Making a Statement With a “Report of Receipts & Disbursements” for Walter P. Temple, 19 March to 20 April 1923

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

As has frequently been mentioned here, 1923 was the peak year of the real estate boom that burst forth in greater Los Angeles during the first part of the Roaring Twenties. Obviously, those in the business of speculation and/or development of property looked to strike while the iron was hot, make hay while the sun shone and get when the getting was good.

Having realized a small fortune through a stroke of incredible luck when his nine-year-old son, Thomas, stumbled upon oil on their Montebello-area ranch (on land owned by his father, lost in the aftermath of the 1876 Temple and Workman bank failure, and recovered in 1912), Walter P. Temple directed much of those funds toward his own oil prospecting as well as real estate development projects.

With the latter, his earliest efforts began in 1919 when he acquired undeveloped lots on the north side of Main Street, between Third and Fourth streets, in downtown Alhambra, the rapidly growing city where he and his family settled just after the oil royalties began rolling in (the same week, they purchased their substantial Craftsman-style house in the east side of town, the Temples acquired the 75-acre Workman Homestead as a weekend country retreat.) Two years later, his first building project, the Temple Theatre, was completed in time for the Christmas holiday.

Efforts ramped up to get other work done as quickly as possible as the real estate market got red-hot. This involved a second Alhambra structure, adjacent to the theater, being a mortuary for the firm of Utter and Sons. In San Gabriel, where the Temples long had personal attachments to the Mission, Walter bought several lots across the street from the old stone church and, while donating land for a new city hall, began work on a set of three structures from that point westward to Santa Anita Street.

He also purchased property in Monterey Park and El Monte for future work and began investment in downtown Los Angeles with a syndicate building an 11-story (the maximum then allowable) commercial structure, the Great Republic Life, in a narrow block bounded by Spring, Main and 8th streets, while shortly afterward Temple invested in the National City Bank building across 8th. Lastly, from the unrealized plans for a town called Sunny Slope Acres, he acquired nearly 300 acres for his own townsite, which was first denoted as the Town of Temple and renamed Temple City in 1928.

A terrible family tragedy struck at the end of 1922, when Walter’s wife, Laura González, succumbed to colon cancer. Beyond all of the above work, Walter and Laura recently embarked on another major project: the design and early stages of construction for La Casa Nueva, their Spanish Colonial Revival house that was often described as Laura’s dream house.

Of course, the grieving family needed to time to process and deal with the incalculable loss and one of the Temple children, Walter, Jr., later said, decades later, that his mother’s death unalterably affected the financial situation of the family—the suggestion being that, had she lived, the rush to spend on such a wide range of projects, not unlike what Walter, Sr.’s father, F.P.F. Temple, and grandfather, William Workman, did during the region’s first boom, which peaked almost a half-century before in the mid-1870s.

Having access to many of Temple’s family papers, thanks to donations from descendants who inherited what was saved and compiled by Thomas W. Temple II, the oil discoverer who went on to become a genealogist and historian, is of great help for the Museum to understand the dynamics involved in the efforts in which Walter, Sr. and his business partners embarked during the Roaring Twenties in the midst of the excitement, opportunity and risk of the current boom.

The newest “Making a Statement” post, then, highlights a “Report of Receipts & Disbursements” for Temple for the period of 19 March to 20 April 1923 and it is hardly a surprise to see how much of the financial activity focuses on the burgeoning building program in which he and his associates were engaged. It may be helpful to note that, given that most of us just filed our tax returns, the IRS reports that, in 1923, the average net annual income for filed returns was not too far above $3,200. Income classes included those with over $5 million and there were just four returns there, while for those over $750,000, there were just 112. With 7.7 million returns, some 6 million of these were in the ranges of $1,000 to $3,000.

With that as context, it is striking to note that Temple pulled in not that far below $62,000 just for that month, although this would not be a direct correlate to net income. Still, this placed him at a level far above and beyond most people at the time; it should also be pointed out that almost half that total comprised a $30,000 loan from the Security Trust and Savings Bank, which appears to have been applied to a specific disbursement, which we’ll mention below.

Other revenue included just over $6,200 as his monthly oil and gas royalty from Standard Oil Company, California for oil produced from the Temple lease, though there was a significant diminishment of income compared to just a couple of years earlier. There was, however, a $2,500 bonus from Standard, perhaps because of recent increased production.

Close to $10,000 was remitted to Temple from the sale of Alhambra property, while another $4,000 was derived from the sale of Temple family residence at Alhambra, Walter having decided, following his wife’s death, to move full-time to the Workman Homestead. Another $2,500 was received from Alhambra sheep rancher, Sylvester Dupuy, as his contribution in the purchase of “Burkhard Land,” this being the property, announced in mid-May as the Town of Temple site.

Otherwise receipts included close to $850 for the insurance accounts of the four Temple children (aside from Thomas and Walter, Jr., there were Agnes and Edgar), a $1,500 principal of a loan to San Gabriel contractor Frank H. Whyte, $1137.50 for interest on a loan to Fred Bahler, and over $1,000 for payment in full, with interest, on a loan made to Annie Bentel. There were a few other personal loans, nearly $650 from the federal government for interest on Liberty Bonds that Temple purchased during World War I, and small amounts (from $25 to $45) of rent from his existing commercial buildings, with larger ones for the Temple Theatre and the San Gabriel post office.

Disbursements were just under the receipts, totaling not far south of $61,000, with that $30,000 borrowed from the bank applied to purchase of stock in the Central Finance Building Company, the firm that was to erect the Great Republic Life Building mentioned above. Otherwise, close to 20% of the expenses were directed toward three of the structures Temple was then completing.

