort development built around the growing flow of steamship passengers arriving from Los Angeles and Long Beach.

These images also preserve the final chapter of pre-Wrigley Avalon. In 1915, a devastating fire destroyed the Hotel Metropole and much of the waterfront district, overwhelming the town’s small volunteer fire department and forcing a reconstruction effort the Banning family could not financially sustain. Four years later, William Wrigley Jr. acquired controlling interest in Catalina Island and began reshaping Avalon through expanded steamship service, new infrastructure, and eventually the construction of the Catalina Casino. The harbor scenes shown here preserve a version of Avalon that existed only briefly and survives today largely through photographs such as these.

Historical Notes

Evening excursions on Avalon Harbor became a popular feature of summer life during Catalina’s early resort years. Visitors who spent the day fishing, swimming, or exploring the island gathered along the waterfront after sunset for lantern-lit boat rides, harbor tours, and social gatherings that continued late into the evening. Harbor illuminations featuring electric lights on excursion boats and waterfront buildings became regular seasonal attractions by the early 1900s.

The street descending toward the harbor reflects Avalon’s compact geography, where nearly everything in town remained within walking distance of the waterfront. By 1910, Crescent Avenue and the surrounding streets had been graded, lined with young trees, and developed with hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, shops, and excursion offices. The harbor visible here, busy even at night, captures Avalon only a few years before the 1915 fire permanently altered much of the waterfront district.

Historical Notes

For countless visitors, the first view of Avalon Harbor came from the deck of an approaching steamship. The sight of Sugarloaf Point rising beside the harbor entrance became one of Catalina’s defining images during the early twentieth century and appeared repeatedly in postcards, advertising art, and travel literature promoting the island throughout Southern California.

Sugarloaf Point remained one of the most recognizable natural landmarks along the Southern California coast during the early resort era. The twin granite formations visible here were dynamited in stages beginning in 1917, first to make way for the Sugarloaf Casino dance hall and later for the much larger Catalina Casino completed in 1929. One of Avalon’s most familiar natural landmarks disappeared as the island entered the Wrigley era.

Historical Notes

Panoramic views taken from the hills above Avalon Harbor became among the most widely reproduced Catalina images during the early twentieth century. This elevated perspective reveals the remarkable growth of Avalon by 1910: a harbor crowded with vessels, a dense waterfront lined with hotels and commercial buildings, and surrounding mountains that remained largely undeveloped beyond the town itself.

The arrival of a steamship shaped the daily rhythm of life in Avalon. Businesses along Crescent Avenue prepared for the influx of visitors that each vessel brought to the island. Even from a distance, the busy harbor reflects more than two decades of investment in Catalina’s tourism infrastructure and the growing popularity of Avalon as a Southern California resort destination.

Historical Notes

The construction of a second pier by 1911 reflected the continuing growth of Catalina tourism during the years preceding World War I. Increasing steamship traffic and expanding excursion services required additional docking facilities beyond the original steamer wharf that had served Avalon since the Shatto era.

By this period, Avalon had matured into a far more organized and permanent community than the seasonal tent settlement of earlier decades. Hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, excursion companies, and waterfront businesses all depended upon the steady stream of visitors arriving daily from the mainland. The expanded harbor visible here reflects the growing confidence and economic success of Avalon during its peak pre-Wrigley years.

Historical Notes

Illustrated lithographs and panoramic drawings played an important role in promoting Catalina Island during the early twentieth century. Unlike photographs, artists could idealize the scenery and emphasize the dramatic relationship between Avalon Harbor and the surrounding mountains, presenting the island in its most picturesque form.

The horseback riders visible along the shoreline reflect another aspect of Catalina tourism heavily promoted during this period. Horses were available for hire both for rides along the waterfront and for excursions into the island’s rugged interior along the Stage Roads constructed by the Banning brothers. The combination of ocean recreation, resort amenities, and access to undeveloped wilderness made Catalina unlike any other Southern California destination of its era.

Historical Notes

By 1912, Avalon’s waterfront had developed into one of the liveliest resort promenades in Southern California. Visitors strolled the shoreline past excursion offices, boat rentals, bait shops, and bathhouse facilities while steamships, fishing launches, and glass bottom boats moved constantly through the harbor behind them.

