by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The multi-part post covering many of the operations in 1903 of the Los Angeles City Treasurer’s office under the leadership of William H. Workman showed that the 64-year old officeholder was vigorously active in pursuing the sale of municipal bonds for school, sewer and storm drain projects, but he had more going on outside of his public service during that year. Here, we look at some of the activities involving the business and personal lives of a figure many Angelenos knew as “Uncle Billy.”
One of the most important events that involved both areas was announced in the Los Angeles Times of 9 January, with the paper reporting,
Harry Gray, John S. Cravens and associated, have purchased of W.H. Workman, through the agency of W.M. Garland & Co., fifty acres, between Third and Sixth streets, and just east of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railway, unimproved; consideration named, $85,000. This was formerly known as the Workman Orchard Tract, and was at one time one of the show places of the city but the scale destroyed the flourishing orchards. The property is now valuable by reason of location, and will be subdivided.
There is a fair amount to unpack here, including that Cravens, president of the Southwestern National Bank in Los Angeles and whose opulent mansion on Millionaire’s Row in Pasadena (it has been part of the well-known Showcase House of Design series) is now the residence of singer Michael Feinstein, was active in acquiring some of those bonds.
William May Garland would go on to become one of downtown Los Angeles’ most prominent developers and also led the effort as the Angel City hosted the 1932 Olympic Games, but he was, in the 1890s, a partner of Workman’s son Boyle in a real estate business, so his ties with the Workman family were deeply established.
The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railway was then a partially completed railroad line by mining magnate William Andrews Clark from the developing Port of Los Angeles to downtown and then turning eastward through the San Gabriel Valley, running just south of the Homestead (then owned by persons outside the Workman and Temple family) and on through Cajon Pass, up to Las Vegas and terminating at the Utah capital. It had substantial yards on the east side of the Los Angeles River in what became known as “The Flats” of Boyle Heights.
That eastside neighborhood was founded by Workman, banker Isaias W. Hellman and merchant John Lazzarovich nearly three decades prior and this years marks its 150th anniversary, which the Homestead has been commemorating. The “Workman Orchard Tract” actually dates to the late 1830s when the López family received a pueblo grant to what was called Paredon Blanco (White Bluff, so named because of the material in the bluff that glinted in the sun).
After about two decades, a portion of Paredon Blanco was sold to Ireland native Andrew A. Boyle, who built a brick house at the bluff’s edge and continued operating the orchards and vineyards planted by the López family, including the selling of wine under the Paredon Blanco moniker. After Boyle’s death in 1871, his daughter Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-uh) and her husband Workman took possession of the land with the Orchard Tract continuing to be operated successfully until that insect infestation that led to destruction from scale took place.
As Los Angeles inexorably experienced boom after boom, including a major one that began as the 20th century dawned, the value of that land, as noted, was such that its development was inevitable. The Los Angeles Express, of the 10th, added that Fourth Street was to be extended through the middle of the property, with 25 acres to be left on either side. What was not mentioned was that a bridge, to be paid for from the bonds mentioned in the recent post, was to span the river (previous ones crossed on Aliso and First streets and later there would be bridges on Sixth [Stephenson Avenue, later Whittier Boulevard], Seventh and Ninth [Olympic Boulevard] streets).
The paper added that
On the north side of the bisecting line the land has already been laid out into streets, although at present it is occupied entirely by Chinese vegetable gardens. It is stated that . . . the syndicate will immediately erect several modern residences.
Those thoroughfares, as noted by the Express in mid-March would include such examples as Clarence, Gless, Kolster and Pecan streets, while subsequent references noted that the Los Angeles Traction Company, a streetcar line, looked to extend along Third Street. Notably, the use of the land by the Chinese, who rented from Workman, hearkens back to his campaign for mayor in 1886 when opponents tried to paint the candidate as pro-Chinese at a time when racist feelings against that community were rampant here and throughout much of the western United States.
At the end of February, reported the Times, “Shi[n]g Him has gone to court to avenge his despoiled vegetable garden” as the Chinese farmer sued Workman and others claiming that they “trespassed on the land, plowing it up and destroying the vegetables and berries” that he grew on seven acres between 3rd and 4th streets. The farmer sought $1,000 in damages, though nothing further was located about the case.
After months of preparation, work was announced in the Flats/Workman Orchard area with the 20 September issue of the Times reported that 400 lots were platted on the fifty-acre parcel as Warren Gillelen, president of the Broadway Bank and Trust and later of the California Savings Bank, as well as a shirt manufacturer, the Los Angeles Trust and Realty Company and others purchased the property for $115,000 and planned “to erect a number of cottages on this tract.”
Four days later, however, the Express reported “Los Angeles has been selected by the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railway company as the place for its car shops,” so it appeared that the “others” in the transaction of the 20th, were officials for the railroad firm, and that it was expected the site would be on 40 acres acquired from Workman (though this also involved Cravens and his partners) between Third and Sixth.
This was a little south of the railroad’s existing depot and tracks on 50 acres south of First Street and the property, divided into those aforementioned lots by the Cravens/Workman syndicate, was sold for that $115,000 figure. The paper concluded that, “the benefits to be obtained by the establishment of the shops of another transcontinental railway in Los Angeles will be apparent.”
The Express of 7 October added some details to the transaction, which was considered finalized by then, including the fact that there was a $15,000 profit to Workman, Cravens and the others, when accounting for some $15,000 they expended on the platting of the tract. Moreover, the deed included a provision that only houses costing at least $800 were to be constructed there for at least five years. While Clark, who was a United States Senator from Montana, would not confirm it, it was assumed the dwellings would be for shop workers, of whom there was to be about 1,000.
