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Banning House Holiday A California Christmas Tradition By Marcia Battelle Reed
But Christmas was a family affair—a BIG family. Children, relatives, and neighbors filled Banning's three-story, 23-room Greek Revival mansion, trimmed with all the frills and furbelows of a Victorian-era Christmas. Completed, amazingly enough, during the Civil War year of 1864, Banning's place was a sensation and a symbol of his great success in the new state of California. Today, visitors flock to it to admire the mansion, especially at Christmas time, and learn about Banning's slice of California history. Phineas Banning was just 21 when he arrived at Sepulveda's Landing on then-shallow, muddy San Pedro Bay in 1851. Born in Delaware, he came to California ready for adventure and opportunity, and he found both. By his early death at the age of 54, he had left amazing marks on his adopted state, in staging and freighting, harbor development, railroading, real estate, irrigation and agriculture, publishing and politics. In his early California days, Banning didn't care about his appearance. Prominent merchant Harris Newmark, later a friend and business associate, described the newcomer as "a large, powerful man, coatless and vestless, without necktie or collar . . . wearing pantaloons at least six inches too short . . . sox with large holes . . . and bright-colored suspenders." But his admirers said he could steer a six-horse stage "faster and over rougher roads than any other driver who ever cracked a whip or pulled the ribbons."
Ambitious and vital, Banning quickly established his life in California. In 1854 he married 17-year-old Rebecca Sanford, sister of a stage operator who had given him his first job in California. At the time he was already co-owner of Banning and Alexander Stage Company and, presumably, had become more sartorially correct. The staging business was good, but always Banning had his eye on the shallow San Pedro landing, seeing its potential as a great harbor, the key to growth for the southern part of the state. The same year he married Rebecca, he joined with partners (including brother-in-law William Sanford) to buy a chunk of Manuel Dominguez' Rancho San Pedro and in 1857 bought 640 acres for himself, including shoreline six miles closer to Los Angeles than his rival stage operator's landing in San Pedro and, he believed, better protection from storms. Banning deepened the channel, built a wharf and warehouses and laid plans for a town he called Wilmington, after his Delaware birthplace. Soon the storm clouds and tensions of the forthcoming Civil War reached California. An ardent Union supporter in a sea of Confederate sympathizers, the dynamic, driving Banning took every opportunity to promote Union causes and his firm belief in Yankee enterprise and growth; his deep, booming voice was often heard in fiery orations. He was appointed a brigadier general of the First Brigade of the State Militia, a title he used with pleasure the rest of his life, even though the brigade was never called up. Confident the Union would win, Banning built his mansion in Wilmington in 1864, and it became a gathering place for top military brass, prominent politicians and businessmen as well as many leading Californio dons. In those days, southern California's Hispanic landed gentry lived in widespread adobe haciendas; large, wooden houses of any kind were rare. But Banning's mansion made a statement with huge redwood beams and timbers shipped from the northern California coast, marble from Italy, colored glass from Belgium and fine furnishings from Europe and the East Coast. Never content, visionary Banning pushed constantly for better transportation. His goal was a protected harbor and a railroad to bring the increasing freight from the harbor to Los Angeles. In 1865, to promote a Los Angeles-to-San Pedro railroad, he ran for state senator, serving two terms before bonds were finally voted. Not surprisingly, Banning built the railroad, with the help of the countryside's first locomotive, a tiny puffer called the "San Gabriel." When the line was completed, he celebrated by inviting all of Los Angeles for a free round-trip on the train and a huge ball afterward at the Los Angeles depot. Over 1,500 took the excursion. In 1870, Banning went to Washington, D.C., to help persuade Congress to fund major harbor improvements. Three years later a breakwater was built and the channel deepened, so at last large ships could load and unload at the wharves without using lighters (barges to ferry goods between ship and shore). Banning's next goal was to help convince the powerful "Big Four" of the Southern Pacific Railroad to come to Los Angeles. It meant absorption of the small Los Angeles-to-San Pedro railroad and other costly concessions but proved invaluable to the growth of southern California.
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