John B. Coulston -- 1090 New York Ave., Altadena

John Bishop Coulston (1869-1928) first came to southern California in 1905 as a tourist seeking relief from his asthma. He returned and sold his interests back home in northwestern Pennsylvania, where the then 35-year old had been successful in both banking and natural gas industries. With his wife Nora and three children John T.(b.1892), George S., and Lillian M., he chose to settle near Pasadena.

Recent photo of Bank Entry
(courtesy of hometown-pasadena.com)

He immediately engaged in what had brought him earlier business success--he began forming small banks in Covina (Covina National Bank), Colton (Colton National Bank), Riverside (National Bank of Riverside), and Los Angeles (Traders Bank of Los Angeles). Looking closer to home in 1907 he bought the Crown City Bank in east Pasadena from the original owners--it had been in business less than a year.  Within six months he relocated it from Michigan and Colorado Blvd. to Marengo and Colorado Blvd., paying $75,000 for the building and lot. Not all traces of the bank's existence at the Michigan Ave. location were erased however, as evidence of the bank still exists on the entry walk to the building (see image at right).

While he established himself in the bank business of the southland, Coulston was also having a new house built just northeast of town in Altadena.  The Craftsman-style house held 5 bedrooms in 2 1/2 stories plus basement, with a great room on the third floor, and a large pond out back. The family had moved in by 1907.

View from the back yard of Coulston Residence ca. 1910
(today's 1100 New York Ave., Altadena)

 The 1910 census shows sons John T. and George, daughter Lillian, a niece on Nora's side, and a gardener and "domestic" in the house.

J.B. in 1910

In 1911 J.B. was a Rose Parade director. Participating in the parade on a "one-horse" float were Lillian and friend Genevieve Seyler.  George "drove".  The float won 1st place in its category.

In his spare time, when not running his Wildwood Ranch of orange groves near Glendora, Coulston pursued an avocation of golf, founding Altadena Country Club, and serving as its president for multiple years. Along with the Club, "cottages" were built along the west side of the course, and by 1918 the Coulstons had moved into #35, after living for two years in the bungalow cottages at the Maryland Hotel, which had just finished rebuilding after a devastating fire in 1914.

Son John in a 1918
UC Berkeley photo

In 1917 son John T. joined the army to serve in WWI.  Early the next year John B. signed up (age 49) to assist the American Expeditionary Forces under the aegis of the Red Cross.  Leaving in May of that year, he engaged in "home service" duty, visiting American troops in France, passing communications back home, while building troop morale.

In 1919 Coulston ventured into a new area of business. According to a December article in the New York Herald,

"D. M. Linnard, manager and owner of the Maryland, Huntington and Green, the city's largest resort hotels recently disposed of a controlling interest in the California Hotel Company, the holding corporation, to J.B. Coulston, a Pasadena banker, and some of his associates."

Coulston was to take an active role in the management of the hotels, negotiating agreements for guests to have "golfing privileges" at nearby courses, as well as moving into one of the bungalows on the backside of the Maryland Hotel. As part of the publicity generation, Coulston was noted in a 1921 article in a golfing magazine about his daily "flying routine", as seen below.

In 1926 J.B. headed up the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, while still managing the California Hotel Company.

In 1928 he was found dead at the Maryland Hotel. The obituary indicated his death was due to heart disease, and that he was under a strain from some negotiations in progress.

Nora remained in the Maryland bungalow through 1930, eventually removing to 695 Belvedere.  She died in 1946.

And what of the house?  Today it still exists, albeit with some of the roof extras removed. Bing.com provides this aerial.

1100 New York Ave. today (even the pond!)

More:

Sign from one of Coulston's orange groves

F.Q. Story -- Sunkist in Alhambra 502 N. Story Place

Francis Quarles Story (1845-1932) came to L.A in 1883 from San Francisco, where he'd been in the wool business. He'd come west from Boston in 1877 for health reasons, where he had learned the wool trade. He must have had some success in San Francisco as after arriving in L.A. he bought 30+ acres in today's Alhambra, became a lead investor in the First National Bank of Los Angeles, built a new house, and started in the orange grove business. He married Miss Charlotte S.F. Devereux in 1876 in Boston, who accompanied him to Alhambra. She was to pass away in 1897. He had two older brothers, Maj. General John P. Story (1841-1915), U.S. Army retired, and Judge William Story (1843-1921) of Colorado.

By 1910 the yard in Alhambra was filled with mature trees. A photo of the house and surroundings:

F. Q. Story Residence 1910

In 1902 Francis was elected President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. He also was a member of the Southern California Fruit Growers Exchange, a cooperative of fruit growers founded to assist local associations in harvesting/marketing their fruit. Until the associations were begun, middlemen were collecting greater profits than the growers. In 1904 Francis was elected president, and in 1905 the organization became the California Fruit Growers Exchange, with Francis still president.  In fact, he remained president of the organization until his retirement in 1920 at age 75.

A crate label for Sunkist (from Wikipedia)

In 1908 as president he led a marketing campaign that went down in history as one of the greatest. How could someone "brand" oranges? After a test in Iowa showed the brand oranges increased per capita consumption by 47% in just one year vs. a national average increase of 17%, the Exchange knew it was on to something. They decided to keep the new name "Sunkist".

In an early effort to get the name Sunkist into the minds of customers, each orange was wrapped in branded paper. Customers who sent in those wrappers were entitled to premiums such as silverware and glass orange juicers.