Postcards such as this played a major role in spreading Catalina’s national reputation. Millions of cards featuring Avalon Harbor, Sugarloaf Point, Tent City, and the island’s excursion boats were mailed throughout the country during the early twentieth century. Within only a few years of this photograph, the 1915 fire would dramatically alter much of the waterfront visible behind these tourists.

Historical Notes

This 1914 panorama captures Avalon on the eve of its most dramatic transformation. The Incline Railway, visible descending the hillside above the harbor, opened in 1905 and carried passengers from Avalon to summit overlooks and onward toward Lover’s Cove and the island’s marine attractions. Avalon Bowl, whose bleachers appear at right, hosted concerts, performances, and public events overlooking the harbor below.

The scene also marks the final full expression of the Banning brothers’ vision for Catalina Island. Only a few years after this photograph was taken, William Wrigley Jr. would acquire controlling interest in the island and begin reshaping Avalon through expanded infrastructure, new steamships, the Chicago Cubs spring training program, and eventually the construction of the Catalina Casino. This panorama preserves Avalon at the exact moment between those two defining eras.

The Aquarium, the Wharf, and Avalon’s Waterfront

For many visitors arriving at Catalina by steamship, the first major attraction they encountered after stepping off the gangway was Avalon’s aquarium. Located at the Crescent Avenue end of the main pier, the aquarium introduced arriving tourists to the marine life surrounding Catalina through tanks filled with local fish, sea anemones, octopuses, and other sea creatures collected from the nearby waters.

The aquarium and wharf together formed the center of Avalon's daily visitor activity. Steamships regularly discharged hundreds of passengers at a time who moved through the ticket office, past the aquarium, and into Crescent Avenue's growing commercial district. At that ticket office, a visitor could book a glass-bottom boat tour, a stagecoach ride into the island's interior, a fishing launch, or a seat on the incline railway — the full range of Catalina experiences beginning at a single counter steps from the gangway.

Although modest by modern standards, the aquarium became one of Avalon’s most popular early attractions and reinforced Catalina’s growing identity as a destination connected to the marine world. Combined with glass bottom boat excursions and marine garden tours, it offered many visitors their first close-up view of Pacific Ocean sea life.

Historical Notes

The aquarium occupied a rectangular building near the shore end of Avalon’s main pier where arriving passengers could easily visit immediately after stepping off the steamship. The Banning brothers developed the aquarium as part of a broader effort to expand Catalina’s attractions beyond fishing, boating, and beach recreation. Glass tanks displayed fish, sea stars, sea anemones, octopuses, and other marine life collected from the surrounding waters.

The nearby ticket office handled the steady flow of visitors arriving for glass bottom boat excursions, stagecoach rides, fishing trips, incline railway rides, and other organized activities. During the busy summer season, long lines such as these became a familiar sight along Avalon’s waterfront.

Historical Notes

Scenes like this reflected the logistical reality of a resort community entirely dependent upon steamship transportation. A single arriving vessel could discharge hundreds of passengers into Avalon Harbor within a short period of time, creating constant activity along the piers and waterfront district during the summer season.

Steamship arrivals also shaped the rhythm of commercial life throughout Avalon. Hotels, restaurants, excursion operators, and shops all depended upon the daily arrival of mainland visitors. The harbor visible in these images functioned not only as Avalon’s transportation center but also as the economic engine that sustained the town itself.

Historical Notes

This colorized image provides a vivid interpretation of Avalon’s waterfront activity during the early twentieth century. The clothing of the visitors, the painted wood structures, and the harbor scenery help modern viewers better visualize the atmosphere surrounding the busy pier district during the island’s tourism boom years.

The people gathered here represent the growing Southern California middle class that Catalina successfully attracted during the early resort era. Families, couples, and excursion groups arrived daily from Los Angeles and Long Beach seeking recreation, scenery, and a temporary escape from mainland city life.

Historical Notes

The aquarium building visible here reflected the practical and modest architecture common along Avalon’s early waterfront. Positioned near the foot of the pier where visitor traffic remained heaviest, the facility served both as an educational exhibit and as a gathering point where arriving tourists first oriented themselves to the island.

