Los Angeles-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Goetz, Henry X. 1861 - 
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Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)

    HENRY X. GOETZ, for nearly a quarter of a century a resident of California,
and since 1888 an active and influential citizen of Santa Monica, is a native of
the Province of Ontario, Canada, where he was born August 7th, 1861. His father,
Andrew Goetz, was of German parentage, and spent his entire life in Ontario. He
was a thrifty -farmer whose parents emigrated from Strasburg, Germany, about the
time of his birth and were pioneers in the early settlement of the country.
Henry Goetz lived on the home farm until 1881, when he started out single handed
and alone to carve his own future in the business world. He went first to the
town of Walkerville, Ontario, and entered the employ of Hiram Walker & Sons,
founders of the town. His services were so valuable to his employers that,
although but a youth, they placed him in charge of a crew of men. He remained
with Hiram Walker & Sons two years and acquired valuable knowledge and
experience in various departments of the building and mechanical business. The
years 1883 and 1884 he spent in Victoria, British Columbia. In November, 1885,
he came to California, spending eleven months in San Francisco. The following
year (1886) he came to Southern California and spent one year in Los Angeles,
after which he located permanently in Santa Monica.

    Mr. Goetz found Santa Monica just awakening from a protracted period of
lethargy, the result of a miscarriage of ambitious plans for building here a
harbor city. The completion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. into Los
Angeles this year resulted in the influx of armies of people overland from the
east, the spontaneous advance in realty and the greatest land boom the country
has ever witnessed. Santa Monica began to expand and Mr. Goetz became actively
interested in her civic, political and business development. He has erected a
large number of Santa Monica's finest business blocks, public buildings and
residences. He built the Santa Monica Bank building in 1888, and later the
Academy of the Holy Names, corner of Third Street and Arizona Avenue. He has
built several of Santa Monica's finest school buildings, notably, the Lincoln
High School and the Washington Buildings. He also built the North Beach Bath
House, the Santa Monica City Hall, the Public Library, the Bundy Block and the
Ocean Park City Hall and Fire House. The Dudley Building, corner of Third Street
and Oregon Avenue, is evidence of the thoroughly architectural and substantial
manner in which Mr. Goetz pursues his business, both as a designer and builder.
In the building of Venice, Mr. Goetz took an active part. He built the Venice
Bath House, the lake and grand canal system, in thirty days time, under rush
orders; also, at the same time, the St. Marks .Hotel, together with a number of
other buildings, a phenomenal feat in view of all the circumstances.

    Few citizens of Santa Monica have been more active and influential in public
affairs than Mr. Goetz. He served four years, 1893 to 1897, on the Board of City
Trustees and was Chairman of the Judiciary and Ordinance Committee, likewise
Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Parks, in this latter capacity
introducing and testing the present splendid system of petrolithic oil paving
for streets and roads now adopted throughout Southern California. To this work
he devoted much time and serious attention and the results must stand as a
monument to his energy and wisdom as an officer and public servant. Mr. Goetz,
in July, 1908, was elected president of the Santa Monica Board of Trade to
succeed Mr. J. J. Seymour. Mr. Goetz was married in 1887, in Los Angeles, to
Miss Catherine G. Woods, a native of San Francisco. They have three
children—Joseph H., Mary and Milton. He is a member of the local lodge of
Foresters of America, the Knights of Columbus and the B. P. O. E. For many years
a consistent Democrat in politics, he is not radically partisan but stands
rather for good men for office and good public measures, not party expediences.
The Goetz family residence, one of the most substantial and artistic in the
city, is on North Third Street, No. 1043.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief
history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County,
1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and
embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative
people.

Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)




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