Added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 15, 1985

Turn your thoughts for a moment to the humble pack of chewing gum. So small, so mundane. These days we take it for granted that there will always be too many gum options to choose from at the grocery checkout aisle, or a dried wad or two underneath our desks at school. But chewing gum wasn’t always so ubiquitous. For that we can thank William Wrigley, Jr., a mass(-ticating?) marketing genius and the undisputed chewing gum king of the early 20^th century. By the time of his death in 1932, Wrigley products were generating $75,000,000 in sales.

Wrigley wasn’t only the emperor of gum. He was also the director of a Chicago bank, bought hotels and held mining interests, and owned the Chicago Cubs. In other words the dude was loaded. His fortunes built the famous Wrigley Building skyscraper and Wrigley Field in Chicago. For Angelenos though, Wrigley will forever be associated with Catalina, the island 30 miles off the southern California coastline that he purchased in 1919.

While previous owners had attempted to make Catalina into a thing, progress came in fits and starts before the Wrigley money started pouring in. He built up the island’s critical infrastructure, creating reservoirs and piping in fresh water to support the growing population. He donated land for schools, funded a local quarry for building materials and upgraded the ships that ferried visitors from the mainland. Much of the great architecture and landscaping that would define Avalon’s look and feel was sponsored by Wrigley and his family in the 1920s and ‘30s, and his son Philip Wrigley worked with local business owners to turn the Avalon waterfront into a bustling commercial district. In short, the Wrigleys developed Catalina into the idyllic vacation haven that it is today.

Every royal family needs its castle, and for King William and his wife, Queen Ada, that was the Wrigley Summer Cottage. Now, if the term “cottage” calls to mind a quaint B&B in the countryside with an outhouse, a thatched roof and barn animals promenading about, please remember that the Wrigleys had more money than god. Their “cottage” was a straight up mansion, complete with a two-story main house, a connected building that housed their 11 live-in servants, and a garage (since converted into living space), all lording over a promontory on the southeast side of Avalon Bay.  

This fabulous abode is done up in full colonial revival style, with fluted doric columns, pilasters and broad balconies, lined by fancy balustrades. Decorative brickwork and Catalina tile line the patio. On the inside, ornate wood furniture and built-ins dominate, and an elegant staircase curves upwards from the foyer. Photos from the ‘20s show heavy drapery in the living quarters, cozy fireplaces, wicker furniture and an almost art deco-looking billiards table. You’re never far from a bay window looking out at an impossibly picturesque view of Catalina and the Pacific. The Chicago Cubs used to do spring training in a canyon below the Cottage, and word has it that William used to watch them from his office.

The construction of the Cottage was first announced in 1920, just a year after the Wrigleys took ownership of Catalina. Building conditions must have been difficult, up there on top of a 350-foot cliff of hard rock, without much in the way of materials aside from what you could haul over from the mainland. Workers had to use gunpowder to blast out the rock and level the site before building. Work began on the building in March 1921, and was finished late that year. 

Its designer was David M. Renton, the superintendent of construction for the Santa Catalina Island Co. As an architect, Renton had already done a lot of residential work in Pasadena, but the Wrigley Summer Cottage remains his best-known achievement. In the years to come Renton would oversee a lot of the construction projects in Avalon, including the famous Catalina Casino and the Christian Science Society building (see visit #148).

The Summer Cottage was one of six homes the Wrigleys owned across America. They bought a grand renaissance-style home in Chicago in 1911, and commissioned a winter cottage in Phoenix (both on the National Register). They also owned the handsome Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena (later given to the Tournament of Roses as its headquarters), with a formal garden tended by Albert Conrad, supervisor of the impressive succulent landscaping at the Summer Cottage. The Wrigleys owned homes in Philadelphia and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin as well. But the Catalina home is where two generations of Wrigleys spent their summers, watching over the hoi polloi and welcoming dignitaries and guests from around the world. They entertained US Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover here. The Prince of Wales stopped in for a visit once.

The matriarch of the family Ada Wrigley died in 1958, following an 11-year coma. After her death the house was opened to the public for tours. It was donated to USC in 1978, who refurbished it, rented it out as a conference center, and continued giving tours to benefit its Marine Science Center, based out of the Two Harbors section of Catalina. Since 1985, the Wrigley Summer Cottage has operated as a private B&B, called Mt. Ada. You can rent a room for $1000 a night and sleep where the Wrigleys once slept, or have a nightcap in the old billiards room where the rich and famous once shot pool.

There are two ways of getting up to Mt. Ada from Avalon: take one of Catalina’s omnipresent golf carts, or walk. I recommend the walk – it’s a tough uphill climb, but a little lactic acid in the ol’ hamstrings is way preferable to falling off a cliff in a golf cart. Just seems like a silly way to die. And speaking of which, there’s a small pet cemetery in a shady bend in the road leading up to Mt. Ada. It’s very sweet and worth exploring on your way up or down the hill.

Mt. Ada doesn’t allow the public on the property, so if you’re a plebeian like me, the impressive entrance gate is as close as you’re gonna get to the old Wrigley Summer Cottage. It’s worth the trip, if only for the magnificent view.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret: while you might be tempted to take a selfie on the clear stretch of road closest to the bay, there’s an even better vantage point just across from the entrance. Walk down a staircase through a stone arch, past a small reservoir and towards the giant white cross. You’ll come to a beautiful hand-hewn stone bench, built as a memorial to Joseph Brent Banning, who co-owned Catalina with his brothers for over 25 years before the Wrigleys came along. Sit there for a while and take in a breathtaking view of the Pacific. On a clear day, you can see all the way back to Los Angeles.

One final fun fact: Mt. Ada is the southernmost LA County landmark on the National Register.

Thanks to Gail Fornasiere and Patty Salazar of the Catalina Museum for the historic pictures

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ Dirlam, Sharon: “Designers, Architects Volunteer: Santa Catalina Island Summer Home of William Wrlgley Jr. Being Restored” (Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1980 – accessed via ProQuest)

+ Hatheway, Roger G. & Richard Starzak: The William Wrigley Jr. Summer Cottage’s NRHP nomination Form

+ “Mt. Ada” (visitcatalinaisland.com)

+ Sanford White, William with Steven Kern Tice: Santa Catalina Island: Its Magic, People, and History (White Limited Editions, 2002)

+ Thompson, Elizabeth: “Biology Studies Come Alive on Catalina: USC’s Center for Marine Science Provides Quiet, Unpolluted Setting Incomplete Source” (Los Angeles Times, July  26, 1978 – accessed via ProQuest)

+ “Wrigley Residence, Santa Catalina Island” (Islapedia.com)