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The San Clemente Country Club with Fine Early Photos

Rare separately published promotional map of San Clemente California, published by its original developer, Ole Hanson.

The upper map shows a plan for San Clemente Country Club and Golf Course, with a panoramic photograph along the bottom of the map, showing the new city. On the verso are photos of the development, Ole Hanson and building images, along with facts and recreational features.

The advertising notes that San Clemente offered golf lovers "the only ocean view links between Long Beach and La Jolla."

San Clemente

In 1925, the former Mayor of Seattle, Ole Hanson, with the financial help of a syndicate headed by Hamilton Cotton, purchased and designed a 2,000-acre portion of the former Mission San Juan Capistrano, in order to create his planned beach community. Hanson believed the area's pleasant climate, beautiful beaches, and fertile soil would serve as a haven to Californians tired of "the big city."

Hanson named the city after San Clemente Island, which in turn was named by the explorer Vizcaino in 1602 after Saint Clement, whose feast day occurs on November 23, the day of Vizcaino's arrival on the island. Hanson envisioned it as a Mediterranean-style coastal resort town, his "San Clemente by the Sea." He had a clause added to the deeds requiring all building plans to be submitted to an architectural review board in an effort to ensure that future development would retain red tile roofs and white exteriors. But this proved to be short-lived; in the oldest parts of town you find an eclectic mix of building styles.

Hanson succeeded in promoting the new area and selling property. He built public structures such as the Beach Club, the Community Center, the pier and San Clemente Plaza, now known as Max Berg Plaza Park, which were later donated to the city. The area was officially incorporated as a City on February 27, 1928 with a council-manager government.

Referring to the way he would develop the city, Hanson proclaimed, "I have a clean canvas and I am determined to paint a clean picture. Think of it--a canvas five miles long and one and one-half miles wide! ... My San Clemente by the Sea."

Rarity

The map is unrecorded.