by Paul R. Spitzzeri
During this Women’s History Month, we take this opportunity to offer a “Through the Viewfinder” post, featuring a historic photograph from the Homestead’s collection, and link it to a notable woman of greater Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with an image by Frederick E. Munsey of the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged in Boyle Heights, an institution founded by Elizabeth Hatsfeldt Hollenbeck (1827-1918).
She was born in Mainz, a city in west-central Germany, which was not unified until 1870, so it was part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse established in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon—Mainz having been part of Napoleonic France since 1797. When she was eight years old, Elizabeth migrated with her parents to America and the family settled in New Orleans. In 1852, for reasons that are not clear, she migrated to Nicaragua.
There, she found employment at Greytown, now San Juan de Nicaragua, in the Nicaragua, then American, Hotel, owned by John E. Hollenbeck (1829-1885), a native of Ohio who was raised in Illinois and who was on his way to Gold Rush California, when a series of misfortunes, including a battle with high fever, struck when he got to the Central American nation and was readying to catch a steamer up the Pacific. The couple married in 1854 and had a son, John, Jr., who was sent to Illinois to live with his father’s parents because it was thought that the climate in Nicaragua would be hazardous to the child’s health. He died, however, in summer 1857, during which time the filibustering of William Walker in Nicaragua led to the destruction of the family’s hotel.
The devastated parents, who were on their way to Illinois after their property losses only to learn in New York of their son’s death and who had no other children, rebuilt their lives in the Central American country, starting with a store and river steamer. In 1860, the Hollenbecks, keeping their businesses in Nicaragua, settled in Missouri, but, with the outbreak of the Civil War, financial problems arose and the couple went back to Greytown. John acted as an agent for British mining and shipping interests and, over about a decade, amassed a substantial estate.
In summer 1874, the Hollenbecks visited Los Angeles, then in the midst of its first boom period, though small by later ones, and John acquired substantial property, including 550 acres south of town for $14,000 and small plots around the city. He deposited $20,000 in the Temple and Workman bank and he and Elizabeth returned to Nicaragua to close their business affairs and then returned to the Angel City to find that the boom went bust and his cash in the bank dissipated after the institution’s collapse early in 1876—other than the City of Los Angeles, he was the largest cash depositor.
Hollenbeck, who was assigned a claim on a mortgage of the Temple Block in the aftermath of the bank’s failure, succeeded Temple as treasurer of the Spring and Sixth Street Railway, the first streetcar line in town and of which he purchased half its stock, and among his other purchases of property was in the newly established community of Boyle Heights, established in April 1875 by William H. Workman, nephew of Homestead founder and Temple and Workman bank co-owner William Workman, along with banker Isaias W. Hellman and John Lazzarovich.
Hollenbeck—who was appointed United States consul to Nicaragua by President Ulysses S. Grant, joined the directors of the Los Angeles Commercial Bank, became president of a proposed railroad from Mojave to Independence in Inyo County (this being something of a follow-up to the failed Los Angeles and Independence Railroad project formed by F.P.F. Temple and others), and was elected to the City Council in his early years in Los Angeles— quickly established close ties with his neighbor William H. Workman.
Also soon after he settled in Boyle Heights, Hollenbeck was joined by his father (who died in short order) and sister Susan and her husband, James G. Bell (whose son, Alphonzo, was a double medal winner in tennis at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis and became a major Los Angeles area oil company owner and land developer, including the upscale Bel-Air [a play on his surname], while grandson, Alphonzo, Jr. served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and a son-in-law was Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt).
On their Boyle Heights property, perched along the Paredon Blanco (White Bluff) that was the area’s earlier moniker on the west side of Boyle Avenue, the Hollenbecks hired Spencer H. Buchanan to design and build an Italianate-style house that was given a lengthy description in the Los Angeles Star of 19 September 1876, with the paper commenting on,
the splendid new residence of Mr. J.E. Hollenbeck , on the east side of the river, on or near what is called Boyle Heights . . . Arriving at the site of the mansion aforesaid, we found it to be a three-story building, with an observatory, of what is known as the villa style, facing the east, but with a view from the observatory of all the points of interest from the San Fernando and San Bernardino mountains on the one hand to the Pacific ocean on the other.
The dwelling sat on a brick foundation and had a cellar, which was accessed from a pantry stairway, while verandas were found on each side, including an outdoor dining area at the southwestern corner. Upon entering through double doors, a vestibule included “a most elegant stairway” with cedar and walnut double railings and walnut banisters, while to the right was a 17’x21′ parlor with a fireplace mantel of marble “and elegant mouldings and cornices.” To the west and through pocket doors was the dining room, of the same size and general effect as the parlor.
Through another pocket door entry to the south was a library, measuring 14’x17′, and it was notable that “if necessary these three rooms can be thrown into one.” Attached to the library was a 13’x16′ room “for sleeping or other purposes,” while it was added that in the library and dining room, “the windows . . . all slide up from the floor, so that the tallest man with a stovepipe hat can walk under with ease,” this being a custom attribute created by Buchanan, who also introduced a system of screens, adjusted, as with windows, by ropes and weights, as was common then.
In the dining room and kitchen, the windows “communicate with the verandah at this point, which is covered with bars of wire, which lets in the air but keeps out the flies and other insects.” Naturally, these two rooms were connected and the kitchen, measuring 15′ x 16′, “contains all the modern appliances,” while a pantry and store room were each 7′ x 9′ and a staircase led to the second floor “partly for convenience and partly for additional safety against fire.” It is notable, perhaps, that the Hollenbeck’s Nicaragua residence was burned down during the Walker filibuster nearly two decades prior.