Holly Hill House, visible high on the hillside above the harbor, had already overlooked Avalon for two decades by the time this photograph was taken. The contrast between the crowded waterfront below and the quiet hillside residences above illustrates how Avalon gradually expanded upward from the harbor as the resort community continued to grow during the early twentieth century.

Historical Notes

First built as the vacation home of William Wrigley Jr., Mt. Ada was constructed in 1919 and finished in 1922.  Wrigley reportedly chose this particular location for its unsurpassed views of Avalon Bay with magnificent surroundings and because it received the first sunlight of the morning and the last sunlight of the late evening.

Historical Notes

The Wrigley home was designed and built by David M. Renton, general manager of the Santa Catalina Island Company at the time. Renton, who was influential in the early development of Catalina Island, also managed construction of the Catalina Casino Ballroom and was known for the development of Craftsman-style homes in Pasadena, among many other local projects.

Historical Notes

The mansion was designed in the Georgian Colonial Revival style by architect Zachary Taylor Davis, who also designed Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The original plans, influenced by Ada Wrigley’s preferences, included features such as dark green shutters, a Turkish bath, billiard room, organ chamber, sunroom, and a wraparound veranda. The house was built in an “L” shape, wrapping around a formal motor court on the mountain side and featuring a grand staircase from the ocean side.

Historical Notes

The home stood 350 feet above the ocean and provided expansive views of Avalon Bay, the town of Avalon itself, and the mainland off in the distance. The Wrigleys reportedly made two annual visits to Catalina Island in the summer and winter, with each visit lasting between four and ten weeks. Many distinguished guests of that time period enjoying visiting with the Wrigley family, including Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and the Prince of Wales.

Historical Notes

After Mr. Wrigley’s death in 1932, Mrs. Wrigley continued to visit their treasured home regularly until 1947 when she suffered a stroke. She died in 1958 and the property was then managed by the Santa Catalina Island Company and occasionally used for meetings and events by local organizations. In 1978, the property was donated to the University of Southern California and was used by the University as a conference center for the next several years.

Historical Notes

In 1985, the home was leased to its present operators and became The Inn on Mt. Ada. The residence was carefully restored in an effort to bring the property up to current building standards and to provide the amenities of a luxurious inn.

Many celebrities have stayed at the Inn including Barbara Streisand, Molly Ringwald, and Billy Zane. The most requested suite is the two-room Grand Suite which includes a private terrace.

Mt. Ada is open to the public every December for the Catalina Island Museum’s Annual Open House.

The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Historical Notes

In 1919, William Wrigley, Jr. gained a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs and in 1921 he made the decision to have the Cubs train on Catalinia.  In doing so, he became the first baseball owner to bring a major league club out West for spring training, building a facility for the Cubs on Catalina that he humbly called “Wrigley Field.” (Regular-season major league baseball wouldn’t arrive on the West Coast until the Dodgers and the Giants made their moves west in the 1950s.)

Historical Notes

When the Chicago Cubs began spring training on Catalina Island in 1921, they practiced at Avalon Ball Park. This field served as their training site until Wrigley Field on Catalina Island was established in the late 1920s. The field on Catalina Island was colloquially called Wrigley Field by the Chicago Cubs players and fans before it was officially named Wrigley Field. The Catalina Island Wrigley Field was named after the Los Angeles Wrigley Field, which had been named in 1925. This naming occurred before the Chicago Wrigley Field received its current name in 1927. The field's association with the Wrigley family, who owned both the Cubs and significant property on Catalina Island, led to the informal use of the name prior to its official designation in the late 1920s.

The Cubs were treated like royalty on the island, greeted with a parade each spring, fed at the ornate Hotel St. Catherine, and able to cavort with actresses like Betty Grable, Grace Bradley and Rochelle Hudson. They stayed at the Hotel St. Catherine in Descanso Bay and played on a ballfield built in Avalon Canyon that was named Wrigley Field.

Historical Notes

The Cubs continued to use the island for spring training until 1951, except during the war years of 1942–45.

Historical Notes

Today, only a plaque noting the location of "Wrigley Field" remains on the grounds of what is currently the Catalina Island Country Club, though its clubhouse is the same structure that Wrigley built for the Cubs.*

Coincidentally, the first Wrigley Field, built by Wrigley in 1925 for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, was located on Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

Click HERE to see more in Baseball in Early L.A.

