Wayne,
I think it's important to understand that the terrain here in California--the original terrain which has been (pardon an expression ruthlessly stolen from Joanie Mitchell) paved over in paradise and someone put in a parking lot was extremely natural in a certain sense, and the fervor to build courses was reaching a zenith for such a relatively remote location. Surprisingly, Riviera wasn't one of these, because it was built in sort of dried-up river bed which Thomas himself didn't think was all that interesting. This makes it even more amazing that he built the Sports greatest short par 4 on that same land.
Certainly that has to mean something. It took a schooling to allow it to get there and certainly the Philadelphia School was a major part in this. There is no doubt about that.
California had everything: year round golfing weather, a scenic beauty that existed 365 days a year with little, and I mean very little rain. At first, most of the courses weren't even grass, but the people still took to the Sport here, in the same fervor which was seen on both coasts. Southern California in particular was a resort destination. The Proctor's and the Gamble's, the Wrigley's, (to name a few) they all maintained homes here as a means of a ways to escape the harsh mid-west winters, jumping into their rail cars and railing to the coast. (the modern day equivalent, the private jet) They also stayed in some of the most lavish hotels ever seen by man, The Hotel Green, The Huntington, The Virginia, The Amabassador to name a few
Soon, many started to stay here the majority of their year. They built huge mansions, and they also built country clubs for their leisure. It started out simple--rudimentary courses built with sand greens, some of them with holes not longer then a short par 4. The entire thing grew in the blink of an eye. Soon Annandale CC in Pasadena was impossible to play, because there was just too many people wanting to play, so they built Pasadena CC, Midwick, San Gabriel and Flintridge. Soon those clubs packed with play, expanded even further as the west side of Los Angeles grew, as did downtown LA where many of these mid-western businesses opened-up or moved their main offices. The Los Angeles Country Club moved, not once, but twice, out -growing it's course and clubhouse, opting to further move further west this creating an amazing corridor of golf courses to come--all of them by designers of great notoriety. The Ambassador Hotel built not only a small mashie course around the perimeter of it's property, but also brought in Herbert Fowler from England to lay-out 18 holes on what is now known as Rancho Park. Across the street from it, Willie Watson laid out 18 holes for Hillcrest CC and south of it was Norman MacBeth-designed California CC. A few years later, directly north of Rancho, Max Behr built Westwood Pay-As-You-Play GC.
These are just a few courses that grew out of this fervor and even though the Great Depression happened and many of the courses didn't feel the affects right away, it indeed had an affect, as many private clubs either closed permanently or temporarily.
Many of them, if not most are now just ghosts, and when you drive on or around their respective sites; then take into account all of the aerial photos and other images, as well as read much of the things that were said about the courses in print, one thing comes to mind:
What the Hell could have happened? It's almost like looking for the Mayan's gold.
What happened was that the property for many of these really great golf courses got redeveloped because it become just too damn valuable for something other then a golf course.
That is a fact.