John W. Whittington -- 2801 Budlong Ave.

L.A. Herald in
Jan. 1909

The National Life Underwriters convention at long last had come to Los Angeles.
And it was there due to the efforts of John Whittington (1867-1943). An Englishman turned U.S. citizen, John settled in L.A. in the 1890's, and parlayed his employment as Southern California's general agent for Aetna Insurance into president of the Life Underwriters Association of Los Angeles in four short years, leading the Association in 1907-1908. In 1908 he was successful in bringing the national convention to Los Angeles.

A 1909 article on his retirement from office in the L.A. Herald was important enough news to hit the front page. The article spoke of "traveling the country", which probably helped him in his run for president of the National Association of Life Underwriters (NALU) later that year.

At the 1909 NALU convention in Louisville, the delegates elected John to be the president for 1910. John engaged in considerably more travel, criss-crossing the U.S. that year, giving addresses to conventions where he urged for better state underwriting laws to protect consumers from "get-rich quick" schemers.

Life's fortunes were going well on the home front, too, as the family had recently (in 1906) moved into a new, large, airy, house at 1801 Budlong. Living there were wife Ina May (1868-1922), children Wayne (1896-1989), Wentworth (b. 1901), and Dorothy (b. 1904), as well as a live-in servant. Son William came later in 1910.

The Whittington Residence in 1909 (including the dog)
(That may be Dorothy on the porch)

(As an aside, the photo appears to have a large antenna mounted on the roof, but nothing could be found connecting John with the then new-fangled notion of wireless.)

John in 1910
(portrait by Marceau)

After a gracious writeup in 1913 in Notables of the West, things turned decidedly at home.  In 1914 John is out of the house and residing at the Sierra Madre Club. In 1915 he changes employers--he now works for Southern California National Life Insurance Co. of USA. His residence is not shown. Two years later, Ina and the four children have moved out of 1801 Budlong to lodging on Dalton Street, about 2 1/2 miles south. Son Wayne, who files a draft card for WWI, asks for exemption from service for "support of mother, brother, & sister". John, meanwhile, is now employed in Phoenix for the Inter-Mountain Life Ins. Co., living in town at the Hotel Jefferson. From there John has a short return in 1920 to the house on Dalton, according to the street directory. He joins another new resident Mattie Murphy, Ina's mother. Son Wayne has left to open a tire store on Vermont, and married a girl named Louise.  He was soon to leave that business and begin one that all of Southern California would eventually know about.

By 1922, John had departed for New York, as a partner in investments with local entrepreneur Garson J. Kahn. Known as Whittington & Kahn, Investment Specialists, they disappear from the street directory by 1925. Meanwhile both Ina and her mother Mattie die in 1922. Youngest son William was just twelve. John remains out of the public record until his death in 1943, when he is interred next to Ina and Mattie.

In 1920 the house is shown as being rented to an iron works engineer. The census for the neighborhood shows many other houses in the neighborhood as now being rented. By 1926 the property has suffered a common fate to large, older properties.  The front yard now has six additional apartments in two buildings, while the main house has been segmented into two apartments. In the 1909 photo the door on the left is the entry for one, while the large awning out front shelters the door for the other. All the housing is rented according to the 1930 census, with three separate families living in the north half of the main house.

2801 Budlong in its new configuration (1926 and later)

Meanwhile son Wayne started a new business in the nearby Exposition Park area, calling it "Dick" Whittington Studio after the 14th century tale of a young man and his cat. Wayne's business logo was a cat.

In the beginning Wayne and Louise rented a place at 3845 Wisconsin, living in part of the building. By the late 1930's they had remodeled, employed 20+ employees, becoming the largest photography studio in Southern California. Brother William was recorded as working at the studio in 1936.

Dick Whittington Studio in the 1930's
(Ebay via skyscraperpage forum)

The studio outgrew the Wisconsin street location, moving to Olympic Blvd. The business continued until 1987. Wayne passed away in 1989, and his son provided many of the studio's 500,000 photos to USC (which Wayne attended in his youth) and Huntington Library.

And the house?  It's still there, albeit hidden behind the six apartments which remain out front.  Judging from the Google Maps view below, it's a real standout.

The neighborhood today.

The main house second story is viewable from 29th Street, but the front of the property is gated and barred, as is much of the neighborhood. Rents appear to have gone up from $35/month in 1930 to around $1200 today.