Historical Notes

Bird Park was built by William Wrigley, Jr. in the late 1920s, and it covered about eight acres in Avalon Canyon. The large aviary iron superstructure once had been a dance pavilion at Casino Point. It was moved in about 1927 to make way for the construction of the new Casino, and readapted as an aviary for the Bird Park. Eventually, more than 500 cages housed up to 8000 birds, many of them rare and exotic species. Admission was free to what was thought to be the world’s largest bird park at the time. The Bird Park was scaled back during World War II when visitation to the island was limited. In 1966 the park closed, and its remaining birds were purchased by the Los Angeles Zoo Association and transferred to the newly created Los Angeles Zoo. Today the Bird Park site is home to an Avalon preschool.

Historical Notes

Wrigley would use his baseball team for the promotion of Catalina Island.  When the Cubs trained on Catalina, the players were photographed taking part in the same activities a vacationer might — fishing, golfing, horseback riding, visiting the bird park or pottery factory — except that they were in uniform.  The photos promoted what was a new concept at the time, the all-inclusive vacation. ##

Historical Notes

A herd of American Bison was supposedly first imported to California's Catalina Island in 1924 for the silent film version of Zane Grey's Western tale, The Vanishing American. However, the 1925 version of "The Vanishing American" does not contain any bison whatsoever and shows no terrain that even remotely resembles Catalina, according to Jim Watson, columnist for the Catalina Islander newspaper.

Over the decades, the bison herd grew to as many as 600 individuals. The population currently numbers approximately 150. Biologists found that the American Bison of Santa Catalina Island are not pure bred; 45 percent have a domesticated cow as an ancestor.*^

Historical Notes

In 1917, “Big” Sugarloaf was leveled for a new hotel to replace the Metropole.  However, plans changed and a new site for the hotel (Hotel St. Catherine) was chosen: Descanso Canyon. When chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought the controlling stake in Catalina Island, he used the cleared spot (originally meant for Hotel St. Catherine) to build a dance hall.  He named the new dance hall Sugarloaf Casino. It served as a ballroom and Avalon's first high school.*

Historical Notes

In a short period of time Sugarloaf Casino proved to be too small to accommodate the growing number of guests. In February 1928, the building was moved to Avolon Canyon and used for the Avalon Bird Park to make room for a much larger building. The Catalina Casino Ballroom, also known as Avalon Ballroom, was built on the same spot - adjacent to Little Sugarloaf Rock by architects Sumner A. Spaulding and William Webber.*

Historical Notes

In 1928, when the new, markedly taller casino building was completed, authorities changed their way of looking at Little Sugarloaf. What once had been a popular landmark was suddenly thought of as a view killer. Concern began to grow that climbers would injure themselves on Little Sugarloaf. The stairs were condemned and removed.

In March, 1929, Little Sugarloaf was blasted away to give what is now called Casino Point, the look that it offers today.

Wrigley's budget for the design and construction of the Catalina Casino was $600,000, but when all was said and done, he ended up spending $2 million.

Historical Notes

Wrigley's most prized accomplishment was the construction of the famed Casino in 1929, which Wrigley figured would improve his revenues by attracting more tourists. Though the Casino was never used for gambling, it was a place for people to gather and enjoy some camaraderie and entertainment. It held a variety of functions following its grand opening, but the Casino's earmark during this era was ballroom dancing to the live music of a big band.

Historical Notes

When Wrigley bought the island, the Hermosa II and the S.S. Cabrillo were the only steamships that provided access to the island. In order to encourage growth, Wrigley purchased an additional steamship, the S.S. Virginia. With some adjustments, it was renamed the S.S. Avalon. He also foresaw the design of another steamship, the S.S. Catalina which was launched on the morning of May 3, 1924. These steamships would deliver passengers to Catalina for many years. Wrigley also brought attention to the town of Avalon by having his Chicago Cubs use the island for the team's spring training from 1921 to 1951, absent the war years of 1942–45.

Historical Notes

Launched as the S.S. Virginia, the passenger ship carried passengers between Chicago and Milwaukee.  In 1918, she was requisition by the Navy for use in the first world war and renamed the U.S.S. Blueridge.  However, to get her through the St. Lawrence River locks, her bow and 6 feet of her stern had to be cut off and later reassembled.

