Capitalist and early developer of the Ocean Park neighborhood between Venice Beach and Santa Monica, California. Son of James and Leah (Rosborough) Fraser of Canada, Alexander R. Fraser married Appalona Wedge in Yale, Michigan in 1877, and moved to Los Angeles in 1885. He started a real estate business in 1894, and served on the Los Angeles Street Commissioners Department until 1900. With partner George Hart, he acquired coastal land from the Santa Fe Railroad, and then added considerably to the area known as Ocean Park, south of Santa Monica, marketing it as a resort community with paved streets, homes, hotels, a casino, a bathhouse and an amusement park, including a forerunner of Pacific Ocean Park, known as "Fraser's Million Dollar Pier", which was built in 1911 but destroyed by a terrible fire in 1912. In partnership with Venice founder Abbot Kinney , he built the Ocean Park Country Club in 1902, and later installed the first cement walkway, which is now the famous boardwalk, between Ocean Park and Venice Beach, finished in 1907. He built a "fire-proof" pier to replace the "million dollar" pier in 1913. A life-long Mason, he suffered a series of strokes before his death at age 67. Fraser Avenue in Venice, California, is named in his honor.
Capitalist and early developer of the Ocean Park neighborhood between Venice Beach and Santa Monica, California. Son of James and Leah (Rosborough) Fraser of Canada, Alexander R. Fraser married Appalona Wedge in Yale, Michigan in 1877, and moved to Los Angeles in 1885. He started a real estate business in 1894, and served on the Los Angeles Street Commissioners Department until 1900. With partner George Hart, he acquired coastal land from the Santa Fe Railroad, and then added considerably to the area known as Ocean Park, south of Santa Monica, marketing it as a resort community with paved streets, homes, hotels, a casino, a bathhouse and an amusement park, including a forerunner of Pacific Ocean Park, known as "Fraser's Million Dollar Pier", which was built in 1911 but destroyed by a terrible fire in 1912. In partnership with Venice founder Abbot Kinney , he built the Ocean Park Country Club in 1902, and later installed the first cement walkway, which is now the famous boardwalk, between Ocean Park and Venice Beach, finished in 1907. He built a "fire-proof" pier to replace the "million dollar" pier in 1913. A life-long Mason, he suffered a series of strokes before his death at age 67. Fraser Avenue in Venice, California, is named in his honor.
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