John A. Murphy -- 419 West Washington Street

419 West Washington was the last space on the block to have a house built.  In 1894, the corner lot was just an empty space on the map, but by 1904 it had filled in. It may have been built for James D. Schuyler and his wife Mary around 1899 or so, as James and Mary are listed as owners in the 1900 census.  James by 1900 was a world-renowned hydraulic engineer, working on multiple water projects in California including the Sweetwater and Hemet Dams.  In 1903 he was involved in early plans for the Owens Valley Aqueduct, the largest water project in Los Angeles city history up to that time.

Engineers planning the L.A. Aqueduct to Owens Valley, 1903. (L-R) John R. Freeman, James D. Schuyler,
J.B. Lippincott, Fred P. Stearns, William Mulholland.
(courtesy of lapl.org)

By 1905 the Schuylers had moved out. Perhaps the new Polytechnic High School across the street made the block a bit too noisy. Instead it was occupied by the Oren D. Brown family, who celebrated with a wedding reception there for their daughter Cecile that year.

Meanwhile John A. Murphy (1856-1931) with a partner named Crook (honest...), was working in his career as a contractor while living nearby at 118 W. Pico. In 1906 he retired from contracting, and joined in the incorporation of the National Bank of Commerce as a Vice-President. In 1909 the family had moved to the new house at 419 West Washington Blvd. At home included John, his wife Alvina (1855-1949), and their son Gustave (b. 1889). Gustave is listed as a hardware store clerk, while John is noted as President, Costa Rica Rubber Co. in the 1909 street directory. The house stood on the northeast corner of Washington and Flower Streets.

419 West Washington Street (viewed from Flower St.)
(could be John & Alvina in the photo)

John and Alvina stayed in the house through the mid-1920's. As can be seen from the photo, apartments are next door on Washington Street, and by 1925 the block of Flower Street was mostly apartment rentals. They moved to the newer Los Feliz neighborhood to 4626 Finley, where they were at the time of the 1930 census. Daughter Loretta had come back to live with the parents too. She had married, had a daughter Esther who was now 19 and working at the phone company, and also living on Finley. Meanwhile back at 419 W. Washington, the house was now cut into multiple apartments, with the census showing three families at the residence.

By 1942 the house is no longer extant, replaced with a service station owned by General Petroleum, a then subsidiary of then Mobil Oil. It remained under the General or Mobil brand, and in 1987 was recorded as being "Fred's Mobil Service".

Today a transport of another sort has intruded on the property.  The service station is gone, and part of the property is park space used by the L.A. Trade Tech College, now located across the street where the high school had been.

419 West Washington -- today's aerial view
(courtesy maps.google.com)

And this is pretty close to a then and now photo--
 

A 2012 view from Flower Street

Thanks to John--another house photo retrieved from the past...

Further info:
John A. Murphy in 1909

Sherman Pease -- 640-646 S. Hill

Sherman Pease (1869-1950) arrived in Los Angeles with his parents in 1884.  He and brother Herbert joined father Niles Pease's furniture business, helping to create a very successful downtown enterprise.

A family at Eastlake Park, 1908, enjoying their "Tourist" automobile
(USC Digital Collections, Calif. Historical Society)

In 1895 Sherman wed Nellie Smith (1870-1905), and began their family, consisting of daughter Anita (1897- ) and son Niles (1904- ). By 1900 they were living on South Hope Street. Things were going so well that in March, 1905 Sherman purchased a new Tourist automobile, a locally manufactured brand, and the following Sunday, took Nellie for a drive, along with friends Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Welcome.  They traveled up today's Nichols canyon, then returned south back to Hollywood Blvd. The L.A. Herald described what happened next...

"The party turned just south of the Miller house, late yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the canyon, into a private road and started, toward Prospect  Boulevard. The road lay straight for nearly a mile, and the great machine responded with a burst of speed on the level stretch. To the left a clear view for some distance could be obtained, but a grove of lemon trees on the right obstructed a view of the track from Hollywood to the canyon. 
Mrs. Pease was in the tonneau and had no chance to escape. She was seated on the side toward the [street]car, and was hurled directly beneath the front trucks. Her body was carried down the tracks for nearly fifty feet." 

