Surf City’s second attorney

When an ordinary individual gets into trouble, he consults an attorney, but who does an attorney see when he gets into trouble? Why, a doctor, of course.

This may seem odd to you, but it was natural for one attorney to do just that, as we shall see.

It seems these days you can’t pick up a newspaper without reading about someone suing someone else. These days, many attorneys specialize in one particular category of law, such as Huntington Beach’s Joe Nappa, who specializes in workers’ compensation claims.

Nappa’s Third Street office is one of the few attorneys’ offices we still have in the original downtown business section.

This week we are going way back to a time when downtown had but two attorneys.

In 1920, with the oil boom just beginning, our beach town had only one attorney, Lew Blodget, but this changed the next year with the arrival of James Hansen, and it is his life we will be looking at this week.

It was a cold and windy day in Chicago, Nov. 4, 1885, when James L. Hansen was born. Hansen spent his youth attending the local grammar and high schools in Chicago. After he graduated high school, he went to the University of Chicago, where he would further his education in law.

Hansen left Chicago to take up residence in Portland, Ore. He graduated from the Portland Law School and was appointed to the bar in Oregon.

After a short time in practice in that state, Hansen moved to California to live and practice. He lived for several years in San Joaquin County.

Many of his close friends knew him not as James but as Pat, a nickname he acquired.

It was also during this time that Hansen fell in love with the automobile, and one day he purchased a Scripps-Booth motorcar and traveled the picturesque backcountry of our state.

He would always refer to this automobile by its initials only, S.B.

In October 1919, while still in the San Joaquin area, the 34-year old Hansen married Ida England.

About a year later, he and Ida boarded a train for Los Angeles and from there rode the Pacific Electric’s red car to Huntington Beach in search of a home and office.

With the oil boom going on, there was not a single vacant house or office available anywhere in Huntington Beach. The Hansens had to settle in Anaheim, and it was there that Hansen mentioned his trouble finding a place in Huntington Beach to his family doctor.

His doctor’s advice was to take a six-month rest. After the months had passed, Hansen decided to take the first vacant house or office that came on the market.

He got tired of waiting for something to open up, so he built an apartment complex on Lake Street that he called the Hansen Apartments, located between Orange and Pecan avenues.

The apartments rented so fast that Hansen had a second building, the Hansen Court, built on the same block.

He and Ida took one of the 22 apartments to live in, and in the meantime a vacant office became available at 306 Walnut Ave.

On his first day at the office, he moved his large law library in along with his big easy chair. He hung a sign in front that read “James L. Hansen, Attorney-at-Law.” The next morning he arrived at the office and found seven clients waiting in front.

It seems that the other attorney in town had too much work to take on any new clients.

He had a phone installed in his office with the telephone number of 1871.

Hansen joined our Chamber of Commerce and the Orange County Shrine Club. He became a member of our Lions Club, and because he could play the violin, they put him in the Lions Club orchestra.

From that second day and for years to come, Hansen had no problems finding clients, and Huntington Beach now had its second attorney, thanks to Hansen taking his family doctor’s advice.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.

20051117gzerjpke(LA)