While waiting for orders in Boston harbor, the Navy finally decided she was no longer needed and she was sold as surplus to William Wrigley, owner of the famous chewing gum company and Catalina Island.

The ship was renamed Avalon and was sent from New York via the Panama Canal, arriving April 5, 1920 and moored at the Catalina Terminal.  However, her debut would not take place until the arrival of William Wrigley Jr.  On April 15, 1920, the Avalon left on her first trip to Catalina, taking her full capacity of 3,000 people.*^#

Historical Notes

Commonly referred to as the Great White Steamer, the ship was specially built by William Wrigley to serve his Catalina Island as a passenger ferry. She was christened on May 23, 1924. During World War II, she was requisitioned for use as a troop carrier, but in 1946 she resumed her voyages to Avalon.*^^

Historical Notes

In the late 1920's tourist traffic to the Catalina Island was increasing at the rate of 20% annually. In July, August and September of 1929, the S.S. CABRILLO, S. S. AVALON and S. S. CATALINA carried a combined total of 500,000 passengers. The 3 ships offered a total of 5 sailings daily each way.^^*

Historical Notes

Among the passengers were movie stars and famous athletes who laughed, danced and drank their way to the island "26 miles across the sea." The S.S. Catalina even hosted 2 United States Presidents at different times. In those days, passengers dressed for the crossing. Gentlemen wore jackets and ties and the ladies dresses and coats, with some carrying umbrellas to protect them from the sun.^^*

Historical Notes

The S.S. Catalina has been recognized as a Historic-Cultural Monument, No. 213 (Click HERE to see the LA Historic-Cultural Monuments List).

It is also listed as California State Historic Landmark No. 894 (Click HERE to see more California Historic Landmarks in LA). She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Historical Notes

Seaplanes were another popular option of tansportation to Catalina Island. Charlie Chaplin’s half-brother Syd began the first seaplane service to Catalina in 1919. It operated only for a couple of summers, but other firms moved in to operate the service until 1931.^*^

Historical Notes

In 1931 the island’s owner, Phillip K. Wrigley, began the Wilmington-Catalina Airline, Ltd. through his Santa Catalina Island Company. The airline provided air transportation between the Mainland and Catalina.^*^

Historical Notes

Philip Wrigley (son of William Wrigley, Jr.) helped design a unique airport at Hamilton Cove, the second cove north of Avalon. This airport was designed to accommodate the Douglas Dolphin amphibian planes of the Wilmington-Catalina Air Line, Ltd., a Wrigley-operated firm. The twin engine Dolphins landed just offshore and would taxi up a ramp to a large turntable mechanism. The airplane would then be rotated until it was facing the water and ready for a trip back to the mainland. A small Spanish-style terminal building welcomed residents, business people and tourists to Catalina.*^*

Catalina Airport was soon described as “the smallest airport with the longest landing field (the Pacific) in the world.”^*^

Historical Notes

In 1921 Wrigley moved the Spring Training site of his professional ball club, the Chicago Cubs, to Catalina.  That same year, he also purchased the Los Angeles Angels who he would build another Wrigley Field for in South Los Angeles (1925).*^

Click HERE to see more in Baseball in Early L.A.

Historical Notes

Aircraft desinger Donald Douglas designed the main seaplane used by Wilmington-Catalina Airline, the Douglas Dolphin.  The twin-engined seaplane was the first of his planes to be used as a commercial passenger airliner.  Its interior was well-appointed and could comfortably seat 10 passengers for the princely fee of $5.00 for a one-way trip to Catalina in 1938.^*^

(ca. 1938)^*^^ - Passenger receipt for a one way seaplane trip from Avalon to Wilmington on Wilmington Calalina Airline, Ltd. "The Fairweather Line". Fare - $5.00

Historical Notes

In August 1940, plans that had been made to expand aviation operations on the island to include land-based airplanes started to become a reality when construction began for an airport located on the island’s interior. The Airport in the Sky was completed in 1941, the airline operation was renamed Catalina Air Transport and the future looked bright.

Until December 7, 1941, when everything changed. Within a couple of weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, the steamships were stopped from transporting passengers, and by September 1942, no civilian planes were allowed to land, effectively shutting down the entire island. It had become a closely patrolled federal military zone.

