A Look Back:

In a few days we’ll be in a new year and already our city is geared up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its incorporation on Feb. 17, 1909.

Huntington Beach had a population then of about 915, with 542 registered voters and a new mayor named Ed Manning.

During the last couple of weeks of 1909 the city’s trustees, forerunners of our present City Council, were wrapping up some town business at City Hall located upstairs at 122 Main Street.

During that Monday evening meeting of Dec. 27, 1909, the municipal band had its practice in the band room on Main Street and could be heard plainly during the trustee meeting.

The main issue at the meeting was the passage of a previous ordinance requiring property owners in the city to keep their sidewalks clean.

City Marshal Edmund C. Wright told the trustees enforcement of that ordinance would consume so much of his time that he would not be enabled properly to inspect the cement work being done while sidewalks were laid in the city.

Wright was not only city marshal but also city street superintendent.

Trustee D.O. Stewart said he couldn’t see the use of passing ordinances unless they were to be enforced. Stewart stated he favored the sidewalks being cleaned at the expense of the city, and said property owners should be required to keep them clean.

In another item taken up at the Dec. 27, 1909, meeting, there was the problem of stagnant water on the southeastern corner of Walnut Avenue and 5th Street.

A motion to adjourn was adopted unanimously although there was still city business pending.

That Christmas Eve the Young People’s Society of the Huntington Beach Baptist Church had a holiday program and supper at Stewart Hall (Main Street and Walnut Avenue) with 100 people attending.

The program included a vocal solo by Mrs. H.T. Sundbye, instrumental music by Mattie Abbott and Jennette Cole, and readings by Grace Srack, and Mattie Abbott provided the entertainment just before Dr. W.E. Hibbard played Santa Claus and distributed gifts that were under the tree.

Charles Meserve, 21, of Santa Ana and Frances Romero, 16, of Huntington Beach were married that week in Santa Ana. But the marriage almost didn’t take place.

The bridegroom wanted to back out, but was physically attacked by the bride’s father.

The groom’s father also used his physical persuasion and the two were wed. The bridegroom worked at Joe Lewis’s poolroom in Huntington Beach.

Meanwhile Huntington Beach Methodist Episcopal Church’s W.D. Seely, Charles Warner, J.N. Hearn, J.A. Van Winkle, George Martin, Charles Howard and Edgar E. Clough were busy signing the paperwork for articles of incorporation.

From her home on 2nd Street near Olive Avenue, Emma Brazie was offering to do first class dressmaking for the ladies of our town.

The Rev. James Reardon of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, later to become Sts. Simon and Jude, on Orange Avenue, was holding Sunday Mass at 9:30 a.m.

The Rev. J.R. Jolly of the Christian church were holding their Sunday service at 11 a.m. and their Christmas program that year featured a play titled “The Bachelor’s Christmas” and included Hallie Walker, Paul Helme, Homer French, Robert Nutt, John French, and Elsie and Effie Adams in the cast.

On Tuesday morning, Dec. 28, a brown, heavy-set horse, 15 ½ hands high, belonging to J.M. Britain strayed away from his home at 20th Street and Palm Avenue and a reward was offered for finding it.

The Huntington Inn at Pacific Coast Highway and 8th Street was the scene of the Associated Chambers of Commerce Dec. 29 that was represented by 79 businessmen from all over Orange County.

Chamber President W.W. Willson of Newport conducted the business meeting while Lew Wallace of Newport took the minutes. President A.W. Griffith from the Huntington Beach Board of Trade welcomed the guests to the hospitality of our city.

Two items of importance were considered, the first being that the Associated Chambers adopt a resolution declaring the chambers in favor of holding a world’s fair in San Diego at the completion of the Panama Canal.

A second resolution the chambers favored was that all civic bodies of the county and all its commercial organizations should take up the matter of regulating the speed at which automobiles are driven and assist in the prosecution of all offenders who exceed the legal speed limit.

The dining room of the Huntington Inn had been decorated with greenery and Christmas bells with smilax and geraniums decorating the banquet tables.

The Bannse orchestra furnished music for the members after the business part of the meeting was over.

Alice Clough, Anna Clippinger, Emma and Sophie Sorenson and Ethel Waters spent their New Year’s Day at the home of Alma Wilson in Monrovia.

The new year afforded more opportunities to our local Woman’s Club to make itself a factor in the city’s progress. Incidentally, on Jan. 23 the club will be celebrating 100 years of service to the people of our community.

If you look at what was happening 100 years ago, you’ll notice there is not that much difference today in what our city faces, like speed laws and keeping our sidewalks clean. But at least the stagnant water at Fifth and Walnut has been cleaned up.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.