On this date in 1921, the following advertisement ran in the Santa Ana Register trumpeting the merits of waterfront lots at Anaheim Landing where you can bathe and fish in your backyard and tie your boat to your front porch. And, unknown to tract agent R. D. Richards, the Navy would be taking over in twenty-three years.
An aerial shot of the real bay frontage a few months after this ad ran:
– Michael Dobkins
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The lots that Richards offered were for his recently acquired property of “East Seal Beach” which was across the Bay/River (shown at very bottom of above photo where PE train crosses the original Anaheim Landing. The property became available after a long lawsuit in which the Ord Company (funded by Philip E. Stanton) proved that the spit of land between Anaheim Landing and the Ocean was actually an island and had been until the Bolsa Chica Gun Club had built an earth dam cutting off tidal inflow from its wetlands. Being an island meant it fell outside the original land grant, and Ord filed claim on it from the state. Ord/Stanton won their lawsuit and immediately opened it for sale.
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