Eventually, several military outposts were established there to conduct training for the duration of the war. The Airport in the Sky was shuttered, though it would reopen as a full-service general aviation facility in 1946.
Unfortunately, the Catalina Airport at Hamilton Cove never reopened. Seaplanes continued to serve the island for decades, but they would land near a large platform in Avalon Bay, or at the inland airport when the weather turned rough.^*^^

Historical Notes

The Tuna Club of Avalon marks the birthplace of modern big game sportfishing in 1898. Led by Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, the club's founding members adopted the rules of conduct stressing conservationist ethics and sporting behavior. Today, their work remains the basis for the sport's internationally accepted principles.*^^

Historical Notes

The Tuna Club was founded by Charles Frederick Holder in 1898. Early members of the Avalon Tuna Club included Zane Grey, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Hal Roach, Cecil B. De Mille, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, George S. Patton and Winston Churchill.*^

Historical Notes

The clubhouse is located at 100 St. Catherine Way in Avalon. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles County, since April 2, 1991. It is also listed as California Historical Landmark No. 997 (Click HERE to see more California Historical Landmarks in Los Angeles County).*^

Historical Notes

Pearl Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that were a basis for the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book. In addition to the commercial success of his printed works, they had second lives and continuing influence when adapted as films and television productions. As of 2012, 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, had been made that were based loosely on Grey's novels and short stories.

Grey had built a getaway home in Santa Catalina Island, which now serves as the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel. He served as president of Catalina's exclusive fishing club, the Tuna Club of Avalon.*^

Historical Notes

Built in 1925, the Chime Tower was presented as a gift to the town of Avalon by Mrs. Ada Wrigley. Located up and across from the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel, the chimes have been tolling on the quarter of the hour between 8:00am and 8:00pm since 1925.

Historical Notes

In 1906, Horace Boos and three siblings opened one of Los Angeles' first cafeterias. Their idea of a fast food, self-service restaurant consisted of unheard-of impositions for that time: patrons would wait on themselves and return their trays and dishes to the kitchen. The brothers' downtown cafeteria was the first link, in a chain of seven that ultimately stretched from Los Angeles to San Francisco. They opened four more in the downtown area one in Santa Catalina Island, and two in San Francisco.

By the 1920s, the chain of cafeterias had become widely known. When Horace Boos died in 1926, the surviving brothers sold the seven cafeterias for a record $7 million to the Childs Corp. In turn, Childs sold two of the cafeterias to Clifford E. Clinton, who launched the Clifton's Cafeteria Chain. Eventually, Henry Boos bought back two, one on Hill Street and the other in Avalon on Catalina Island (seen above).

Historical Notes

The Boos Brothers offered inexpensive fare of a "40-cent dinner", but would call it quits in the late 1940s, before cafeterias began losing popularity due to the arrival of luncheonettes, soda fountains, and fast-food restaurants.

Historical Notes

El Encanto Building was the showpiece of Philip K. Wrigley's early California flare in Avalon. Opened in 1933, the El Encanto was the Santa Catalina Island Company's effort to preserve the traditions and culture of old California. The building radiated the spirit of early California and with the assistance of the island's growing Mexican-American community, El Encanto brought Old California to life for thousands of visitors each season.

Historical Notes

Originally known as El Paseo de El Encanto, “Promenade of Enchantment,” El Encanto International Marketplace was dedicated in Aug. 1933.  Strolling troubadours, magicians, puppeteers, and artists creating their wares were once a part of El Encanto.  Today there are gift & curio shops, and restaurants featuring Mexican and American food in the colorful marketplace, making it a favorite place to shop and dine in Avalon.*

Historical Notes

In November of 1915, a devastating fire burned out of control for three days, destroying about a third of the town of Avalon, including the Hotel Metropole. The Banning brothers built the elegant Hotel Saint Catherine to replace it in Descanso Canyon, just around the Point from Avalon.  The hotel was put up where the residence of Hancock Banning once stood.

Historical Notes

During the 1930s, the Casino became a hotspot for Hollywood celebrities and socialites. Movie stars like Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, and Ronald Colman were frequent visitors, often arriving by yacht.