(Updated Apr. 2022)

Stephen Townsend -- 504 Cedar Ave., Long Beach

The Stephen Townsend (1848-1920) family first came to Southern California in 1876, consisting of wife Anna (1848-1930), two daughters Frances Maye (1872-1901) and Esther Belle (1875- ), and son Vinton Ray (1881-1929), who went by Ray. The family tried farming first (as indicated in the 1880 census), but Stephen Townsend had bigger ideas, and in 1886, as founder of the Pasadena Street Railroad (with 16 other investors), he had the first streetcar line built in Pasadena. By 1894 the line was suffering from declining revenues (due to "electric" competition), so he sold his share of the business, and relocated to Long Beach. In 1897 he began selling real estate in the small town after purchasing acreage at the east end of Anaheim Road.  How small was Long Beach? The 1900 census reported just 2,252 total residents for the city.

A Buffum's credit card from the 1980's

Besides various real estate development operations, Townsend founded the American National Bank of Long Beach.  This merged with the First National Bank of Long Beach in 1904, where he became vice president. He was probably working there when he was introduced that same year to a newcomer in town, Charles A. Buffum, who wanted to run a general store in Long Beach, as he'd done in Illinois. The store, named The Mercantile Company, started later that year with Charles Buffum as secretary and manager, and Stephen Townsend as vice president.

The store went on to become part of  Buffum's, a well-known Southern California chain of department stores that lasted 87 years. Of course as president of the Long Beach Board of Trustees (the previous title for mayors), Townsend no doubt met many people during his tenure from 1903-1905.

In 1905 he had a new, five bedroom house built on the corner of Cedar Avenue and West 5th Street. It was completed just in time so the Townsends could host a huge reception for their son Ray and his new bride Ada (Campbell). A look at the house around 1909:

Stephen Townsend Residence

Here's a similar image from a postcard of the period...

504 Cedar ca. 1909

Stephen remained very active in the community even after the grand reception.  In 1909 he was drafted to become president of the Iowa Society of Southern California. Part of his duties included that he then preside over the winter picnic and reunion on Feb. 23, 1909, held at "Agricultural Park" in Los Angeles. (We know it today as Exposition Park--back then there was no Coliseum, not even the Natural History Museum). A photo of the group's officers appeared in the next day's paper:

L to R: Stephen Townsend, pres; C.H. Parsons, secy; Charles G. Rogers, vice-pres; and F.H. Nichols, treasurer

So how many former Iowans showed up in 1909?  The L.A. Herald estimated 25,000, with each of the 99 counties of Iowa having a designated "reunion" site. Many reunions over heard a first line of "Howyadoin?" followed quickly by  "I'm glad I'm here and not in Iowa this time of year!"

Stephen Townsend 1910

Stephen and Anna remained in the house for their future years. Stephen passed away in 1920, a year after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and Anna passed away in 1930, living to the ripe old age of 81. They were  buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

The house was sold and in 1932 it is owned by Mrs. Willametta Powers. By 1934 Helen Angier, a nurse, had moved into the house. By 1940 she offered furnished rooms.

The house today appears to be a rooming house. The exterior has been modified, with the 2nd floor railing above the bay window removed, the windows replaced, and stucco applied to replace the shingled upper floor. The river rock fireplace and trim appears to be intact.

504 Cedar Ave. as of April, 2016
(courtesy of the author)

 And a bit more to add regarding Stephen and Anna's son Vinton Ray...

As the house at 504 Cedar went up, so did another just two blocks south, with a "different" look. The house belonged to Jennie Reeve, another pioneer of Long Beach, who among other things was part of the Long Beach Library board. Here's an early image of her house:

302 Cedar Ave. (NE corner with 3rd St.)

(courtesy of The Greene & Greene Archives, University of Southern California
Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens)

V. Ray must have seen it many times when visiting his parents. In 1917 after Mrs. Reeve's death, V. Ray bought the house and moved it a few blocks away. By 1920 V. Ray and his wife had moved to Claremont to live in a house there that had been owned by Mrs. Reeve's daughter, Mary Darling. But V. Ray wanted to live in Long Beach, so he hired the architects who had designed the Long Beach house to provide alterations as necessary for its new home in a new subdivision in Long Beach. The architects, who had designed both houses, took the commission. The house still exists in Long Beach and has been recently restored. It is one of only two extant Greene & Greene houses in Long Beach. Sadly, V. Ray only got to live in the new house for two years, but his wife remained for at least another ten.

And today? The house appears below:

4260 Country Club Drive (courtesy of Wikipedia)

For more info:
Plans for V. Ray Townsend House--Long Beach 
Rare Long Beach Gem for Sale (2004): Greene & Greene