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George Shatto

The tourism potential of the island was then recognized by George Shatto, who purchased the island in 1887 as a business enterprise.

Mr. Shatto began construction of the Hotel Metropole that summer. In his efforts to develop inland valleys and isolated coves, Shatto found he would have to contend with pirates and smugglers, so he focused on the bay now called Avalon. Avalon was named by his wife’s sister-in-law, Etta Whitney, a twenty year old woman with romantic spirits who had seen the name in Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, an Arthurian tale.

"Avalon is a Celtic word meaning ‘Island of Apples’ and symbolizes a paradise of rest and contentment. The new name helped create a mythic aura, calling to mind a place of sunny skies and gentle breezes where one’s troubles seem to vanish, an enchanted place" notes William Sanford White in his book, Santa Catalina Island.

The history of Catalina as a romantic vacation paradise began here.