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Archive consists of 804 retained copies of outgoing letters, 1013 manuscript and typescript pages, (in two letter copy books and files of typescript carbons), three photograph albums, containing 160 photographs, documenting two of the family s mansions, in Los Angeles and Los Altos Hills, and their ranch in Arcadia, California, plus several related ephemeral items, newspaper clippings, et cetera. Archive dealing with southern California real estate development in the early twentieth century, particularly, the founding and development of the city of Redondo Beach. The archive consists of retained copies of outgoing correspondence of Harry Babbitt Ainsworth (1871-1925) pertaining to his management of the various family companies that controlled the city of Redondo Beach, Los Angeles County, California. The town was founded by Ainsworth s father John Commigers Ainsworth and his business partner, R. R. Thompson. The archive also includes Ainsworth family photograph albums. The materials date from 1897-1958. The correspondence deals with all aspects of the development of Redondo Beach. The Ainsworth family owned and controlled the entire town, the Redondo Hotel, the Redondo Improvement Company and the Redondo Railway. The letters discuss the buying and selling of lots in the town, construction of buildings, wharves, a golf course and country club, and the construction and extension of the Redondo Railway connecting Los Angeles with Redondo Beach. H. B. Ainsworth took over the management of the Redondo Companies after the deaths of his father and older brother, G. J. Ainsworth. Ainsworth sold all of the family s Redondo holdings to Henry E. Huntington in 1905. The letters include correspondence dealing with the immediate aftermath of the Huntington sale, financial aspects of the deal, and the resulting real estate boom in Redondo Beach after Huntington s purchase. Huntington went on to develop the town further and he also introduced surfing to California in Redondo. The Ainsworth family also had extensive real estate holdings in Oregon, Washington, in Oakland and San Francsico, and as far east as Chicago. Ainsworth was also active in a company named The California Wine Association. The family also owned several banks in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere. The collection also contains correspondence commenting of the aftereffects of the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake and its effects on California. Redondo Beach California was founded by Captain John C. Ainsworth and Captain R. R. Thompson, pioneer steamboat Captains from Oregon. Ainsworth was born June 6, 1822, in Springboro, Warren County, Ohio. His father died when he was about seven years old and Ainsworth began to support himself. He worked on the Mississippi River and soon became a master on a passenger steamer sailing between St. Louis and upriver points. At the time of the discovery of gold in California he traveled there in company with William C. Ralston, who became one of the distinguished bankers and financiers of the west. Ralston remained in San Francisco where he became one of the pioneer bankers of the city, while Ainsworth went to Oregon to take command of the Lot Whitcomb the first steamer that ran on the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Ainsworth became the President of the Oregon Steamship & Navigation Company until it was merged with the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. Ainsworth remained president of the latter until 1881, when it was sold to the Villard Syndicate for five million dollars. He was next instrumental in building the Missouri Pacific Railroad from California from California to the south. In 1881 he erected the Ainsworth building in Portland, at the corner of Oak and Third Streets, and.
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