Besides his fruit growing, Francis was also an early investor in Phoenix, Arizona. He purchased tracts in the 1880's, eventually selling the land in the early 1920's. One of those tracts today is known as the F.Q. Story Historic District.

As forward thinking a man as he was, Francis still stuck to some tried and true things.  This article from an issue of the 1909 Los Angeles Herald told it all.

July, 1909 courtesy of UCR

He did recover from the accident and continued to live in his same house in Alhambra. In 1928 he donated a portion of his land to the city of Alhambra which became the north half of today's Story Park.  And in 1930 the census shows him still there with a chauffeur, a cook, and two servants (the word nurse was crossed out!). Francis passed away in July, 1932 at age 86. He is buried alongside Charlotte in nearby San Gabriel Cemetery.

That year the California Growers report was introduced with the following honorarium:

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"Another of the sturdy, clear-visioned pioneers of the Exchange passed away during the season—Francis Q. Story, honorary life president, who died on July 1 at the ripe old age of 87 years.

"For a quarter of a century the history of the Exchange and the life of Mr. Story were inseparably interwoven. Elected director of the organization in 1897, chosen vice-president the same year and president in 1904, he continued to head the organization until 1920, when he retired at the age of 75 years.

"While every forward movement in the industry had his support, Mr. Story is especially well known as father of the great Sunkist national advertising campaign. It was in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the prosperity of the Exchange that the position of honorary life president was created for him at the time of his retirement.

Mr. Story's largest contribution consists not, however, in the concrete enterprises sponsored and effected, but in his spirit of true altruism and devoted service, which will long continue to be an inspiration to all who knew him."

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Today the house still stands in private ownership, with the tower and decoration removed.

502 Story Place in 2011 (courtesy of Google Maps)

 

 

 

Listed for Sale, July 2024
(photo courtesy of CRMLS)

More information:

Biography as of 1915
More on the Sunkist Story
The F.Q. Story Historic District, Phoenix

E. H. Lahee -- 1018 South Magnolia

Mr. Lahee ca. 1895

Eugene Horace Lahee (1845-ca.1928), came to the Los Angeles area in 1898 from Chicago, deciding on Covina and purchasing a successful fruit farm. He was originally from Utica, New York, but attended Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois (now part of the Illinois University system), where he probably met his wife Louise Clawson (1845-ca. 1928), who was born in Alton.  He was an active member in Sons of the American Revolution, where he had the small photo at right taken.

E. H. was elected mayor of Covina for six years, and as the head of the Pacific Electric right-of-way committee, he was critical in convincing landowners to provide right-of-way through El Monte to Covina. (Not everyone was happy though, as indicated by this lawsuit in 1909). As president of the local library association, he led the committee for Covina to procure a Carnegie Library for Covina (which they did), and went on to lead as chairman of the California Library Association.

So what did the Lahees do after all of this Covina success?  They retired to Los Angeles, of course, and settled in this lovely home on Magnolia Street.

1018 S. Magnolia St. in 1910

Odds are good that the Lahees are the ones in the image above. In 1910 the census lists the Lahees, a cousin and one servant in the house.

By 1920 though, retirement must have changed, as the Lahees have moved to 5th Avenue, and then again to 2119 1/2 South 3rd Avenue, where they're both last found in 1928.

And the house? By 1932 four people with different last names are to be found there--indicating it had become a rooming house. The house is found with people through the late 1980's, then the listing disappears from the directories.

Today the lot is the part of the playground for Leo Politi Elementary School, noted for its after-school program.

Today's neighborhood--the green arrow shows the approximate location of the old house.

(courtesy of Google Maps)

Anthony G. Hubbard, Redlands Pioneer

Anthony Hubbard (1846-1926) (known as A.G.), first became interested in Redlands in 1878 when investors wanted him to check out lumber possibilities in nearby mountains, using a flue to get the lumber to market. While disappointed to find no water rights were available, and thus the lumber proposition was out the window, he used some of his Arizona-made mining wealth (about $150,000 according to one biography) to purchase lands around Redlands for what he thought was great orange growing country, due to the weather and lack of pests.

Terrace Villa around 1910

He returned to Arizona and went on to enhance his fortune with the Harquahala Bonanza. When he left the mining business in 1893 he settled his family in Redlands, consisting of his wife Lura, daughter Mabel, and son Herbert, where they built their "country home". It was known as Terrace Villa, replacing a hotel named the Villa Terrace, that formerly stood on the spot. In 1901 the family added another daughter, naming her Lura. Mrs. Hubbard was 45 years old.

A.G. Hubbard, ca. 1905

Very active in the Redlands community, A.G. built a small commercial building in downtown at 25 E. State Street (still extant), and was the President and lead investor in the Redlands Central Railway Co. Founded in 1907, the corporation bought an existing street railway in Redlands, with plans to provide extended service to nearby Riverside. By 1912 the railway was sold to Southern Pacific, and incorporated into the Pacific Electric line. It has the distinction of the only extant trolley barn from the entire P.E. line, which served the Los Angeles area into the 1950's.

Terrace Villa was to be the final family home. In 1900 A.G. was listed in the census as "Broker", and from then on he was listed as a banker, owning Citizens National Bank, along with multiple orange groves. He died in 1926 and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Redlands, along with his wife Lura, and daughter Lura.


A short biography of Mr. Hubbard