American History

Phineas Banning is a renowned historian from America. He was born on 19th August 1830 in Wilmington, Delaware and died on 8th March 1885 in San Francisco (Wilmington Historical Society, Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, Banning Residence Museum, 2008 pp.11). He was born to John Alford Banning and Elizabeth Lobwer as their seventh child. In total he had eleven siblings. He was an entrepreneur, businessman, a financier and the founder of one of the busiest ports in the world, the Los Angeles Port.  This is evident by the fact that he is referred to as the father of the Port of Los Angeles (Wilmington Historical Society et al, pp.7). Banning had eight children with his first wife Rebecca, although five of them died before adulthood. His wife died while giving birth in 1868 after which he married Mary Hollister the mother of his daughter Lucy Tichenor Banning.

Phineas Banning was the pioneer of the Wilmington Delaware city in Los Angeles, California in the United States of America. This paper will focus more on the history of this city and its historical sites. Bearing in mind that Phineas Banning was the founder the paper will focus on his contributions that led to the establishment and the growth of the city. Besides this, Phineas is remembered through Phineas Banning High School named after him and his magnificent house in this city.

Background Information
Wilmington town started as a port along the Cape Fear River back in the period 1739 and 1740. Its population increased at a high rate since it was was a business center (Watson, 2003 pp.28). Being a business center, it attracted people of different origin namely, people from North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina among others. It was in the year 1863 when the city of Wilmington was named after its founders birth place. Originally it was known as the New San Pedro as it was initially part of 1784 Spanish Land grant of San Pedro. The city has a very busy port with forty three miles of water front and 27 cargo terminals which occupy seventy five hundred acres. Bannings resident was first built in the year in 1864 as Eucalyptus Groove covering about a hundred and twenty two acres of land (Wilmington Historical Society et al, pp.7).

The first rail road in Wilmington was constructed in the year 1869 which ran from Los Angels to Wilmington by Banning and his business partner Benjamin Wilson. Still, it was Banning who saw to it that the South Pacific Railroad brought their lines to connect with the Ports of Wilmington and San Pedro. The construction of railroad in this town became the guiding backbone of development as it gained connection even with other continents. In the year 1874, it had become the legal port of entry and due to its continuous growth by 1914, twenty nine years after the death of its founder, it had expanded and could meet the new technology requirements (Wilmington Historical Society et al, pp.7).

Phineas Banning Business Empire 
Phineas Banning is credited with the development of the city through his efforts in business, entrepreneurship and finance. He actually started to work at quite an early age of thirteen in his brothers law firm. He then went to California in the year 1851 where he worked as a driver before establishing his own shipping and staging company in the year 1860. His ever increasing desire to develop made him to purchase more land for port expansion. More roads were constructed in the city and other social amenities which led to more developments.

Wilmington Historical Society et al. posits that, Banning established businesses which contributed greatly to the growth of the city (2008, pp 8). In 1880s, his machine shops used to produce rail cars, stagecoaches and also tugboats. In addition to businesses, other institutions that fostered development were started in this city. In the year 1865, the Roman Catholic Church was established and closely after Memory Chapel Presbyterian Church came in to being which was later followed by St.Johns Episcopal in the early 1980s (Wilmington Historical Society et al., pp.8). Further studies reveal that colleges were also established and the first one was the Wilson College which was started in the year 1874. It was still in the same town where the first post office in the United States was founded.

Banning House
This house was constructed in the early 1860s, precisely 1863 by Phineas Banning who was also its designer although history records he was helped by artisans, blacksmiths and also ship wrights (Wilmington Historical Society et al., pp.7  8). It was one of the most outstanding buildings in those early days. It used to be visited by political leaders as well as the most prominent businessmen of that age. History records that it is actually in this house that the first yachting party was held on the West Coast as the owner used to like holding parties in his residence. Originally it had thirty rooms although they were later reduced to twenty four.
General Phineas Banning Residence Museum also known as Bannings residence is located in Wilmington, California. Until the year 1925 it was under the ownership of the Bannings family after which the City of Los of Angeles took over in 1927 (Wilmington Historical Society et al.,  pp.25). Ever since then it has been continuously renovated to serve the public although during the World War II it was closed so as to preserve it. Today it is operated as the General Phineas Banning Residence Museum. It is a very important historical site as it contains some historic features which include a garden of the first eucalyptus trees that were planted in California, a collection of photographs that show the history of the port and also some of the stagecoaches of the 19th century. The house was among the very first site to be included in the Los Angeles National Register of Historic Places in the year 1971 (Wilmington Historical Society et al., pp.115).

Banning High School
This school is located in Wilmington, California in USA and is named after Phineas Banning as one of the founders of the Wilmington in the 18th century. Its building was a land mark until its destruction by earth quake in the year 1973 (Wilmington Historical Society et al., pp.94  95). However, it has been reconstructed and new facilities have been added to the school including a swimming pool and the gym. It is still in operation even today and as per the 2008-2009 statistics it had around three thousand students of different races including but not limited to Whites, Native Americans, Hispanic and also Asians.

Conclusion
Despite the fact that Phineas Banning lived for only fifty four years, he accomplished more than many of those who lived for a hundred years during his lifetime. His vision of establishing the Port of Los Angeles was realized especially after the full breakthrough water was completed in 1914. His house which he designed himself operates even today as Banning Residence Museum. The Willington city owes much to him as a founder and a man whose contribution had a lot of impact as it developed to be as it is today.