History is not a burden
on the memory but
an illumination of the soul.
...Lord Acton
The Wrigley Memorial is located at the top of Avalon Canyon. The splendid artistry of the building rises 130 feet in the air and honors the memory of William Wrigley, Jr. who purchased a controlling interest in Catalina Island in 1919. It is grand and beautiful.
It was built between 1933 and 1934 by the people of Catalina to honor Wrigley for all his contributions to the island. Wrigley brought steamships, jobs, hotel, casino, tourism, chimes tower, established the Catalina Tile Factory, preservation of the island, public utilities and more.
The memorial is built of mostly indigenous materials and adorned with beautiful tiles made by the Catalina Pottery plant which closed in 1937. Aggregate stone, all of which was quarried and crushed on Catalina was the principal building material It was bonded with cement and sandblasted. There are 114 tons of reinforcing steel in the structure. The bronze doors are made of the best quality of architectural bronze (90% copper) and the blue flagstone on the terraces of the tower is a natural product of Catalina.
Inside the memorial lies a Georgian sarcophagus built for Wrigley and his wife but due to security issues during WWII they were moved to Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA. Wrigley and his wife loved Catalina and should have remained on their island to Rest In Peace. The memorial was chosen for the commanding view to the Pacific and of Avalon Bay. It is a serene and spiritual place.
The Wrigley Memorial is surrounded by wife Ada's botanical garden, desert plants and plants found nowhere else in the world except for on the island.
