On a stretch of abandoned vineyards 10...

On a stretch of abandoned vineyards 10 miles east of Los Angeles, Alfred Dolge--felt manufacturer and avowed socialist--envisioned Eden.

Dolge, a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1866, wanted to build what he called a model manufacturing city, where factories and workers would coexist in harmonious, suburban bliss.

Although he described it as Eden, he named it Dolgeville.

More than 80 years after Dolge began his grand California enterprise, nothing is left. His factories are gone, his homes were never built, his name is forgotten.

Today, Price Club and Target stores reign over Dolge’s 20 acres at Main Street and Palm Avenue in Alhambra.

Dolge, a piano maker by trade, came to New York when he was 17. Discouraged with the quality of felt that was available, Dolge bought his first bale of wool and within two years was making felt that was winning awards. He became the first manufacturer of machine-made piano hammers in the country.

He soon built a small socialist empire, transforming the Upstate New York town of Brockett’s Bridge into a bustling hub of the felt industry. He built a felt mill, schools, parks, banquet hall, library, gymnasium, theater, railroad and one of the nation’s first kindergartens. He gained national recognition for his creation of worker pension funds and insurance programs.

In 1882, as a tribute to his good deeds, the townsfolk renamed their community Dolgeville.

For 25 years, Dolge and Dolgeville prospered, but after a bitter dispute with business partners in which he lost his felt company and railroad, Dolge pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles.

With what little money he had left, Dolge bought 300 acres of the Fair Oaks Ranch in Pasadena and opened a small winery on Spring Street in Los Angeles.

His dream, however, was to re-create the success he had found back East. He began drawing plans for a second Dolgeville. His proposed felt factory would be the first of its kind in the West. He needed four things to succeed: wool to make the felt, water to power the factory, sunshine to dry the felt and money to pay for it all.

Dolge had everything except the money. But he knew who did.

With dreams of grandeur, Dolge and Henry E. Huntington, builder of the vast Pacific Electric railway network, became partners in a $2-million venture.

In 1903, the same year Alhambra was incorporated with a population of 600, Huntington bought about 20 acres roughly bounded by Fremont and Marengo avenues, Mission Road and Main Street.

A brick warehouse used to store wine for the San Gabriel Wine Co. was converted into a felt mill. The nearby winery became a felt slipper factory.

To house his workers, Dolge proposed a town of “Eden-like homes” surrounding the factory. The town was laid out in an orderly grid, with modest-sized, single-family residential lots priced at $300 to $400 each.

But no homes were built. The felt factory suffered from the beginning and the riches he envisioned never materialized. Instead of stucco homes, a shantytown rose up to house the Chinese laborers who ended up working at the factory.

The unincorporated hamlet of 300 unskilled workers finally merged with Alhambra in 1908. A few years later, Dolge retired to Covina to sell pianos. He also wrote a book titled “Pianos and Their Makers,” published in 1911. Dolge died in 1922 at the age of 74, while taking a trip around the world. His company, which eventually became Standard Felt, survived for more than 60 years. The old brick building was torn down in 1987.

Today, Dolgeville, N.Y., has a population of 2,400, about 1,000 less than when Dolge governed the town. Dolge is buried there, and a bust of him is in the town square. His felt factory became the Daniel Green Co. and still makes slippers. And every schoolchild is taught about Alfred Dolge.