Charles Kendrick
A photo taken at the exclusive Bohemian Grove at Russian River in Northern California reveals Charles Kendrick as a tall, slender young man wearing a smart jacket. He was on the brink of becoming the chairman of the Schlage Lock Co., and already a force in San Francisco’s public affairs.
In his memoirs, we get some insight into Kendrick’s philosophy regarding California real estate.
“It was apparent,” he wrote, “that such large land ownership concentrated in the hands of a few persons was holding up the development in California; hence it would be a public service, as well as profitable to me to get at least some of them split up and subdivided into small farms.”
He soon put his philosophy into action.
While recovering from a serious illness in the early 1900s, Charles Kendrick was approached and asked to acquire the right-of-way property for the Ocean Shore Railroad and its land company, the Shore Line Co. Kendrick was well qualified for the position–he had already obtained the right-of-way for the Petaluma/Sebastopol/Santa Rosa Railroad.
….To Be Continued…