She died instantly.  Sherman was unconscious for two days, while Mrs. Welcome broke multiple ribs. Mr. Welcome, who was in the right front seat, saw the oncoming car and dove from the vehicle to the side of the tracks. He was uninjured. Sherman's father Niles returned immediately from a Mexico vacation to be at his side.
Sherman recovered.

In 1904 father Niles sold his interests in the furniture business and in February, 1905 formed Niles Pease Investment Company, with sons Sherman and Herbert as directors, along with oldest child Grace, and Sherman's mother Cornelia. In March, 1906, Sherman along with brother Herbert, severed connection with Niles Pease Furniture. Sherman in the article stated he needed rest and planned "to make a trip to the Orient".  Less than 40 days later they announced "the construction of an eight story steel and concrete building at 640 S. Hill, frontage 75 ft, and 145 ft deep." This was to become the new furniture business, Pease Brothers Furniture, who would rent the building being built by the Niles Pease Investment Company. That same year Sherman purchased a lot and residence at 1036 S. Alvarado for $7,500. The residence is still standing. A recent photo is below.

1036 S. Alvarado

Sherman (but not Herbert) decided to have himself added to the 1910 edition of Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. Father Niles had been in both the 1906 and 1910 versions. But Sherman, as president of Pease Brothers Furniture Company, decided to go with a photo of the new business building on Hill Street instead of his residence.  And so it was:

640-646 South Hill St. ca. 1910

Business appeared to be good. Sherman remarried.  The family changed residences to 1015 S. Western by 1915. Meanwhile around the corner from Pease Brothers at 7th and Broadway, Bullock's department store was growing by leaps and bounds. And so it was in 1917, when the Investment Company was offered $25,000 per year in rent for the building for each of the next 40 years, they took it.  Pease Brothers was no more. And $25,000? That works out to about $420,000 per year in 2010 dollars which was paid each year until 1958!

Pease Bros. 1913 w/ Bullock's around the corner

Courtesy of USC Digital Collections

It is unknown how the money was divided. Sherman and Mary Ida moved on to Ocean Park Street in Santa Monica. By 1932 Sherman was a salesman at "The Furniture Shops".

And for you conspiracy theorists: Sherman, his older sister Grace, his older sister Jessie and his younger sister Anne ALL died in 1950. All but Sherman are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

The furniture building, however lives on.  Today it's a part of St. Vincent Jewelry Center.

More info:

The building in 1928 (courtesy of lapl.org)

The building today (courtesy of flickr) --it's the one in the middle

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2433 South Flower -- Mission Style

While your author is not any kind of amateur architect, this house's style was not difficult to figure out. Check out this side-by-side comparison:

Built in 1901, this house has the distinction of being listed in a 1906 version of the original book with one owner, then under a different owner in 1910. The first owner was Reuben G. Simons, part of a successful brick-making family. He moved in in 1901 with three sons John W., Ralph, and Harold W.  The house ca. 1905:

 (courtesy of archive.org)

The house was built on an unusually large lot, with additional living in back, as well as two flats out of frame left in the photo above. 

In 1906 Simons sold the house to Wiltcie B. Ames (1869-1942), a Wisconsin-born, self-made lawyer who came to Los Angeles in 1905 via Spokane and Oregon, where he picked up his law degree at the University of Oregon.  One of his early businesses was the Ames Mercantile Agency which figured prominently in his life a few years later.

About this same time C.C. Pierce was taking many fabulous photos of the area of residences in the new areas of L.A. south of downtown along Figueroa. One of them was the Ames residence, taken between 1906 and 1908.

2433 S. Flower ca. 1907
(courtesy of USC Digital Collections)

Link to the photo info for the above image

As can be seen above, the house added a new awning and a small border for a flower bed underneath the front porch since the last "viewing". No doubt it comfortably fit Wiltcie, his wife Caroline Rachel (1873-1921) and their three children.

