Los
Angeles County
Biographies
SARAH A. BEANE
For thirty years a resident of
Hermosa Beach, Sarah A. Beane has been a potent factor in the city’s
development along both moral and material lines and is known as “the mother of
St. Cross Episcopal Church,” the first house of worship established here. A native of New York City, she was born
October 3, 1850, and acquired her education in the east, where she remained
until thirty-six years of age. On
January 31, 1887, Mrs. Beane and her husband, Frederick J. Beane, arrived in
Los Angeles. He died in 1895 and Mrs.
Beane lived in that city for a period of sixteen years. One summer she and her cousin, Miss Lois S. Rodaway, rented a small cottage at a beach near what is now
Redondo Beach, and liked the place so well that they established their home
there in 1903. While she lived here the
Hermosa Beach Land and Water Company put this beach on the map and Mrs. Beane
finally removed to her present location to take charge of the post office in
Hermosa Beach. The property where she
now lives is part of her original purchase.
As postmistress of Hermosa Beach, Mrs. Beane had her office on the ocean
front in a pavilion which stood on the site now occupied by the Breakers Hotel,
and served in that capacity continuously for eleven years. During that time she maintained a real estate
and insurance office and was agent for the water company. After she left the post office she continued
her real estate and insurance business until 1917.
In the rear of the pavilion was a
brick building and in a rear room Mrs. Beane assisted by several of her
friends, organized the first Sunday school in the beach city. She next conceived the idea of organizing a
church and brought to bear all of her energy and ability in the accomplishment
of this laudable purpose. The Hermosa
Beach Land and Water Company, which developed the beach city, was willing to
donate a site for a church but wanted the property to be kept free of debt and
deeded the lots to Mrs. Beane who in turn deeded them to the Los Angeles
Diocese that an Episcopal Church might be erected. She assisted Rev. Charles H. De Garmo to raise the funds required for the construction of
the edifice and the donations thus secured were used in building St. Cross
Episcopal Church, which was the first in Hermosa Beach, and it has since been a
strong force for spiritual uplift and moral progress in this community. Members of the congregation have been zealous
workers in behalf of the church, which has always been entirely free from debt. It was opened by the Rev. De Garmo, now deceased, who preached the first sermon. The present pastor is Rev. C. H. Parlour.
Mrs. Beane retired from business in
1917. For many years she dealt
extensively in Hermosa real estate and still has valuable holdings. Remarkably well preserved, she is alert and active
and appears much younger than her eighty-two years. She reads without glasses and her
handwriting, of the old Spencerian style, is clear
and beautiful, almost like script. Few
residents of Hermosa Beach can equal Mrs. Beane’s
record of accomplishments along the line of civic growth and betterment and none
stands higher in public esteem.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 127-128, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES