City of Marina History
Marina’s History 1868 to 1945 Dating back to (circa) 1868, about 9,000 acres of land stretching north along the Pacific Ocean, and east along the Salinas River, was owned by the late David Jacks and James Bardin. The land block breakup began in 1885, when the Bardin heirs sold 1,372 ½ acres to John Armstrong for farmland and grazing. About a year later, 1,450 acres were sold, then named the Sand Hill Ranch. Four hundred acres near the ocean were sold to the San Francisco Sand Company, which subsequently constructed a sand plant in 1906. Thus, a third of the large block of land had been parceled out. In 1913, a land map designated the general area “Bardin”, but this designation was short-lived. Within two years, the area was known as “Locke-Paddon Colonies”, then “Paddonville”. In 1915, real estate salesman William Locke-Paddon from San Francisco was looking for land to sub-divide and found the breakup of the large Bardin and Jacks estate as an opportunity. On May 29, 1915, Locke-Paddon purchased 1500 acres south of Sand Hill Ranch designated as the “Pueblo Tract No. 1, City Lands of Monterey” requiring him to obtain a loan of one thousand dollars through the auspices of C.F. Reindollar, then president of the San Rafael Bank. Lock-Paddon then sold 5- acre plots for about $75.00 an acre, hoping to create a future farming community. People were slow in staking their claims, and many were not farmers but managed to raise peas, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage, thereby enabling them to subsist on their land, along with the rabbit stew (rabbits were plentiful in the area) and sourdough bread that they concocted.
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