CITY LANDMARK ASSESSMENT REPORT SANTA MONICA AIRPORT COMPASS ROSE 3223 Donald Douglas Loop SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA Prepared for: City of Santa Monica City Planning Division 1685 Main Street, Room 212 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Prepared by: Jan Ostashay Principal Ostashay & Associates Consulting PO BOX 542 Long Beach, CA 90801 SEPTEMBER 2019 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK CITY LANDMARK ASSESSMENT REPORT SANTA MONICA AIRPORT COMPASS ROSE Santa Monica Airport 3223 Donald Douglas Loop Santa Monica, CA 91423 APN: 4272-016-903 (compass rose northern half) APN: 4272-015-900 (compass rose southern half) INTRODUCTION This landmark assessment and evaluation report, completed by Ostashay & Associates Consulting (OAC) for the City of Santa Monica, documents and evaluates the local landmark eligibility of the functional navigational art feature located at the Santa Monica Airport and herein referred to as the Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose (or the subject property). This assessment report was prepared at the request of the City and includes a discussion of the survey methodology utilized, a concise description of the feature (subject property); a summarized historical context of the Santa Monica Airport, compass rose, and related themes; evaluation for significance under the City of Santa Monica landmark criteria; photographs and other applicable supporting materials. OAC evaluated the subject property, the Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose, to determine whether it appears to satisfy one or more of the statutory landmark criteria pursuant to Chapter 9.56 (Landmarks and Historic Districts Ordinance) of the Santa Monica Municipal Code. The evaluation assessment and this report were prepared by Jan Ostashay, principal with OAC, who satisfies the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards for Architectural History and History. In summary, OAC finds that the Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose appears eligible for local listing as a City Landmark under City of Santa Monica Landmark Criteria 9.56.100(A)(1). The feature is an important symbolic reminder of the City’s rich aviation history, in particular the early contributions to women’s aviation heritage. It is also emblematic of the early air marking program for which the all-women’s pilot organization the Ninety-Nines were so closely associated with here at the Santa Monica Airport and elsewhere across the country. The following sections of the report provide a contextual basis for the assessment analysis and a discussion of how this evaluation determination was made. METHODOLOGY The historical assessment was conducted by Jan Ostashay, principal with Ostashay & Associates Consulting. To help identify and evaluate the Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose as a potential SANTA MONICA AIRPORT COMPASS ROSE City Landmark Assessment Report page 1 local landmark, an intensive-level survey of the airport and functional art feature, the compass rose, was conducted. In order to determine if any previous evaluations or survey assessments of the property had been performed the assessment included a review of the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) and its annual updates, the California Register of Historical Resources (California Register), the California Historic Resources Inventory System (CHRIS) maintained by the State Office of Historic Preservation (OHP), and the City’s Historic Resources Inventory (HRI) and its updates. For this current assessment a site inspection of the compass rose and airport and a review of associated archival records were performed to document the property’s existing condition and assist in evaluating the compass rose for historical significance. Building permits were not provided by City staff, as they were deemed non-relevant for this particular assessment. The City of Santa Monica landmark criteria were employed to evaluate the local significance of the property and its eligibility for landmark designation by the City’s Landmark Commission. In addition, the following tasks were performed for the study: • Searched records of the National Register, California Register, Library of Congress archives, OHP CHRIS, and the local City of Santa Monica HRI. • Conducted a site inspection of the airport and compass rose; photographed the site, feature, and adjacent areas. • Conducted site-specific and contextual research on the subject property utilizing Sanborn fire insurance maps, newspaper articles, historical photographs, aerial photographs, and associated archival, historical references and repositories. • Reviewed and analyzed ordinances, statutes, regulations, bulletins, and technical materials relating to federal, state, and local historic preservation, designation assessment procedures, and related programs. • Evaluated the potential historic resource based upon landmark criteria established by the City of Santa Monica and utilized the OHP survey methodology for conducting surveys. The Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose was not evaluated for National Register or California Register eligibility. PROPERTY