Los Angeles County
Biographies
GEORGE ALANDSON HART
HART, GEORGE ALANDSON, Hotel
Proprietor, Los Angeles, California, was born at Freedom, Ohio,
November 5, 1870, the son of H. A. Hart and Ordelia M. (Gleason) Hart. He married
Ida M. Belden at West Farmington, Ohio, September 5, 1894.
He was educated in the public schools of his native
State, working, after his studies each day, on his father’s farm. He remained
there until he was eighteen years of age, at which time (1888) he moved to Los
Angeles.
He went to work in the Natick House, then the largest and
best located hotel in the city, and remained in its employ for two years. At
that time his father, who had located at Los Angeles in 1882, purchased the
Natick House and took his two sons, G. A. and D. H. Hart, into
partnership with him, the three men conducting the hotel, which was
headquarters for the leading mining and oil men of the country. For two years
they worked together and upon the death of Mr. Hart, Sr., in 1892,
the brothers became sole proprietors of the house and have operated together
from that time on, each contributing the best of his talents and efforts to
make the success that has come to them.
Mr. Hart was a close student of development and watched
the growth of Los Angeles and the Southwest carefully, convinced that that
section of the United States was destined to become a great center of trade and
population. Being of progressive build, he and his brother were continually on
the outlook for opportunities, and on July 19, 1903, they purchased
the Rosslyn Hotel, located on South Main Street. They made an addition by
addition to it the Lexington Hotel, conducting the two under the name of the
Rosslyn, by which name the hostelry is known today. The management of the Harts
has placed it among the principal hotels of Southern California. With the
growth of the city and the advance of real estate in Los Angeles, Mr. Hart and
his brother made many extensive purchases for investment purposes, their
holdings including large tracts in and near the city. In 1909, they became
interested in ten thousand acres of land in Tulare County, California, and
there built the town of Terra Bella. After laying out the town, building
streets and making other improvements, they erected a large hotel at a cost of
$25,000, thus providing at the very birth of the place a modern caravansary.
They participated in the organization of the First National Bank of Terra
Bella, with G. A. Hart as president, and constructed a modern
business block in that place.
The year after they opened the town of Terra Bella, Mr.
Hart and his brother bought the townsite of Richgrove, also in Tulare County, and there, as in the case
of their former venture, soon had a promising little city laid
out, with another hotel as one of its features.
Mr. Hart bought realty in Hollywood and vicinity and at
the time when the Los Angeles beach resorts were but dreams he purchased
heavily in that region, and today is the owner of considerable valuable Ocean
Park real estate. When that resort was thrown open to the public he had charge
of the realty operations and it is largely due to his
management that that city grew from a barren stretch of sand to a modern
seaside resort.
Mr. Hart is also the owner of vast tracts of farming property
in both Tulare and Kings County. He is the executive head of a number of realty
companies and organizations of Southern California. He is President of the
Lindsey Orchard and Vineyard Company; President of the Terra Bella Development
Company, and holds a similar position with the Richgrove
Land Co. He belongs to the Hotel Men’s Association of Los Angeles, is a Mason,
Los Angeles Consistory Number 3, of the Scottish Rite,
and a Shriner.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
03 August 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 736, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES