Los Angeles County
Biographies
ALEXANDER ROSBOROUGH FRASER
FRASER, ALEXANDER ROSBOROUGH,
Realty and Investments, Ocean Park, Cal., was born at St. Johns,
N. B., Feb. 1, 1856, the son of James I. Fraser and Leah (Rosborough) Fraser. His father was a timber owner who
operated successfully in the forests of Canada and Michigan. Mr. Fraser
married Appalona Wedge, at Yale, Mich.,
July 17, 1877, and to them were born two
daughters and a son, the latter Earl Alexander Fraser, being associated in
business with his father.
In 1863 Mr. Fraser’s parents moved to Michigan, where the
father was a pioneer timberman. There he spent his
boyhood, working with his father. In 1871 a great fire swept the timber
regions, destroying two entire counties and the Frasers, with others, lost
everything. After this disaster, Mr. Fraser stayed with his father for
five years, helping him to rebuild his fortunes, and at the age of twenty quit
the wilderness to engage in business for himself.
He located at Spring Hill, Mich., where he owned and
operated a cheese factory. After a year there he moved his plant to Amadore, Sanilac County, at the same time opening an
implement factory at Yale, Mich. This business was in a flourishing condition
when, in 1881, that county was destroyed by fire and the farmers were wiped out
financially, and as they were many of them debtors of Mr. Fraser, his
business was practically ruined. His health began to fail about this time, but
he remained in business long enough to help the neighborhood recover from the
effects of fire; then in 1885 he sold out and moved to California.
He landed at Los Angeles, March 11, 1885, and almost
immediately entered the real estate business as a member of the firm of
T. C. Narramore & Co. After a year he
drew out and associated himself with the F. D. Lanterman
Realty Co., in which connection he remained for about two years, participating
in the opening of several attractive Los Angeles tracts. He then returned to
his former firm, but after a brief period, organized the A. R. Fraser
Realty Co. and branched out alone. Two years he operated singly, then took F. D. Lanterman
into partnership under the title of the Fraser & Lanterman
Realty Co.
In 1891 he organized the firm of Frazer (sic),
Cook & Pearsons, one of the largest in the city
at that time and the first real estate office to be opened in Los Angeles to
the south of the City Hall. Their offices were then at 244 Broadway. The firm
operated for three years and then Mr. Fraser again went into business for
himself. About this time he was appointed Secretary of the Street Commissioner’s
department, which had charge of the opening and widening of many streets in Los
Angeles. He continued this work, in addition to his own business, until 1900,
when he went to Ocean Park.
This was the turning point in his career and the one
which was to place him among the real developers of the Southwest. For fifteen
years the Santa Fe Railroad had been trying to make a resort out of the tracts
in the Santa Monica district, at what is known as Ocean Park, but had failed
dismally. Mr. Fraser, associated with George Hart, then
took up the Santa Fe holdings, a tract of thirteen acres. The land was, for the
most part, barren sand dunes. There were barely twenty-five inhabitants and the
total assessment on the tract was $4500.
Mr. Fraser and his partner immediately set to work to
build a town. They laid out streets, installed a sewer system and cut the land
up into building lots. Within a year the assessment on the land had jumped to $65,000,
with $50,000 additional on improvements, mostly residences.
In 1902 Mr. Fraser added to his holdings by the purchase
of the interest of T. H. Dudley, who owned half of the Kinney lands
on the Ocean Front. In 1904 he purchased the Recreation Gun Club tract, which
had an ocean frontage of 4000 feet. This was bought for $135,000, and
after it was improved the lots brought $800,000.
In 1903 Mr. Fraser began the real work of making a great
resort out of Ocean Park. At that time he built the Ocean Park Casino, at a
cost of $35,000, and in 1905 erected the Ocean Park Bath House, a magnificent
structure, costing $185,000. In 1906 he built the Ocean Park Auditorium at a
cost exceeding $100,000, and that same year also put up the Masonic Temple and
the Decatur Hotel, the former costing $45,000, the latter $80,000.
The latest and greatest of all Mr. Fraser’s buildings
came in the early part of 1911 when “Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier,” the largest
and finest structure of its kind in the world, was completed. It extends 1000
feet over the ocean and houses a multitude of amusements, including a beautiful
dancing pavilion.
Besides these notable operations, Mr. Fraser built
numerous improvements in Ocean Park, and is the man responsible for the
construction of the cement promenade which joins Ocean Park with Venice. For
many months the project of a boardwalk between the two cities had been
discussed, and Mr. Fraser, returning in May, 1906, from a tour of the Orient,
found matters shaping up for the passage of the ordinance authorizing it. He
proposed that the promenade should be of cement, but was opposed in this idea
by all the Councilmen, the Mayors of the two cities and the three newspapers
published in Venice and Ocean Park. Born a fighter, Mr. Fraser would not
back down, and fought so hard for his proposition that it was finally adopted,
many of the Councilmen voting for the ordinance against their better judgment.
Early in 1907 the cement promenade, a mile and a quarter in length and thirty
feet in width, was completed, and it now forms one of the greatest improvements
of its kind in the world. Those who had opposed it now admit its economic and
lasting advantages.
This promenade not only provided a modern link between
the two resorts, but immediately raised the valuation on beach property
$1,000,000.
Other large properties opened by Mr. Fraser were the
Ocean Park Heights tract, and a strip lying between Playa del Rey and Venice.
He improved these properties for residence purposes and put them on a par with any
of the Southern California localities. His interests are scattered over a large
portion of the West, with the nucleus of his holdings located in the Ocean Park
district. He has timber interests in the north of California and possesses
lands and ranch properties in the Imperial Valley. He owns three-fourths of the
Ocean Park Bath House, two-thirds of the Masonic Temple, and is president of
the Topango Improvement Co., which possesses 600
acres north of Santa Monica, Cal.
His is a thirty-second degree Mason and Past Master of
the Ocean Park Lodge, F. & A. M.; a Mystic Shriner and Past Grand Patron of the Eastern Star in the
State of California. He also belongs to the Elks, Foresters, Maccabees, and holds memberships in the Jonathan and
L. A. Country Clubs of Los Angeles, and the Breakers Club of Ocean
Park.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE–On September 3, 1912, Ocean Park,
California, was visited by a disastrous fire which destroyed the greater part
of the buildings owned by Mr. Fraser and caused a loss of several hundred
thousand dollars.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
12 October 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 685, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
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