BLANKENHORN, David F.
BLANKENHORN, David F. (1886-1969) [SS#563-14-0188], second president of the Santa Catalina Island Company, 1919-1920, following William Banning who had served as president since 1894.
Blankenhorn was born to parents Louis Blankenhorn and Lillian Stevens, who had married in Milwaukee in 1881. David attended grammar and high schools in Pasadena, California. Interested in real estate, in 1908 he formed the David Blankenhorn Company. The following year he married Emma Peterson, and they had sons David, Jr. (1910-1992) and John (1913-1998). In 1914 he partnered with Mr. Robert E. Hunter under the firm name Blankenhorn-Hunter Company, a corporation with a capital of $300,000. In February 1919 additional partners, Garrettson Dulin and E. S. Dulin, were added to the firm. The company became one of the leading private banking and investment houses on the Pacific coast of its time.
In 1919, Blankenhorn and Hunter participated in the acquisition of the Santa Catalina Island Company with William Wrigley, Jr. of Chicago. Wrigley soon bought out both partners. Blankenhorn served as Company president in 1919-1920.
He was later remembered by Malcolm Renton: “Although I was still a young boy attending school in Avalon when David Blankenhorn was president, I do remember a lot about him through my father’s relationship with him during the many trials and tribulations of the early-day operations and development. Mr. Blankenhorn was primarily a real estate promoter, being part of a large investment firm in Pasadena known as Blankenhorn, Hunter and Dunlin Company. In fact, it was originally David Blankenhorn who originally contacted Mr. William Wrigley, Jr. about the availability of the sale of the Santa Catalina Island Company. He was not an experienced operator for the many facets of a resort and landowner business, such as Catalina. He had to depend upon my father to keep the operation going as smoothly as possible. There were many times when the city ran out of fresh water and the antiquated sewer system would malfunction and overflow in the streets in the middle of the busy weekends. Mr. Blankenhorn’s interest in real estate sales caused him to proceed too fast in opening up and selling some of the choice Company properties that should have been retained for later development by the Company. Mr. William Wrigley, Jr. always regretted that the old Metropole Hotel site on Crescent Avenue was sold, as one of the first big sales, to the Boos Brothers Cafeteria people. Mr. Wrigley had ideas that this location should have been retained for a first class hotel facing the waterfront. I believe that David Blankenhorn was primarily a fill-in executive for Mr. Wrigley until a permanent person who knew Mr. Wrigley’s ideas and methods of operation could be selected. Such a man was a longtime friend of Mr. Wrigley in Chicago by the name of Joseph H. Patrick.” [Santa Catalina Island Company Water Lines, 3rd & 4th Quarters, 1977].
In the News~
December 31, 1924 [TI/Avalon]: "'I have never seen Catalina Island looking so clean and so prosperous,'said Captain David Blankenhorn of Pasadena Sunday, after his tour of inspection to the different projects now under way by the Santa Catalina Island Company. Captain Blankenhorn was formerly president of the S. C. I. Co., after the Banning Brothers sold the property to Mr. William Wrigley, Jr. in February, 1919. Continuing, Captain Blankenhorn said: 'There is probably no greater team in Southern California than Messrs. Wrigley, Patrick and Renton. These three men are responsible for the remarkable progress and development at Avalon and the island in general; also for the wonderful steamer service now maintained by the Wilmington Transportation Company operating the steamers between Avalon and Port Los Angeles at Wilmington."
