Through the Viewfinder With Elizabeth Hatsfeldt Hollenbeck’s Hollenbeck Home for the Aged, ca. 1900, Part Three

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

Continuing with our look into the early history of the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged, now Hollenbeck Palms, in Boyle Heights, it took a half-dozen years for the project to be realized from the time that Elizabeth Hatsfeldt Hollenbeck, at the end of 1890, announced the formation of a deed of trust for the creation of the facility to be built on her estate, called “La Villa de Paredon Blanco,” this being the original name of the area, on a bluff (paredon blanco meaning white bluff) overlooking downtown Los Angeles.

While planning and, most especially, the amassing of funds, derived by income from her Hollenbeck Block and Hotel, situated on the southwest corner of Spring and 2nd streets (now a parking lot), continued, there was a shift in the intended clientele, though little was said publicly for quite some time. The Los Angeles Herald of 7 September 1895 reported that,

Permits were yesterday issued for buildings aggregating in value $52,000, the most important being one for a two-story brick building to be located on the west side of Boyle Avenue in the Hollenbeck Place tract, opposite Hollenbeck park. The site embraces over fifteen acres better located than any other real estate in this city. The building for which the permit was yesterday issued is to be the old people’s home, which is to be a free gift from Mrs. Hollenbeck.

Adding that the entirety of her estate was donated for the home, including her 1876 residence, outbuildings and orchards and that the new structure, designed by the well-known architectural firm of Morgan and Walls, was to have a concrete foundation and the best building materials, the paper observed “the new home is to be non-sectarian, barring no race or color.”

Moreover, there were to be 75 rooms to begin with and that to increase “as the occasion may demand and as circumstances may permit.” With the basement finished, the Herald concluded, “the property will, when Mrs. Hollenbeck dedicates it to the philanthropic purpose for which it is intended, be worth as real estate is valued at the present time, over $125,000,” an increase of some $50,000 from the current valuation.

The Los Angeles Times briefly noted in its “Building” listings that the “Hollenbeck home for aged women” was to be two and three stories “and in old mission style,” what became known broadly as Mission Revival. A few weeks later, the paper printed a rendering of the edifice with a long arched front porch and a tower at one end, but also reported that,

Mrs. Elizabeth Hollenbeck is building a home for aged men and women in Boyle Heights. Her sympathetic heart felt the sorrow and pity of a homeless, friendless, poverty-stricken old age. She resolved to do something for those who were aged and forlorn.

It is worth noting that this was halfway through the so-called “Gay Nineties,” also denoted as part of the “Gilded Age,” in which America’s rapid rise to economic and political power, including a staggering increase in industrialization and an associated burst of immigration, led to the amassing of stunning wealth by a few very powerful capitalists, sometimes called “robber barons,” while much of a burgeoning underclass struggled in low-wage labor, poor housing and, in many cases, homelessness.

At the bottom of the bluff on which the Hollenbeck estate stood and across the Los Angeles River, the industrial section of the Angel City was expanding and working-class neighborhoods developed around it. Within these, during this period, settlement houses were founded by churches and private charitable organizations, with public social services very limited. The exclusive neighborhood in and around the Hollenbeck place, along Boyle Avenue and nearby residential streets, would, in ensuing decades, see significant change in connection both with the industrial development of the city and the move of wealthier Angelenos to University Park near the University of Southern California and the expanding west side.

Also important to observe is that the original plan for the home, to serve women and children, including industrial training for youngsters to give them a boost as they moved toward adulthood, was revised. The concept evolved toward women, particularly older ones, but finally settled on providing room for men, as well. In his work on the home, Young observed that, while the trust did not mention males, “it was found the home idea really predicated men as an essential part of its life, and they had been admitted, though legally they had no standing in the foundation as laid.”

Because of this situation, the writer added, a friendly suit was filed in Superior Court, with an early male resident chosen as plaintiff, and the judge determined that the trust could be interpreted as existing “for the maintenance of indigent men, and women and homeless children” according to “reasonable rules” adopted by Hollenbeck and the trustees. Young added, however, that, “although the care of children was a provision of the original deed of trust, it was early determined that the Home now be operated solely for the aged, and to this Mrs. Hollenbeck devoted herself.”

Beyond this, the Times noted,

Mrs. Hollenbeck’s ideas as to the management of the institution are eminently sensible. “It isn’t a place for old people to go and rest in idleness all their days. A person can’t be well and happy unless he has some work to do. Every person in the home will have at least a little work to do. It has been found in most institutions of the sort that the inmates are, as a rule, much happier and more contented when they are not left to entire idleness.”

The reference to the term “inmates” was a common one for these types of charitable facilities, not just jails and prisons, as was the sentiment that residents should engage in some useful work, mainly the care and maintenance of the facility, as a condition of their admission. It is presumed the trustees, as well as the founder, did some research regarding this aspect of the operations.

The short article ended with the remark that the Home “will be of the mission style of architecture, built of concrete and brick, and roofed with tile. There will be wide, cool porches, and a big court surrounded on three sides but open on the west [at the rear]. The building will be equally picturesque on every side.” Additionally, the Times noted, “the home is being built of the best materials. It is meant to last. At present work is under way on the concrete foundation. The home will probably not be ready for occupancy before next May.”

