Manhattan Beach and its titular avenue were both 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 falsely claimed that Merrill hailed from New York City, hence the inspiration for Manhattan Beach’s name, when in fact he was born and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin. (His mom was from New York state, but far away from NYC.) If you asked me, I’d say he came up with the name simply because his tract was long and narrow, like Manhattan Island. At any rate, Merrill, who lived in the Mount Washington/Highland Park area, wasn’t as involved in the development of Manhattan Beach as was his rival George H. Peck Jr. Not long after opening his tract, Merrill shifted his focus to subdividing parts of Glendale, Mt. Washington, and Corcoran, CA. It appears he divested his Manhattan Beach holdings by 1908.
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