Global InformationMcFadden Wharf information
| McFadden Wharf | |
|---|---|
 McFadden Wharf in 1891 | |
| Location | near Newport Bay, California |
| Coordinates | 33°36′28″N 117°55′43″W / 33.6078611111111°N 117.928536111111°W |
| Built | 1888 |
California Historical Landmark | |
| Designated | July 3, 1964 |
| Reference no. | 794 |
  Location of McFadden Wharf in California | |
The place of McFadden Wharf was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.794) on July 3, 1964.[1]
McFadden Wharf was built in what is today Newport Beach, California, Orange County in 1888. The McFadden Wharf was located at the site of the current Newport Pier. Under Mexican rule the port in Newport was called San Joaquin Bay. Brothers from Delhi, New York James McFadden and Robert McFadden came to California and purchased land. On April 19, 1875, the bought 20-acre of land that was the part of the form Mexican land grant of José Antonio Yorba. The land was on the coast of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. In 1854, the Yorba family sold Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana to José Antonio Andrés Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda later lost the land due to bankruptcy caused by fighting to uphold his land claims in court. In 1869, William Spurgeon and Ward Bradford purchased 74.27 acres (0.3006 km2) of the ranch to form the city of Santa Ana. In 1866 much of the ranch was sold to James Irvine. James Irvine starting ranching on his land and James McFadden used his land for port shipping. The bay was narrow with sand bars, muddy, and not deep, so it was poor for shipping. Thus, James McFadden needed a wharf built out into the bay. With San Pedro port open his port did even poorer. James McFadden asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for help in 1887. They told him it would take $1.2 million to improve the port, and rejected the request. In 1888 the McFadden brothers built their own wharf. The wharf was 1320 feet long and 60 feet wide. In 1891 they built the Santa Ana and Newport Railway railroad line from the wharf to the Santa Ana Depot, 11 miles long. A small town call Newport Landing was built near the Wharf. McFadden brothers had 100 employees and the shipping company was at last profitable. In 1896 they purchased more land in what is now Newport Beach. But port of San Pedro was bigger and closer to Los Angeles and shipping decreased. In 1899 James McFadden sold the wharf and railroad line to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. The rail line closed in 1907.[2] In 1902, James sold the town of Newport Landing, half the Balboa Peninsula, and surrounding swamp lands to Williams S. Collins and C. A. Hanson. Collins, President of the Associated Oil Company, saw the town as a place to make a sea resort, not a shipping port. The team made Henry E. Huntington a partner in the Newport Beach development. In 1905, the Pacific Electric street cars ran to Newport, in 1906, the line continued to Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Pavilion. In 1939 the old McFadden Wharf was removed after being damaged by a large storm in 1928. In 1940 the current Newport Municipal Pier was built.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
| Old Landing | |
|---|---|
| Location | near Newport Bay |
| Built | 1870 |
California Historical Landmark | |
| Designated | June 20, 1935 |
| Reference no. | 198 |
- ^ "Orange: NO. 794 McFadden Wharf". Office of Historic Preservation. State of California. 2015. Retrieved 2015-05-06.
- ^ Staff (July 1981). "Past: Wave Goodbye to Beach Pleasures". Orange Coast Magazine: 87–89.
- ^ Schwieterman, Joseph P. (2004). "Newport Beach, California (70,032)". When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment. Vol. 2. Truman State Univ Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 9781931112147.
- ^ "Balboa Island Newport Beach - Things to Do in Balboa Island Newport Beach". Balboa-island.net. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
- ^ "BIIA Island Guide: Island History". Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
- ^ "Newport Beach Historical Society | McFadden's Wharf – Castaways". newportbeachhistorical.org. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
- ^ Staff (May 12, 2015). "A look at the trains that built the O.C. coast". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
- ^ "Los Angeles Basin's 1938 Catastrophic Flood Event". Archived from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2009-05-12.