by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As has been pointed out on this blog in many posts, the year 1923 marked the pinnacle of the latest boom to erupt in greater Los Angeles in the previous half-century or so, with another wave of migration, expansion of industry, and the fevered development of real estate yet again engulfing the region.
For Walter P. Temple, who’d realized an astounding stroke of fortune a half-dozen years earlier when oil, discovered in 1914 by his nine-year old son Thomas, was produced from wells on his Montebello-area ranch (this land lost to “Lucky” Baldwin by his father F.P.F. Temple in the 1870s in the wake of the failure of the bank of Temple and Workman), his decision to embark on real estate development was also fortuitous in terms of timing.
Temple’s first acquisitions of property were in 1919, the same year he began his own oil prospecting firm, and his focus initially was in Alhambra, where he and his family purchased a substantial Craftsman house on the east side of town in late 1917 not long after the oil revenue began to pour in and which was one of the many rapidly growing cities in the latest boom. His focus, naturally, was in the downtown business section of the city and it was there at the end of 1921 that he completed his first commercial building, the Temple Theatre.
Over the next couple of years, with the real estate market red hot, Temple significantly expanded his development portfolio in Alhambra, but also in El Monte, Los Angeles and San Gabriel, with major projects undertaken in late 1922 and the first several months of 1923. This was in addition to the decision in summer 1922, after the Temples returned from a lengthy vacation in México to undertake the construction of their mansion, La Casa Nueva, at the Homestead, where they’d spent considerable sums since 1919 on renovations and additions to the 92-acre ranch.
Also vital to this context was the sudden passing at the end of 1922 from colon cancer of Laura González Temple. Many years ago, their middle son, Walter, Jr., told me that he felt strongly that when his mother died, there was a change in how his father conducted business and spent money. Given that Laura, when a teenager in the 1880s, was entrusted with running the Homestead in the absence of its owner, her future husband’s brother, Francis, it seems she had a high degree of business acumen even from a young age.
Her death may well have deprived the family of a watchful eye on future activities, though there were other conditions at play, not the least of which is that oil and real estate development are inherently risky speculations, with significant outlay of capital up front when returns are either not guaranteed or unknown as to extent.
In any case, just before Laura’s passing and in the months afterwards, there were several large real estate projects undertaken by Walter. In Los Angeles, at the end of 1922, he and a syndicate of friends and investors, acquired land at the northeast corner of Spring and 8th streets, where, by early May 1923, bonds were issued for a $700,000 building called the Great Republic Life, named for the anchor tenant, an insurance company. On 9 May, many of the same investors, along with others, purchased the property at the southeast corner of that intersection for a new national bank and office space, this becoming known as the National City Bank Building.
In El Monte, it was announced towards the end of March that Temple would spend $50,000 to have a movie theater and post office building constructed in that town’s business section. The architects, as was the case for the Los Angeles skyscrapers, were Albert H. Walker and Percy A. Eisen, who were also investors in the Angel City projects and who also created the finished drawings for the early stages of La Casa Nueva.
At Alhambra, early 1923 brought the news that Temple was erecting a single-story Spanish Colonial Revival structure for the mortuary of F.A. Utter and Son, which began operating in the city nearly two decades before. The building, situated adjacent on the west to the Temple Theatre, was completed in mid-June at a cost of about $25,000.
At the end of April, Temple spent $134,000 to acquire seven stores and a vacant lot across 4th Street from the mortuary building. Already in process at the time was a two-story building on 4th that, when completed shortly afterward, became the city’s post office and the Temple Hotel on its second floor. On Main Street, west of 4th, Temple planned to remodel the existing single-story store building and add a second floor while constructing a new structure on the lot at the west end.
The article ended by providing a little Temple family history, but was off in its dates by reporting that Temple’s uncle Jonathan came to Los Angeles in 1822 (it was actually 1828) and that a brother (that is, Walter’s father, F.P.F.) followed in 1830, when it was, in fact, 1841. Another misstatement was that the siblings “purchased for a few hundred dollars several large tracts of land which now comprise almost the entire north portion of Los Angeles.” Jonathan did acquire lots shortly after his arrival that became the Temple Block, where Los Angeles City Hall would be completed in 1928.
As for Walter, it was recorded that, in 1912, he bought 58 acres “of what was then considered almost worthless land from ‘Lucky’ Baldwin, and on this property he developed the famous Montebello oil field, which brought him a fortune.” It was not mentioned that F.P.F. Temple owned the tract before losing it to Baldwin, but it was also not the case that Walter “developed” the Montebello field, which extended far beyond his relatively small part of it—Baldwin’s daughters, Anita Baldwin and Clara Baldwin Stocker, owned a much larger section of the field to the west of Temple’s spread.
Finally, on 4 May, Temple was among a large group of investors comprising the Community Hotel Corporation of Alhambra which intended to build a 150-room hotel with 52 garages and to cost $350,000. The corporation took out an advertisement in the Pasadena Post declaring that there was a “dire NECESSITY FOR A NEW, MODERN AND DISTINCTIVE HOTEL” which was necessary if the city “desires to maintain her dignity as well as her position in keeping with her splendid development and natural resources.” The hostelry was never built and it is unknown how much of a financial investment Temple made in its planning stages.
With respect to La Casa Nueva, construction was halted after Laura’s death and the family apparently debated whether to continue with it because of how deeply involved she was with its early design. It was, however, decided to resume work and, not long afterward, architect Roy Seldon Price, who’d recently completed a well-publicized Spanish Colonial Revival mansion in Beverly Hills for film studio owner Thomas Ince, was hired to helm the project. Price, whose surname, the Temples joked, matched his invoices, introduced a great many changes and new ideas for the home, which added significantly to the construction time and expense.