INFORMATION The Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose functional feature and navigational aid under consideration as a potential City Landmark is located at the Santa Monica Municipal Airport. The airfield is situated on a mesa in the southeastern-most corner of the City adjacent to the southwestern boundary line of the City of Los Angeles. The airport site is roughly bounded to the west by 23rd Street, to the south by Donald Douglas Loop South and Airport Avenue, to the north by Donald Douglas Loop North, and to the east by South Bundy Drive. The primary arterial access point to the airport is from Bundy Drive via Airport Avenue. The Airport is owned by the City of Santa Monica and is operated under a division of the City of Santa Monica Public SANTA MONICA AIRPORT COMPASS ROSE City Landmark Assessment Report page 2 Works Department. Today, the airport’s 227 acres also includes non-aviation uses including a city park, offices, art studio, museum, event venues, parking, airplane hangars, and more. The Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose is a large functional floor mural of a navigational compass rose painted onto the concrete paving within the northwest sector of the airport adjacent to runway 3 and Donald Douglas Loop North. The compass rose under consideration is circular in shape with a diameter of roughly 50 feet and a circumference of approximately 160 feet. Twelve triangular points surround the central circle. Four large points face the cardinal directions of a compass, north, south, east, and west (referred to as cardinal points). These cardinal points measure 15 feet from the central circle to the point tip and are painted half white and half blue. Two shorter points are sited between each of the cardinal points (with a total of eight shorter points). These shorter points measure eight feet from the central circle to each respective point tip and are also painted half white and half blue. The points are connected by an outer ring painted white. In the center of the compass rose is a painted solid white circle that is overlaid by two blue interlocking number ‘9”s in block font of varying size and shape that create the number “99.” It has been postulated that a navigational compass rose existed at the Santa Monica Airport at some unknown location as far back as 1929. It has also been hypothesized that a compass rose was painted on the tarmac at the northeast side of the airport adjacent the east end of runways 21 and 22 from around 1947 to roughly 1987-1988. The Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose was relocated and re-painted at its current location in 1985 by the Los Angeles chapter (LA 99s) of the Ninety-Nines International Association of Women Pilots (The Ninety-Nines). The group voluntarily maintains the Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose and it was last re-painted in its current location in 2010. The Santa Monica Airport Compass Rose has not been previously identified or assessed for historical significance under any of the City’s prior survey efforts. The Santa Monica Airport, 3223 Donald Douglas Loop, was identified, but not evaluated under the 2018 Historic Resources Inventory Update survey. The evaluation was not completed as the property was not visible from the public right-of-way at the time of the assessment. It was, therefore, assigned a California Register Status Code of 7R, which means it was identified in a reconnaissance level survey, but not evaluated. The Rotating Beacon Tower at the airport, 3223 Donald Douglas Loop South, was identified in the 2018 survey and was assigned a California Register Status Code of 5S1, as the property is a designated Santa Monica Landmark. The Beacon Tower, dating to 1928 and moved to Santa Monica from Downey in 1952, and was formally designated a local landmark by the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission in 1988. Historically, the Rotating Beacon Tower physically represents one of the earliest navigational tools used in night flying and symbolizes the vital role aviation has played in the economic history of the City. HISTORICAL CONTEXT Santa Monica. In 1875, the original townsite of Santa Monica was surveyed, including all the land extending from Colorado Street on the south to Montana on the north, and from 26th SANTA MONICA AIRPORT COMPASS ROSE City Landmark Assessment Report page 3 Street on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Between 1893 and the 1920s, the community operated as a tourist destination, visited by mostly wealthy patrons. Those areas just outside of the incorporated city limits were semi-rural in setting and were populated with scattered residences. In the southeast section of town near Ocean Park Boulevard and Centinela Avenue a large flat parcel of land used as a barley farm was converted to an airfield by 1919. After the advent of the automobile in the 1920s, Santa Monica experienced a significant building boom with homes being constructed in the tracts north of Montana and east of Seventh Street for year-round residents. In the mid-1920s, the airfield officially became a municipal airport called Clover Field and established itself as one of the first airports in the Los Angeles area.