NAPLES

In 1903, a company purchased and subdivided the Alamitos Bay Peninsula into 500 lots. A. M. Parsons and A. C. Parsons, his son, joined the sales force, and while selling lots from a canvas covered shack which they had built on the bayshore, they became so interested in the area that they bought 50 to 60 of these lots on speculation.

To publicize the area they organized a club of Los Angeles businessmen called the "Channel Club", and built a clubhouse on two bay-front lots. This club was popular and a favorite resort with both young and old, and the scene of many dances, swimming and boating parties.

During this time the Parsons looked out over the bay and began to see the possibility of another land development in the marshes and wastelands across the bay. A. M. Parsons drew an envelope from his pocket and sketched his vision of how the marshes might be transformed. The sketch was reproduced in watercolors, and formed the basis for the subdivision and canal projects.

This area was covered with water at high tide and would have to be built up before it would be possible to build but A.M. Parsons saw the vision of another Venice, Italy, a land of canals, gondolas, and white villas with red tiled roofs. He hired a former city engineer, Frank A. Olmstead, to test the area. After getting a favorable report he contacted The Alamitos Land Company, and purchased the land where Naples now stands.

Parsons leased the corner of 6th and Main Street in Los Angeles and proceeded to sell real estate in the new subidivison. A new company, The Naples Company, was formed with H. E. Huntington as president. Hunting-ton was also the man who built the Pacific Electric Railway System which brought the "Big Red Cars" to Long Beach. The Newport Beach Branch Line passed through Alamitos Bay, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach on its way to Newport Beach, and because he was the president of The Naples Company it was not too hard for the Parsons to persuade him to install a spur track from the Newport Beach line to the new real estate subdivision. The spur line ran along what is now Appian Way and Ravenna Drive and looped around the park in front of the Hotel Napoli.

One of the selling promotions was a daily Big Red Car trip to Naples; when the prospective customers reached the park at the end of the trip they were given a picnic lunch and a sales talk and shown around the area. The lots sold for $900 to $4,000 and sales were very encouraging. The sales requirements were one-third down with the balance payable in six, twelve or eighteen months at 6% interest.

The Parsons laid out and developed the Rivo Alto and Naples Canals and Treasure Island. They also gave the streets their present names, only at that time they were called "Way" rather than "Walk" or "Drive" as they are now. The first home, still standing at 4 Savona Walk, was built in 1906, and the Naples Hotel in 1909. Large numbers of trees were set out in 1909 also, and during this period of development a large construction camp was established in Naples. Over 125 men worked on the project, putting in sidewalks and the canal walls.