A Look Back at Vintage Los Angeles: John Mackay Elliott -- 914 W. 28th St.

Monday, December 13, 2010

John Mackay Elliott -- 914 W. 28th St.

Updated 8/30/15

Elliott in 1902

Our "first home" from the early days of Los Angeles.

It was built for John Mackay Elliott (1844-1929), a successful Los Angeles banker, who first came to the city in 1870, rising to president of the First National Bank. By the late 1890's his family resided in Alhambra, but in 1900 he moved to his new home on West 28th in the up and coming fashionable West Adams district. By 1905 he was also a director of the Los Angeles Trust Co., along with his neighbor two doors east, John Norton.
Elliott was appointed to the L.A. Water Board in 1903, and worked with local notable city engineer George Mulholland and others to insure a long-term supply of water for the city, resulting in the Owens Valley Aqueduct.

The Board of Water Commissioners ca. 1905
(L-R) John J. Fay, J. M. Elliott, Moses H. Sherman, William Mead, and Fred L. Baker.

In 1910, Elliott was living on West 28th St. with all four of his children--Mary, John Jr., Alice, and Robert. His wife, Alice Ingram Peel (b. 1851), had passed away in 1902. Son John Mackay Jr. (1886-1920), and daughter Alice (1888-1920) were to die as a result of an auto accident with a streetcar in pea soup fog on the evening of November 17, 1920.

914 West 28th Street in 1910

Elliott remained in the house until his death in 1929, still listed as Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles-First National Trust and Savings Bank at age 85. Upon his death his son Robert Peel Elliott moved into the house, along with Robert's son John M. Elliott, a niece and her husband, and three servants. The Robert Elliotts had previously lived at 2205 S. Hobart.

By 1934, the property had been sold to Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and Robert had moved back to the South Hobart residence.

In 1961 the ZTA chapter closed at USC, and Phi Kappa Tau, located next door east at 904 W. 28th, bought the property and tore down both old houses to make the building you see today--current occupiers are fraternity AEPi.