Boom & Bust Syndicates

During the 1880s and early 1890s big real estate development "syndicates" proliferated. Platting activities simultaneously peaked in such cities as Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and San Francisco.(1)

The previous post introduced one such enterprise in San Antonio, Texas. In New York, Maximilian Morgenthau's syndicate was especially powerful, known for its lucrative ventures on Amsterdam Avenue, 179th, 180th and 182nd Streets.

In Kansas, the so-called "Big Syndicate" formed in the spring of 1887. Organized as the Atchison Land, Improvement & Investment Company, its investors planned to develop a street railway and dummy line.  Missouri architect Max J. Scholer surveyed the proposed transportation corridor and also designed the syndicate's two-story Commercial Street property. He independently acquired properties along the proposed dummy line in the city's Highland Park subdivision.(2)

Later that year, the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church responded to the boom by establishing Midland College in the Big Syndicate's subdivision. Other municipalities that had vied for the foundation included Beloit, Minneapolis and Topeka, Kansas and Beatrice, Grand Island and Lincoln, Nebraska. But Atchison and its syndicates offered the Synod $50,000 for buildings, 25 acres of land, and net profits from land sales. By January 1889 the college had completed an ambitious new brick and grey stone building.

The 1887 Kansas Boom was short-lived & Highland Park sales were especially lackluster. Within its first two years, Midland College enrollments dwindled by over 25%.


(1) Fisher, Ernest M. "Session of Real Estate Speculation: Speculation in Suburban Lands." American Economic Review 23:1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (March 1933), p. 153.

(2) The Atchison Globe (2 June 1887).

From NOLA to LA

In 1911, developer Colonel R.E.E. DeMontluzin (1884-1966) traveled from New Orleans to Los Angeles. His goal was to comprehensively study bungalow communities and residential structures. When he returned to the Crescent City, he spoke at a "bungalow luncheon" hosted by the Mercantile Club. 

DeMontluzin traced the origins of the building type to southeast Asia and enumerated the distinctive features of what he considered "true" bungalows. Claiming that it was a frame residence never taller than a story and a half, with built-in furnishings and spacious closets, DeMontluzin believed the true bungalow eliminated superfluous spaces, in contrast to what he called the "box-car" architecture of older New Orleans homes. When audience members resisted the notion that an 8-foot ceiling would provide relief during the city's steamy summers, DeMontluzin asserted that proper fenestration would remedy the problem.(1)

Others in the New Orleans building community were turning their attentions to California. Architects Morgan D.E. Hite (1882-1959) and Martin Shepard (1875-1962) solicited information from the West. In 1912, Shepard received the Monrovia (California) Board of Trade's 1912 illustrated guide (above), and based some of his architectural designs on its bungalow images (below).

For New Orleanians, who --  like R.E.E. DeMontluzin -- sought the direct experience of California, the Southern Pacific Lines' Sunset Limited provided transportation from NOLA to LA beginning in late 1894. The journey was 60 hours long and initially embarked from the railroad's depot at the head of Esplanade.

(1)"Mercantile Club Hears Talk on Bungalows and Cost of Living." The Daily Picayune (13 July 1911): p. 5.

Images above, from top to bottom:

"Col. R.E.E. DeMontluzin." As he appears in New Orleans Men of Affairs: Cartoons and Caricatures. [New Orleans]: 1909. Courtesy Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

"Planter's Bungalow--India in the Early Days." Common Mistakes in Bungalow Building and How to Avoid Them. Volume 5. New Orleans, LA and Jacksonville, FL: Southern Cypress Manufacturers Association, 1920. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

Mailer cover, Monrovia Illustrated 1912. Monrovia, California: Monrovia Board of Trade, 1912. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

"A Group of Monrovia Bungalows." Monrovia Illustrated 1912. Monrovia, California: Monrovia Board of Trade, 1912. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

"Sunset Limited to California."" Southern Pacific Lines advertisement. 1926.

Louisville & Nashville Railroad 1916

In 1916, one could take the train from New Orleans to Pensacola. Solid steel Pullman trains operated daily between New Orleans and New York. The Louisville and Nashville R.R. had its ticket office at 201 St. Charles Street, its depot at the foot of Canal Street. Its many trains offered stops at Seashore Camp Grounds, DeBuys Heartsease, Anniston Avenue, East Pass Christian, Menge Avenue, West Pass Christian and Clermont Harbor. On Sundays and Wednesdays, a passenger could travel between New Orleans and Ocean Springs for $1.00 round trip.

Image above: L & N R.R. Local Time Tables and Commuter Rates to Gulf Coast Points. Issued June 1916. Martin Shepard Office Records, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.