When Ames was approached to be in the Greater Los Angeles and Southern California book, 1910 version, someone must have promised a new photo, for this is what was posted:

Wiltcie B.Ames Residence 1910

An auto was added, the side yard was cut back, and plants now appear under the front porch and window. But a funny thing happened on the way to publishing.  Seems that in July, 1909 Ames decided to do a swap sale on the house.  He sold it to Joseph Metzler of Metzler Investment company for $48,000, which included the building next door, which seemed a bit overpriced until one reads a few columns over.  It seems that "W.B. Ames, president of the City and County bank, has added to his country holdings by the purchase of a 40-acre alfalfa and apple ranch belonging to Joseph Metzler of the Metzler Investment company, to add to his investment in a fruit farm in San Dimas. The price, $80,000, includes stock and personal property." Why would you pay $80,000 in 1909 for a ranch located five miles from Victorville? I don't know the details either, but the answer may lie in the next found article about Mr. Ames.

In August, 1910 W.B., as part owner of the L.A. Savings, Mortgage, and Trust company, was sued by the state attorney general alleging that state commissioners for the building and loans "found its business unsafe and unauthorized."  They declared the concern insolvent, and asked that no business be transacted until the court heard the case. By this time W.B. and family were living in the bay area--it must have been too hot to stay in L.A. By September W.B.'s banking business appeared to be "out of business." By 1916, W.B. and family show up at the family fruit farm in San Dimas, where W.B. lived until the death of wife Ethel in 1921.

Meanwhile Irving and Hannah Metzler (relations, no doubt to Joseph) lived at 2433 S. Flower. They move on and in 1922 Arthur and Guadalupe Wright move in, where they remain past Arthur's passing during WWII.

The Los Angeles Children's Orthopedic Hospital, established about 10 years after our house was built, slowly over time took over the block on the east side of Flower Street, changing its character. That and the Harbor Freeway were probable major factors in the demolition of the house by 1956.  Today it would be found over the Harbor Freeway just before it cuts under Flower Street.

2433 S. Flower St. today--about where you see the star.

(courtesy of Google Maps)

A fanciful W.B. Ames in 1910

W. K. Cowan -- Let's Go Buy a New Auto!

The older ones among us have heard of a Nash Rambler, but the auto's heritage actually came from the name of two different companies.  The Rambler was built by the Jeffery Company until it was absorbed by Nash in 1915, and was a high-end automobile brand consisting of five different models by the end of its manufacturing run. Prior to building autos Jeffery had been a bicycle company, where our next subject first ran across them (pun intended).

W.K. Cowan in the Waverley sold to S. G. Hall, 1899

William K. Cowan was a bicycle dealer for Rambler in Los Angeles in 1895. His expertise was such he had actually been awarded a patent for an improvement to a bicycle drive shaft (Patent 633,753 issued 1899). But he fell in love with the automobile, and vowed to sell them if and when they came to Los Angeles. This infatuation was to provide him the small piece of history as the seller of the first automobile in Los Angeles County.  It was 1899, and a man named Steve Hall wanted to purchase an auto. Cowan had access to the Waverley Electric, and sold one to Mr. Hall.

By 1902 the Jeffery Company began to make autos, so W.K. became the Southern California dealer for the Rambler. And when he wasn't selling Ramblers he was racing them, winning prizes for economy, speed, and reliability. His sales climbed steadily, from five in 1902, then 30 in 1903, 85 in 1904, to 125 in 1905, when Cowan was one of four to tie for first (out of 60 entries) in the Great Endurance Race to Santa Barbara. And how much of that was over paved roads, you ask? Zero miles. According to a 1917 issue of Motor West Magazine, in 1907 there were TWO miles of paved roads in all of Los Angeles County.

In 1910 Cowan moved his Rambler dealership from S. Broadway to a new garage at 1140 S. Hope Street. In what was no doubt an experiment in advertising, instead of showing his personal residence in the recently published book on successful Southern California business people, he showed his new dealership property.  See for yourself...

