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Most of the wells had been capped by the 1970s, and the last wells, near the Venice Pavilion, were capped in 1991. The short-lived boom provided needed income to the community, which otherwise suffered during the Great Depression. Within two years, 450 oil wells covered the area, and drilling waste clogged the remaining waterways. In 1929, oil was discovered south of Washington Street on the Venice Peninsula, now known as the Marina Peninsula neighborhood of Los Angeles. Afterward, the Department of Recreation and Parks intended to close three amusement piers, but had to wait until the first of the tidelands leases expired in 1946. Many streets were paved in 1929, following a three-year court battle led by canal residents. Consolidation was approved at the election in November 1925, and Venice was merged with Los Angeles in 1926. When it was proposed that Venice consolidate with Los Angeles, the board of trustees voted to hold an election. Politics īy 1925, Venice's politics had become unmanageable because its roads, water and sewage systems badly needed repair and expansion to keep up with its growing population. DeLay performed many of the world's first aerial stunts for motion pictures in Venice. After a marine rescue attempt was thwarted, he organized the first aerial police force in the nation. DeLay, implemented the first lighted airport in the United States on DeLay Field (previously known as Ince Field).
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One of them, movie aviator and Venice airport owner B. For the amusement of the public, Kinney hired aviators to do aerial stunts over the beach. Another pier was planned for Venice in 1925 at Leona Street (now Washington Street). In 1923, Charles Lick built the Lick Pier at Navy Street in Venice, adjacent to the Ocean Park Pier at Pier Avenue in Ocean Park. Several hundred thousand tourists visited on weekends. By 1925, with the addition of a third coaster, a tall Dragon Slide, Fun House, and Flying Circus aerial ride, it was the finest amusement pier on the West Coast. When it opened it had two roller coasters, a new Racing Derby, a Noah's Ark, a Mill Chutes, and many other rides. The Kinney family rebuilt their amusement pier quickly to compete with Ocean Park's Pickering Pleasure Pier and the new Sunset Pier. With the amusement pier burning six weeks later in December 1920, and Prohibition (which had begun the previous January), the town's tax revenue was severely affected. When he died in November 1920, Venice became harder to govern. Kinney, however, governed with an iron hand and kept things in check. Unfortunately, this created a fractious political climate. Since the business district was allotted only three one-block-long streets, and the City Hall was more than a mile away, other competing business districts developed. 1900–1920Īttractions on the Kinney Pier became more amusement-oriented by 1910, when a Venice Miniature Railway, Aquarium, Virginia Reel, Whip, Racing Derby, and other rides and game booths were added. Ĭrowds between 17th and 34th streets, with roller coaster in background, c. : 22 Included in the capitals are several faces, modeled after Kinney and a woman named Nettie Bouck. Kinney hired artist Felix Peano to design the columns of the buildings. When Venice of America opened on July 4, 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the marshes for his residential area, built a 1,200-foot-long (370 m) pier with an auditorium, ship restaurant, and dance hall, constructed a hot salt-water plunge, and built a block-long arcaded business street with Venetian architecture. After the partnership dissolved in 1904, Kinney, who had won the marshy land on the south end of the property in a coin flip with his former partners, began to build a seaside resort like the namesake Italian city. After Ryan died, Kinney and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street. They built a resort town on the north end of the property, called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought 2 miles (3 km) of ocean-front property south of Santa Monica in 1891. Venice, originally called "Venice of America", was founded by wealthy developer Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town, 14 miles (23 km) west of Los Angeles.