Two payments of $4,260 were to Beaumont Crossland, who was from a Massachusetts town about 20 miles north of Reading, from which Temple’s family hailed, and who was an Alhambra contractor working on the Utter and Sons mortuary. Another $4,068 was sent to Frank Whyte for his work on the Arcade Building, next door to the San Gabriel City Hall and to the two-story Temple Building. Whyte was also loaned two $1,000 installments during the month, so it appears Temple was helping the contractor get his business developing.

Two more $1,000 payments involved a loan from a branch of the Pacific-Southwest Trust and Savings Bank in Huntington Beach to Talbert & Lewis involving the former’s oil company drilling projects in that booming coastal town where petroleum prospecting was feverish since the field was discovered just a couple of years earlier, and to a deposit for a lot on 4th Street in Alhambra, where Temple purchased an existing building and completed work for a post office and the Temple Hotel.

Another construction-related outlay involved about $1,300 remitted to the architects Albert Walker and Percy Eisen for their work on the Arcade and Utter and Sons buildings. These well-known designers of many prominent office buildings in downtown Los Angeles, including the Great Republic Life and National City Bank structures, provided the plans for most of Temple’s San Gabriel Valley work and the earliest drawings for La Casa Nueva. Other expenses involved insurance; surveys, including for what became the post office and the Rialto Theatre at El Monte; utilities; a cesspool, flooring and window treatments for a Monterey Park building; repairs at the Temple Theatre; bank loan payments; auditing of Temple’s business books; and others.

Also of note were tuition and boarding payments to the Temple children’s schools, including close to $600 to St. Mary’s Academy in southwest Los Angeles, where Agnes was boarding as a sophomore in the high school, $770 for Walter, Jr. and Edgar for their attendance at the Pasadena Military Academy, and $234 for Thomas W. Temple II’s expenses at the University of Santa Clara, where he was a freshman. Charles P. Temple, Jr., the only child of Walter Sr.’s late brother, Charles, also had his expenses paid for his attendance of the dental school at the University of Southern California and at a boarding house.

Salaries were also paid to several Temple family and business employees. These included Stanley Benson, who was a chauffeur and all-around assistant, who was paid $50 weekly and received a $20 bonus; Sara H. Murphy, who staffed the Temple business office at San Gabriel and who was paid $25 a week; Temple’s brother-in-law, Manuel Zuñiga, who was married to Lucinda Temple and who received $100 a month; and office manager Elmer A. Potter, who would be responsible for the administration of the Temple Estate Company, which was soon created along with the Temple Townsite Company.

Zuñiga, his daughters and his brothers-in-law were also, with Temple, recipients of twice-monthly royalty payments on oil land on the Rancho Potrero Chico that was purchased in 1863 by Temple’s father, F.P.F., sold several years after to family friend Venancia Peña Davis and then inherited by her daughter, Julia, who lived with the Temples and helped care for Walter and some of his siblings. She died in 1917, just prior to the production of oil by General Petroleum Company that yielded the modest distributions.

There were, as was usually the case, loans and personal expenses to family friends, some loans as much as $350, as well as residual expenses from Laura Temple. Walter’s brother, John, received a monthly advance of $50, the widow of eldest brother Thomas, Nettie, was given $25, and nephew Charles was sent $20. Many listings are general, such as the several ones marked “Expense Personal,” “Cash advanced for incidentals,” or “various accounts.” Milton Kauffman, Temple’s business manager, did not receive a salary, but had many expenses covered, with the total being around $1,800.

For a wealthy family, it would be surprising to not see a fair amount of funds expended on automobiles, such as $185 to prominent Los Angeles dealer Don Lee for “accessories for new Cadillacs, $75 for “car curtains,” $80 in gasoline and oil from the Mission Service Station, and $27 for washing and greasing vehicles. Other outlays were for ice for the Alhambra house’s icebox; $400 for shirts; piano tuning; $38.50 for a bicycle; hospital expenses for Edgar and Frank González, Laura’s brother; a train ticket for Thomas to return home for spring break; a subscription to the magazine “World’s Work;” and $20 for “dancing lessons for boys,” this being Walter, Jr. and Edgar.

Contributions were made to a priest at the Mission San Gabriel; to the San Gabriel Settlement Association, which worked with immigrant families and the quarters for which were provided by Temple; and a monthly $150 pledge to the Alhambra Club for promoting the city, while dues and an assessment went to the San Gabriel Country Club. In all, the list of expenditures shows a whirlwind of business-related activity, aside from the run of personal expenses incurred by the Temples.

Accounting for the $30,000 borrowed for the Central Finance Building stock, we find that expenses were just barely covered by income, though it should be remembered that almost $10,000 of the latter came from a property sale. With oil and gas revenues declining rapidly at the Temple lease, which was the bread-and-butter of the family’s revenues, but expenses trending in the opposite direction, the situation would continue to be challenging for the next couple of years.

This is why the issuing of bonds in 1926 for Temple City and the Temple Estate Company became necessary, but also added significantly to future debt. Walter Temple was ultimately unable to manage, especially as the Great Depression hit in fall 1929 and worsened in the next few years, and the culmination was the loss of the Homestead in summer 1932.

We’ll look to continue posting these reports in the “Making a Statement” series as they provide details on the financial position of the Temples, whose situation was hardly unique as the heady days of the Roaring Twenties became dire ones during the Depression.