Wednesday, February 23, 2011

William H. Vedder -- 400 N. Madison Ave., Pasadena

Today's beauty was the pride of former mayor and successful Pasadena banker William H. Vedder. 

Married to Hattie Furbeck, both were from New York and came to Pasadena in 1889, after a successful run in the lumber business in Schenectady. Living with daughter Grace and a servant, here's their home as it looked in 1906:

400 North Madison in 1906
After serving as mayor in 1903-1904, William continued in business as Director, First National Bank, President of Pasadena Savings and Trust Co. and Director of the Pasadena Masonic Temple Assn. In most of the 1910's he was on the board of the Throop Polytechnic Institute, known today as Cal Tech. 

In 1903 a book on Pasadena Residences was published; the Vedders lived at the same location but check out the house photo shown below:

(courtesy of Archive.org)

It appears the house was greatly remodeled in the short time they lived there. The Sanborn map of the area for 1903 shows an empty lot. The 1910 version shows the large bay window, which is not there in 1903. But even with the major remodeling they were soon to move. They located at 424 Arroyo Terrace in 1907, probably awaiting the completion of their new house a few blocks away at 500 Prospect Square (now Prospect Blvd.) A contemporary image of the Prospect Blvd. house is below.


500 Prospect Boulevard Today
But by 1920 the Vedders had moved again and were living next door to daughter Marguerite and her husband Stanford Dalrymple, along with their children. In November, 1923 William passed away after taking care of Hattie for over a year as her health deteriorated. Hattie died two months later. They were both age 61.

The Madison house was demolished for twin apartment houses on the double lot.

Old Homes of Los Angeles W. H. Vedder

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for all this information. Is there any way to have access to the 1903 book you mentioned? My house is in the 500 block of N Oakland and built in 1892 but that's about all I know. I'd like to know more, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  2. patrizzi, you can find the book at this link at archive.org

    ReplyDelete
  3. William H. Vedder was my Great Grandpa. His daughter Magurite's husband name is "Glenford" not Sanford. Resa Rivers

    ReplyDelete

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