Historical Notes

Movie studio tycoons such as Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and Samuel Goldwyn frequently came by yacht to the Casino to preview their newest cinema productions. It also serves as the island's civil defense shelter, large enough to accommodate Catalina's entire year-round population. Within its walls is stored enough food and water for all Avalon's residents for two weeks.

Historical Notes

The Catalina Casino was built by William Wrigley in 1928, replacing a much smaller version from 1917. Wrigley's original budget for the design and construction was $600,000, but he ultimately spent $2 million—a significant sum at the time.

Historical Notes

The Catalina Casino was designed by architects Sumner A. Spaulding and Walter Webber in the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles. It was notable for being the first circular building of its time, with a height equivalent to 12 stories

Historical Notes

The "Romance Promenade" is an open balcony encircling the upper level of the Catalina Casino, offering a 360-degree view of Avalon Harbor and the surrounding ocean. Integral to the circular design of the Casino, it is accessed through French doors from the ballroom, allowing dancers to step out for fresh air and breathtaking vistas. Renowned for its romantic ambiance, it was a fashionable spot for couples in the 1930s, contributing to the Casino's glamorous reputation. Today, it remains a highlight of Casino tours, providing spectacular views and continuing to be celebrated as one of Avalon's most romantic spots.

Historical Notes

The upper level of the Casino building houses the 20,000 square foot Catalina Casino Ballroom. It is the world's largest circular ballroom with a 180-foot diameter dance floor, that can accommodate 3,000 dancers. French doors encircle the room connecting the dance floor with the "Romance Promenade," an open balcony that runs around the building. To reach the ballroom on the top level the Casino building has two ramped walkways, both in enclosed towers that extend out from the circular building. Wrigley took the idea to use ramps instead of stairs from Wrigley Field, his Chicago Cubs stadium. The ramps allowed the large numbers of people using the ballroom to quickly move to and from their destinations. They each have a small lobby areas just below the dance floor level.

Historical Notes

Sumner Spaulding and Walter Weber designed the building in Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles. It received the Honor Award from the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as "one of the outstanding architectural accomplishments.” 

Historical Notes

Avalon's oldest remaining structure, the distinctive Holly Hill House, was built on a lot purchased from Shatto and his agent C.A. Summer for $500 in 1888.*^

Historical Notes

The twelve-story Catalina Casino, a focal point of Santa Catalina Island entertainment since it opened in 1929, is surrounded by the sea on three sides. Although The Casino is an icon of Catalina and Avalon, there isn't any actual gambling allowed. The stunning Art Deco building stands at 140 feet tall and contains the world's largest circular ballroom with a 180-foot diameter dance floor as well as a beautiful movie theater. The Casino hosts most of Catalina's major indoor events, including the annual New Year's Eve Celebration, and the Catalina Island Jazz Festival..*

Historical Notes

The S.S. Catalina, known as "The Great White Steamer", took its maiden voyage on June 30, 1924. The 301-foot ship, originally built at a cost of $1 million dollars, was in service from 1924 until 1975.*

Historical Notes

The S.S. Catalina carried 25 million passengers between Los Angeles and Avalon Harbor during its 51 years of service (1924 - 1975).*

Historical Notes

Herbert Dewey Mac Rae moved to Catalina Island in 1906 and was the accountant for the Banning Brothers. He bought the two lots that were destroyed by the 1919 Avalon fire and built the Hotel Mac Rae in 1920. By using clay tile instead of wood, the Hotel Mac Rae became the first fire-proof hotel in Avalon.

Historical Notes

The Tuna Club of Avalon is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles County, since April 2, 1991. It is also listed as California Historical Landmark No. 997 (Click HERE to see more).

Historical Notes

Avalon, or Avalon Bay, the only "official" city on Santa Catalina Island, is a rural waterfront town with the usual tourist-oriented businesses and services lining the coastline. Beside Avalon, the only other center of population is the small, unincorporated town of Two Harbors on the island.

As of the 2000 census, there were approximately 3,127 people residing in the city.*

Historical Notes

To make room for the original Sugarloaf Casino (built in 1920), Little Sugarloaf was removed. Later, when Wrigley commissioned the construction of the current Catalina Casino (completed in 1929), Big Sugarloaf was also leveled to provide a larger and more stable foundation. Part of the adjacent hillside was also cut back to allow construction of an access road around the point.

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