As for the second floor, it had bedrooms and closets, as to be expected, though two statuary niches were mentioned along the stairwell and “the eye meets what may be termed a twisted hall, contrived for the purpose of saving room.” A front master bedroom spanned 15′ x 17′ with a large closet and a marble mantel on the fireplace, as well as a bay window, while the adjoining bathroom, measuring 9′ x 11′, comprised “all modern appointments” and was innovative in that it not only was attached to the master bedroom, but a spare room as well as the hall. That spare bedroom was 13’x 14′ and a third one was 12′ x 17′, while a linen closet and a stairway to the observatory were followed by two more bedrooms, each 12′ x 16′.
After a comment that the structure was “well lighted and is provided with excellent means of ventilation all through” as well as that the stairway to the third-floor observatory had plenty of space for keeping luggage and other items, the Star recorded that “in the rear of this elegant building is a billiard pavilion, octagon in shape, and 20 1/2 feet in diameter” and sporting an open-truss roof, 14 feet tall, with a balcony on all sides. The article ended with the observation that,
On the whole, we know of no more commodious structure in the county, and, certainly, it is a very fine one. We noticed particularly that the wood and plaster work were performed in a most superior manner. The house will cost, when completed, about $8,000, although no one who has seen it has guessed under $10,000, and some higher.
In a piece titled “Our Progress,” the Los Angeles Express of 10 October recorded that, among many other important building projects, seen as vital given the economic malaise of the prior year (which continued through the national “Long Depression” for the remainder of the decade and into the Eighties) and including Ezra F. Kysor’s work on Hellman’s substantial mansion at the southwest corner of Main and 4th streets, costing $12,000 with the grounds and improvements involving another $30,000 and lumber company owner William H. Perry’s Mt. Pleasant House at the north end of Boyle Heights totaling $15,000, there was the Hollenbeck place pegged at $10,000.
The Valentine’s Day 1878 edition of the Herald reported that, as John was heading to Nicaragua for a few months to transact business, he was “the recipient of a farewell surprise party, at his handsome residence,” with revelers gathering at the house of Workman and, led by a band, walked down Boyle Avenue “well laden with delectable viands.” Once they reached the Hollenbeck house and surprised the traveler, “a most enjoyable evening, in dancing, music and other amusements, was spent.”
After assuming the presidency of the Commercial Bank in the late Seventies, Hollenbeck led the move in 1880 to recast the institution as the First National Bank of Los Angeles. He also acquired, from the Rowland family, several thousand acres of the northern portion of Rancho La Puente and sold some, at the end of the 1870s, to the Badillo brothers of Costa Rica, who tried to introduce coffee beans there, but to no avail and the enterprise failed.
In September 1881, Hollenbeck sold 2,000 acres of the tract for $30,000 on a five-year payment plan at 10% annual interest to Joseph S. Phillips, who, four years later, established the town of Covina. Hollenbeck was also treasurer of the county pomological (fruit growers) society, with his successor being Elijah H. Workman, William H.’s elder brother.
In 1884, architect Robert B. Young designed the Hollenbeck Block, completed that fall at the southwest corner of Spring and 2nd streets and comprising four stories with a distinctive corner tower. The anchor ground floor tenant was Benjamin Coulter’s well-known dry-goods store, while the Metropolitan Restaurant took a space on the Second Street portion.
With an expansive empire, built in under a decade, John died suddenly on 2 September 1885 after an evening playing cards with Elizabeth and then, when getting ready for sleep, said to her, “Isn’t it very warm this to-night?,” before climbing into bed, turning over and had a stroke. The Los Angeles Times of the following day succinctly remarked, “his death is a public calamity.”
It was obviously a deeply personal one for his widow, as well. It may be that lingering symptoms from malaria contracted in Nicaragua led John to make out a will just two weeks prior to his death. The estate was valued at $300,000 and a nephew, Edward, was left with a quarter interest in 3,500 acres of La Puente, while he’d already made property conveyances to other family members.
Otherwise, Elizabeth was his sole heir and executrix of the estate and it is notable that, a few months after John died, and one wonders what he would have done with the opportunities afforded in the aftermath, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad brought a transcontinental line to greater Los Angeles and then worked to build towards the Angel City.
This ushered in the great Boom of the 1880s with a large number of new settlers in the region and enormous growth in real estate and Elizabeth, though undoubtedly assisted by friends and associates of John, assumed control of an already substantial estate and built it during the boom into a much more sizable one.
We’ll return tomorrow with part two and carry the story forward, including her building a hotel at the Hollenbeck Block, the donation, with William H. Workman, of land for Hollenbeck Park and, most importantly for this post, the establishment of what became the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged. Be sure to check back with us then!
Nice article loved the detailed description of the home! Do you have a photograph of it?
Thanks Dana—we don’t have a photo in our collection, but it was realized that there is an image of the house in an 1880 county history, so have included it in the post and made it the featured image.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, elderly care was often provided by charitable organizations and religious groups, such as the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged focused in this post and many others discussed in previous posts. However, after the establishment of Social Security in 1935, it seems that government programs largely replaced private charity as the primary safety net for seniors. In addition to Social Security, there are programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Section 8 Housing, HUD’s Low-Income Housing, and various veterans’ benefits. But, how do they work?
For elderly individuals, securing a long-term care provision is a major concern and something almost everyone will eventually need. Nursing homes can easily cost over $100,000 per year, while other assisted living facilities and in-home care, though somewhat cheaper, still require thousands of dollars per month. Who can afford?
For middle-class Americans, the dilemma is stark: they are “too rich” to qualify for Medicaid but “too poor” to afford private quality care. As a result, many try to spend their entire life savings just to become eligible for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California), a process that has ironically become a financial strategy for survival. Tragically, many never qualify and are left struggling to the very end, enviously watching those who have contributed nothing to the society and paid nothing to IRS but receive full government assistance.