Riverside Heights Company

The Riverside Heights Company was formed on August 30th, 1902 (note: Sec. of State records indicate 9/2/02). John. A. Merrill and I.H. Preston purchased 700 acres of what is now Mt. Washington and outlying parts from Charles Gaffen (note: it is likely Gassen).  Merrill was the president of the Manhattan Beach Company, and vice-president of the Pacific Art Tile Company; Preston was an attorney who had represented G. W. Morgan.  Immediately thereafter, they transferred their new purchase to the Riverside Heights Company.

The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $600,000, with $120.00 subscribed. The named directors at incorporation were William Stevenson, Jas. A. Rust, J.B. Merrill (note: Merrill's middle initial is listed as A or B in different sources), O. Lewis and M.D. Merrill.

"The company will, it is said, open boulevards and graded streets, make improvements suitable for high-grade residence property, and divide the tract into acre villa lots." 

Description of Purchase

". . . 70 acres near this city, covering the attractive hills between the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles River, and extending north to Avenue 50."

The first sales by the Riverside Heights Company were noted in the January 10, 1903 edition of the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record: "The Riverside Heights company, of which Mr. John A. Merrill is president and geenral manager, has just put on the market 180 lots adjoining Highland Park and Occidental college. Twelve of these lots have been sold to parties who expect to locate."

"To make this tract more accessible a new street railway is being projected. The survey has been made and the contract is soon to be let for the building the road. It will be run on Avenue 40 from the line of the Pasadena electric line up to and into the tract. The new line will be about a mile in length, nearly half of which will be in the tract." - Los Angeles Evening Express, 11/21/1902, p. 8.

"Surveys are now being made for what will be the shortest electric railway in the city. It will be installed by the Riverside Heights company and will run up Avenue 40 to Riverside Heights, which is just outside the city limits. Including the track that will be operated in the heights, the whole line will only be a mile long. The purpose of the road is to afford accessibility to the section in question, which has recently opened and is being built upon. ¶ This road will be equipped with the Farnham safety electric power feeder system for applying high potential electic power to moving trains. This system, the reent invention of a practical railroad man of wide experience and high standing, is not what is commonly called a 'third rail.' It is