Real Estate
December 23, 1853 - Montgomery Block opened as San Francisco's largest, most expensive, most desirable office property; built by Halleck, Peachey, and Billings (HPB) law firm (estimated total cost of $2,000,000); largest building in West until 1875 (Palace Hotel) - 150 offices, 14 street-level stores, 28 basement areas; 1959 - torn down.
Montgomery Block
- San Francisco, 1862 - (http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/
tf3h4nb47j/ hi-res;jsessionid=bJ6Y_LVKWae1n0qq))
1879 - William Morrison
DeWolf established DeWolf Realty Company, Inc. in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco;
with William Waldo DeWolf (son)
managed, developed, sold properties throughout San Francisco, Northern
California; 1949 -
Oliver A. Talmage joined company, soon became partner, eventually sole owner;
became exclusive Management Broker for all Veteran's Administration properties
developed, managed by VA throughout San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin counties;
1982 - William A.Talmage (son) assumed ownership; oldest real estate
firm west of Mississippi.
William Waldo DeWolf
- DeWolf Realty
Oliver A. Talmage
- DeWolf Realty
August 27, 1906 - Colbert Coldwell, two
partners formed real estate company, Tucker, Lynch and Coldwell; dedicated to
principle that they would work only for customers, not trade for their own
account; 1913 - Benjamin Arthur Banker joined firm as salesman;
1914 - became partner; 1981 - acquired by Sears,
Roebuck and Co. (member of Sears Financial Network); 1990 -
locations in fifty states, expanded internationally with offices in Canada,
Puerto Rico; 1993 - acquired by Fremont Group (private investment
company, formerly known as Bechtel Investments, Inc.), company senior
management; May 1996 - acquired by HFS Incorporated, world´s
largest franchisor of hotels, residential real estate brokerage offices;
1997 - HFS merged with CUC International, formed Cendant Corporation;
July 31, 2006 - Cendant spun off Real Estate Services Division, named
Realogy Corporation.
1919 -
Samuel Finley Brown Morse, distant cousin of telegraph-inventor Samuel
Finley Breese Morse and manager for Pacific Improvement Company (headed
by "Big Four", had extensive real estate holdings on
Monterey Peninsula), formed Del Monte Properties Company, acquired
holdings of Pacific Improvement Company (18,000-acre Del Monte unit
including Hotel Del Monte, The Lodge at Pebble Beach, two golf courses);
February 22, 1919 - grand opening of Pebble Beach Golf
Links, The Lodge at Pebble Beach; 1948 - U.S. Navy bought
Hotel Del Monte from the Del Monte Properties Company for $2.2 million
(now Naval Postgraduate School); January 1977 - Del Monte
Properties Company reincorporated as Pebble Beach Corporation;
1978 - acquired by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation after
financial success of Star Wars, reorganized it as Pebble Beach Company;
1990 - acquired by Ben Hogan Properties, owned by Japanese
business man Minoru Isutani; March 1992 - acquired by
Taiheiyo Golf Club of Japan; 1999 - acquired from The Lone
Cypress Company by group of American investors, headed by Peter
Ueberroth.
Samuel F. B. Morse
- founder Pebble Beach (http://www.pebblebeach.com/ images/history/1915_Morse_s.jpg)
November 24, 1949
(Thanksgiving Day) - Alexander C. Cushing, former Wall Street
lawyer, with $400,000 of his own money , investment from few
friends, opened Squaw Valley Development Company, "uphill
transportation business" (first visited in 1946); May 1, 1949
- John Buchman, former taxi-driver from Morristown, NJ, became company's
first employee "at the business end of a shovel" (over period of 45
years became General Manager, President, Director of the Company);
1960 - hosted VIII Olympic Winter Games (beating
internationally regarded resorts such as Innsbruck, Austria, St. Moritz,
Switzerland, Garmisch-Partenkirschen, Germany).
Alexander C. Cushing
- Squaw Valley (http://www.squaw.com/ winter/images/
front_page/ acc_portrait_with_CC400.jpg)
June 6, 1978
- California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, a primary
ballot initiative calling for major cuts in property taxes.
(Coldwell, Banker), Jo Ann L. Levy (1981). Behind the Western
Skyline: Coldwell Banker: The First 75 years. (Los Angeles, CA:
Coldwell Banker, 210 p.). and Company--History.
Colbert Coldwell,
Benjamin Banker - Coldwelll Banker (http://www.lovethathouse.com/
gifs/the-guys.jpg)
(Huntington), William B. Friedricks (1992).
Henry E. Huntington
and the Creation of Southern California. (Columbus, OH: Ohio State
University Press, 229 p.). Huntington, Henry Edwards, 1850-1927;
Businesspeople--California, Southern--Biography;
Entrepreneurship--California, Southern--History--20th century.
(Huntington), James Thorpe (1994).
Henry Edwards Huntington: A
Biography. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 623 p.).
Huntington, Henry Edwards, 1850-1927; Capitalists and financiers--United
States--Biography.
Henry E. Huntington
(HenryProfile120.gif)
(WorldBuild Technologies Inc.), David Gottfried; foreword by Paul
Hawken (2004).
Greed to Green: The Transformation of an Industry and
a Life. (Berkeley, CA: WorldBuild Publishing, 243 p.). President (WorldBuild
Technologies Inc.). Gottfried, David--Biography; Real estate
development--Environmental aspects--United States; Land
use--Environmental aspects--United States; Building--Environmental
aspects--United States; Green movement--United States; Real estate
developers--Biography.
(Elaine Young), Elaine Young (1979). A Million Dollars Down.
(New York, NY: Dell, 174 p.). Realtor to the Stars in Beverly Hills.
Young, Elaine; Real estate agents--Los Angeles--Biography. Controversial
(tell it all) book about the trials and tribulations of the real estate
business.