Filmed on Tuesday, March 5 2024, I drive around Dana Point, CA to see what's going on.
In 1923, Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and General M. H. Sherman, director of the Pacific Electric Railway Company, created a major real estate group to develop the Hollywood Hills. Sidney H. Woodruff, already a prominent Los Angeles homebuilder, was hired to lead the project.
In 1926, Woodruff, Chandler, and Sherman created the Dana Point Syndicate. They invited other investors, company presidents, movie producers, and real estate investors to join them in purchasing 1,388 acres of land, some of which includes the "Headlands" of today. Promising tree-lined and paved streets, electricity, telephones, sidewalks, water mains, storm drains, sewers, and other amenities, Woodruff built 35 homes and a number of commercial buildings.
Most of these "Woodruff" houses are concentrated in the Dana Point historic core, also called Lantern Village. The streets are named after different colored lanterns-Street of the Violet Lantern, Blue Lantern, etc.-because colored lanterns were used by ships 200 years ago to advertise their fares when in the Dana Point natural harbor.
The harbor, built in the 1960s and dedicated on July 31, 1971, is home to a marina, shops, and restaurants, and is a point of departure for the Catalina Express, a transportation service to and from the City of Avalon on Catalina Island.
Many consider the high bluffs and sheltered coves of this area of Southern California to be the most beautiful spot on the California coast. Pioneering surfers agreed as they surfed the many beach breaks along the coast. Dana Point had a notable surfing history, and was home to many of the first companies that produced products for surfing. Hobie Alter opened the world's first retail surf shop in Dana Point in 1954. Many surf publications such as the Surfer's Journal and Surfer Magazine were formed and headquartered in Dana Point. Bruce Brown produced the iconic surfer film Endless Summer in Dana Point.
One of a few known specimens of the megamouth shark was caught off Dana Point in 1990.
Dana Point was trademarked as the Dolphin and Whale Watching Capital of the World® in 2019 and Dana Point was named a Whale Heritage Site in 2021.
Since its incorporation as a city, Dana Point has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential and gubernatorial election as of 2020.
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