For all the large sums expended on the projects mentioned above and others before and after, the largest and most important to Temple came when, in its 11 May 1923 edition, the Alhambra section of the Post ran a banner headline reading, “NEW TOWN OF TEMPLE WILL BE DEVELOPED ON BIG TRACT” with the subheading of “WILL SPEND MILLION ON NEW TOWN.” Small sub-headlines observed that the Pacific Electric Railway would extend its Alhambra line east to the new community, that the subdivision was expected to open the 1st of July and that Temple was to immediately begin construction on a quartet of commercial structures.
The article began with the report that
With the immediate development of approximately 300 acres of land a few miles east of Alhambra, Walter P. Temple announced yesterday that a new town, which will probably be called Temple, will be founded, which will involve an investment of over a million dollars. The town will be built as a memorial to the pioneer Temple family, who came to Los Angeles more than a century ago [actually is was about 95 years prior, in 1828], and who have been prominently identified with the development of the southwest.
The piece continued that the land, which comprised 285 acres, was acquired for a half-million dollars from the Burkhard Investment Company, which previously planned to develop a town called Sunny Slope Acres. It added that Temple was joined in the new endeavor by Milton Kauffman, who was Temple’s business manager; George H. Woodruff, who was his legal counsel; and Sylvester Dupuy, also an Alhambra resident and whose “Pyrenees Castle” has more recently been known as the home of the late Phil Spector, the record producer who spent the final years of his life in prison for killing a woman in the residence Dupuy built.
The quartet, who established the Temple Townsite Company, were, the article went on, to immediately began the establishment of a business section, now centered around the intersection of Temple City Boulevard (formerly Sunset Avenue) and Las Tunas Drive. The district was to be five blocks long along Las Tunas and two blocks along Temple City Boulevard, while residential lots around it were to be a standard 50-foot width with half-acre lots on the perimeter of the tract. The paper noted that “the entire site is about one mile long and one-half mile wide.”
The four business structures to be built at the corners of the aforementioned intersection, and which all still stand though with much alteration, were designed by Walker and Eisen, and the cumulative cost was pegged at some $200,000. The Post recorded that all of the business section structures were to be of brick “and with the Spanish style of architecture featured in their design.” The extension of the Pacific Electric line from its current end at Las Tunas and San Gabriel Boulevard was to include a passenger and freight station in the new town, this being the location of today’s city hall.
The depot was to be adjacent to a two-acre park that remains the Temple City Park, while it was also observed that there would be about 1,000 business and residential lots (985 is the number eventually laid out) and, the paper commented, “the town will be built with the idea of accommodating 5000 people.” The office manager for Temple, Elmer A. Potter, told the Post that it was planned to petition the City of San Gabriel to allow for a name change of Las Tunas to Main Street, the name of the thoroughfare in Alhambra before it became Las Tunas in the Mission City.
As was the case virtually everywhere in the region, except for a few sections, it was noted that “there will be property and racial restrictions in the new town,” with advertising pamphlets later to blatantly state that “only white people of a desirable class” would be allowed to own property and live in the Town of Temple. Given that Temple was part-Latino and was building La Casa Nueva to celebrate that heritage, this contradiction is especially significant. These restrictive covenants, which specified that only persons “of the caucasian race” could own in the subdivision, were part of the intention that “the entire development will be designed to form a model community.”
As for the near future, the Post observed that,
It is intended to open the new project on July 1, with a mammoth rodeo and barbecue, and at that time to dedicate the park and station. In all probability the railway lines will be in operation by that date. Much interest in the new town is already being shown, and Mr. Potter stated yesterday that many requests have been received for lot reservations, even though no prices had as yet been named. Marsh & Coughran will act as selling agents.
Referring to the many real estate activities in which Temple was engaged in recent years, the paper added that he “has recently invested extensively in local business property in addition to his valuable holdings in San Gabriel, El Monte and other nearby cities” while stating that he constructed the Temple Theatre “and has been an important factor in the development of” Alhambra. Specifically noted was his recent purchase of the northwest corner of Main and Fourth (though the paper erred in stating that the latter was Third Street.)
The article ended by providing a little Temple family history, but was off in its dates by reporting that Temple’s uncle Jonathan came to Los Angeles in 1822 (it was actually 1828) and that a brother (that is, Walter’s father, F.P.F.) followed in 1830, when it was, in fact, 1841. Another misstatement was that the siblings “purchased for a few hundred dollars several large tracts of land which now comprise almost the entire north portion of Los Angeles.” Jonathan did acquire lots shortly after his arrival that became the Temple Block, where Los Angeles City Hall would be completed in 1928.
As for Walter, it was recorded that, in 1912, he bought 58 acres “of what was then considered almost worthless land from ‘Lucky’ Baldwin, and on this property he developed the famous Montebello oil field, which brought him a fortune.” It was not mentioned that F.P.F. Temple owned the tract before losing it to Baldwin, but it was also not the case that Walter “developed” the Montebello field, which extended far beyond his relatively small part of it—Baldwin’s daughters, Anita Baldwin and Clara Baldwin Stocker, owned a much larger section of the field to the west of Temple’s spread.
The announcement in the Post was almost completely reproduced, word-for-word, in the 20 May edition of the Los Angeles Times and, while the 1 July date was, as was so often the case, over-ambitious for the major opening, the local realty firms, Thomas Acton Company and the Garvey Realty Company did start taking reservations for lots at reduced prices during July, while Marsh and Coughran put out its first major ads in early August.
With this year marking the centennial of the founding of the Town of Temple, we’ll occasionally post about the early history of the new town, so be sure to keep an eye out for those in coming months.