The new Rambler dealership garage at 1140 S. Hope St. in 1910.

We don't know if that's Mr. Cowan in the photo, but odds are good it was a Rambler sticking out the front door.

How much was a Rambler? For the new Model 53, which came in dark Brewster Green with cream wheels, a 34 h.p. motor, spare wheel included, and a much nicer than today sounding horn, list price was $1,950, about $47,000 in today's money.  It was not your Tin Lizzie type of auto. But for that kind of money, here is what you would receive:

A Herald ad by W.K. Cowan (click for larger image)(courtesy of loc.gov)

By 1910 things seemed to be going swimmingly for W.K., but suddenly in 1914 he sold his Rambler interest to Carlton-Faulkner-Boles, a distributor located just up the block dealing in Marmons. Papers of the day attribute his selling to "failed health", but by 1917 he returned as a truck manager for a local Chevrolet dealership.

Cowan's family residence was in Eagle Rock (first its own city--then part of Los Angeles) where he lived from about 1910 through at least 1935. A probable indicator of his later life financial success was that his house in 1930 was a rental. He passed away in 1952, with the L.A. Times noting in his obituary that he was the first seller of an automobile in Southern California.

By 1950 the South Hope building was still an auto garage, but like most things since then, it's now changed:

Today at 1140 S. Hope St.

Link to Google

But wait--could that be the same building? Maybe--quite a bit of alteration but possible.

Some additional images:
A photo of Mr. Jeffery and Mr. Cowan on their way to San Diego in 1909
The full Motor West article of 1917
A better copy of Mr.Cowan in his Waverley (LAPL.org)

Picasa updated 11/16

Shobal P. Mulford -- 1056 South Hill Street

Born in Cincinnati, Shobal Patton Mulford (1850-1922) was known as S.P. to all who knew him.  Passing the Ohio bar in 1878, his ill health convinced him to move to Los Angeles in 1883, where he continued to practice law his entire career. He married Helen B. Farrar (1856-    ) of Cambridge, Ohio in 1885 (he'd met her while they both went to law school in Ohio), and in 1888 they moved into their new house on the northeast corner of Hill and 11th Street.

1056 South Hill Street in 1906.

Along with his law practice, he invested heavily in the banking sector in Los Angeles (including the First National and Commercial National Banks of L.A.), and devoted significant efforts to the Methodist Church and the YMCA and YWCA. The Mulfords donated $1000 in 1906 for a new YMCA building, and Helen was an Officer of the YWCA in 1908 (along with Mrs. W.C. Patterson--who lived less than a mile from Helen, Mrs. W.J. Hole, and Mrs. Homer Laughlin, Jr.)

In 1904 S.P. formed the firm of Mulford & Dryer (along with George Dryer), which still exists today after multiple mergers, specializing in corporate and probate law. In 1905 S.P. took on a no-doubt pro-bono case which resulted in his name in headlines, when a Sunday school teacher at the nearby church was arrested for forging checks. She was allowed to plead guilty and given probation, even though similar crimes of the era were usually given jail time.

The area of South Hill Street matured into multi-family residences, with many of the larger homes on the street being converted to rental rooms. So in 1913 the Mulfords moved west to 5th and Westmoreland. Ironically, that house is still there today, but not 1056 S. Hill.
By the mid-1920's that side of the block had been converted into the Mayan and the Belasco Theaters, changing the whole look of the area.

S.P. in 1906

S.P. passed away in January, 1922. An obituary article in the L.A. Times mentions his interment at Sunnyside Cemetery, Inglewood, which is now part of Inglewood Park Cemetery, where Mr. Mulford's tombstone is present today.  Helen Mulford continued to live in the Westmoreland house past 1934, where the 1930 census determined she was living with her a maid, chauffeur, and a guest.

The Belasco Theater still stands on the site of the Mulford residence. Closed for 20 years, it reopened in 2013 as a dance club and concert venue.

1056 South Hill Street today (courtesy of maps.google.com)