Manhattan Beach – along with its eponymous avenue – was born on a 1901 tract owned by John Alexander Merrill (1849-1927) and family. The 450 acre tract stretched from 1st to 13th streets and from the ocean to present-day Ardmore. It’s been said that Merrill hailed from New York City, hence the inspiration for Manhattan Beach’s name – yet records show he was born and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, so there goes that theory. (His mother was born in New York state, but 200 miles away from NYC.) Merrill, who lived around Mount Washington and Highland Park, wasn’t as involved in Manhattan Beach as was his rival developer George H. Peck Jr. Not long after opening his tract, he shifted his focus to subdividing parts of Glendale, Mt. Washington, and Corcoran, CA and it appears he divested his Manhattan Beach holdings by 1908.
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