At the end of November, Hollenbeck was featured in a lengthy piece by the Herald, though the article began with a brief discussion of Edward’s life. Much as the Home’s biographer, William Stewart Young noted, the paper remarked that the Hollenbecks “toiled together and saved their earnings” before coming to Los Angeles and, once here, their “good judgment and fine business qualities led them to invest their means” in local landholdings, including some 40-50 acres of their Boyle Heights estate. It added,

After the death of her husband Mrs. Hollenbeck, who is one of our most charitable Christian ladies, declared that she would use the fortune they had acquired, and which, by her husband at his death had been left entirely to her, in providing a home for old people and at once set about the work.

It was remarked that, the past summer, she approved the plans by Morgan and Walls. Octavius Morgan came to prominence when he became a partner of the pioneering local architect, Ezra F. Kysor (who is said to have designed the Workman House remodel, along with the Pico House hotel, St. Vibiana’s Cathedral and William H. Perry’s Mount Pleasant House—all surviving). After Kysor retired, John A. Walls joined Morgan as the Boom of the 1880s and the firm obviously prospered during the frenzied ferment of that period. Later, with Morgan’s son on board, Stiles O. Clements joined the firm and Morgan, Walls and Clements became a major architectural presence during the boom of the Roaring Twenties era.

Young wrote that Octavius Morgan “traveled east to view similar homes and returned to adopt the Mission style of architecture, with its arched porches, broad walls and solid masonry. The writer added that, “the plans” devised by Morgan and Walls, “had many touches of comfort, convenience and restfulness that were new in such buildings at the day, in many things appearing like an up-to-date hotel,” which Hollenbeck was obviously very familiar, “with an air of luxury about it.”

Recording that the opening was anticipated the following July, the Herald added that “the main building,” measuring 220′ x 75′ with a “high basement under the entire building, “is now well under way” and that 55 of the 75 rooms were to be apartments for residents. Additionally, “the grounds consist of thirteen acres and will be elegantly arranged and beautified so that the Hollenbeck home, will be one of the lovliest [sic] in all Southern California.”

Reflecting on the founder’s charity, the paper commented,

In addition to this munificent gift Mrs. Hollenbeck’s Christian spirit and enterprise have from time to time have been evinced by her donations to churches. She gives to all the churches more or less, but more to the Presbyterian church, of which she has for many years been a member. Her gifts exceed probably those of any other member of that body. Besides her donations to the churches, Mrs. Hollenbeck’s hand is ever open to relieve the wants of the needy. The beautiful Hollenbeck park situated immediately across Boyle avenue from the Hollenbeck home, came in for a share of liberality. She contributed eight or nine acres of land towards this enterprise, ex-Mayor [William H.] Workman donating the rest.

The account mentioned an endowment for the Home based on the profits from the downtown block and hotel. A recent change, as well, was the retirement of George W. Simonton as her business manager, with Young lauding him as a close friend and associate of Hollenbeck in a relationship “that was mutually prized” and the hiring of Daniel W. Hanna, “a good Christian gentleman and a careful business man,” to manage the estate. The piece concluded that “Mrs. Hollenbeck is past middle age in life and will spend the remainder of her days in her homestead near the old people’s home, watching over and directing affairs in the latter, that those who dwell therein may enjoy all the comforts that her kind heart and generous care can bestow.”

The writer of the laudatory piece was Mary E. Threlkeld, a native of Columbus, Ohio and a volunteer nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, whose husband, Edward, was a prosperous merchant in St. Louis and Kansas City. The couple and their children migrated to Los Angeles in 1882 and settled in Boyle Heights, with Edward and a son James working in real estate, doing very well in that ensuing boom.

As for Hanna, Young wrote that he was a Presbyterian minister, but was previously a teacher for nearly three decades (and received a patent for vulcanized fiber which led to the formation of a company making trunks) before becoming ordained and came to the Angel City to take a teaching position at the new Ellis Villa College, located near where Belmont High School is west of downtown. He was there only a short time before founding, in 1885, Los Angeles College or the Hanna College for Women, located at Hope and 8th streets. The school was enmeshed in financial troubles, however, and the building was sold to Abbot Kinney, who built the Abbotsford Inn there, with the site later becoming the First Methodist Church.

By May 1896, it was announced that the Home would be open around the 1st of September and that the project, as described in the Herald of the 11th, was “that magnificent monument erected by his widow in memory of the late J.E. Hollenbeck, and known as the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged.” With the official moniker decided, “Mrs. Hollenbeck called to her aid” a Board of Managers, separate from the trustees and comprised entirely of women.

In addition to the founder, its members included Young’s wife, Adele; Hanna’s spouse, Margaret; and Dr. Anne Wilson Nixon (1842-1918), a rare female physician who hailed from western Illinois along the Mississippi River bordering Iowa, graduated from Knox College, and was twice married with two children. Coming west with her daughter, Nixon graduated in 1892 from the Cooper Medical College, a San Francisco adjunct of the University of the Pacific in Stockton before becoming affiliated with Stanford University. In August 1893, she was admitted to practice the following year in the Angel City and later lived and worked in Pasadena and Santa Monica, as well as her hometown of Sterling, Illinois.

We will return tomorrow with a closing fourth part of this post, so please check back in with us then.