Moreover, commented the paper,
Early completion of the Fourth street bridge will bring the lands acquired by the company into more ready access with the center of the city. The flats east of the river farther south are attracting more and more attention, the location being desirable for manufacturing establishments and businesses that would be more objectionable in more popular residential districts. That the district farther south will be the scene of active real estate operations in days to come is expected confidently by those who have been watching the trend of investment there.
This statement is important because, when Boyle Heights was developed some three decades prior, much of the emphasis was on its exclusivity for fashionable residences, especially among Boyle Avenue, where Workman, John E. Hollenbeck, banker and developer George Chaffey and others resided. The burgeoning city’s industrial center which was west of the river also required expansion and it was in the Flats and then south towards Vernon that this pattern included.
For Workman personally, the sale was a landmark in that it “marks the release of City Treasurer Workman from a heavy debt that he had been carrying for several years” as “he has expended more than $100,000 in interest on his extensive landed interests at Boyle Heights during the last fifteen years while trying to bring that section into public favor, but an $85,000 mortgage still stuck by him.” That fifteen years went back to 1888 and the bust that inevitable followed the great Boom of the Eighties that peaked during Workman’s term as mayor from 1886 to 1888.
While there was some significant growth during the Gay Nineties, there were also several years of local drought and the debilitating depression of 1893, while upscale neighborhoods shifted to the southwest near the University of Southern California and west towards Westlake Park. Consequently, “the sale of the fifty acres to the Salt Lake Railway company gave him the ready cash with which to clear his entire estate of all encumbrance.”
With the consummation of the transaction, moreover, Workman “has two-thirds of his real estate left after all his trouble, and that is worth enough to make any man smile, especially after getting rid of a big mortgage.” The Express went on to laud the city official by remarking,
To Mr. Workman the utmost credit is due for the original acquirement of the cable railway [completed in 1889], afterward converted into the First street line of the Los Angeles Railway company, and his earnest efforts to obtain the Traction Fourth street line enabled that corporation to secure valuable concessions. This last achievement cost Mr. Workman $20,000.
The Times of the same day titled an article “The Rejoicings of Uncle Billy” as it quoted the relieved treasurer as proclaiming, “Yes, sir, this is one of the happiest days of my life; yes, sir, one of the happiest.” It was added that Workman “beamed with intense satisfaction” and “was jubilant” as he could announce that the $85,000 burden was lifted off his aging shoulders and he continued that,
It’s been a long hard, uphill pull, indeed it has, sir. I tell you I’ve spent many a sleepless night over that note and mortgage. When I finally succeeded in getting that Traction line to build to Boyle Heights many people shook their heads . . .
But now, sir, I am feeling very happy, sir. Yes, sir, very happy. After fifteen years of being in debt—yes, sir, fifteen years, just think of it, carrying this heavy load—I’m once more out of the woods . . .
I tell you I appreciated the vote of confidence given me by the people when they elected me to this office. It showed they had faith in me. It was worth much to me just then. It wasn’t the salary of the position that I cared for, but the appreciation by the public that I was worthy of trust. Now I’ve come out with flying colors, but it took persistence, I can tell you.
The paper remarked that the blanket mortgage for the $85,000, though it was not stated who held the note (perhaps it was Hellman’s Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank), included fifteen sections of land as collateral, with the 50 acres of the Flats being one of them. The Times then stated that,
Free of debt after fifteen years spent in trying to bring the “Workman Empire” in Boyle Heights to the front, with property left, with a position of trust and still in the enjoyment of a hale and vigorous manhood, “Uncle Billy” Workman might be pardoned for opening even the last bottle of that rare old wine in his justly celebrated cellar and drinking to the prosperity that has brought him such good fortune.
It may be no accident that, just about two weeks later, as reported by the Express, Workman and his son Boyle “are preparing to launch a new savings bank.” It was added that the two were to be joined by James B. Lankershim, Boyle Heights resident and former City Council member Levi N. Breed “and other prominent local bankers.” Later, Workman was president of the American Savings Bank, which included Chaffey and his son Andrew, William F. Botsford, and others, and which had its main office at Broadway and 2nd Street downtown as well as a Boyle Heights branch.
We’ll return next with a second part continuing with a look at Workman’s personal and professional activities during this busy year of 1903, so check back in for that.
Regarding Workman’s repayment of the $85,000 blanket mortgage in 1903, I personally believe that his exuberant exclamation and the exaggerated press coverage were more of a political gesture than a genuine expression of relief from financial hardship. It is not uncommon for politicians to deliberately retain debts in order to project an image of integrity and modesty, and to reduce public suspicion of insider influence, profiteering, or corruption. A well-known example is a politician who proudly and publicly proclaimed that, even after decades, he was still carrying student loan debt.
Workman did not engage in any major property transactions that year, and his collaboration with Lankershim and others to establish the American Bank just two weeks after clearing his debt clearly suggests that he already had substantial resources accumulated over time. Even though the Federal Reserve would not be established until a decade later, it is reasonable to assume that some state or municipal regulations were already in place to oversee the rapidly expanding banking industry in the early twentieth century.
Thus, it is plausible to infer that, beyond making a political gesture, Workman needed to clear his debt in order to remove potential barriers and to strengthen his credibility and reputation as he pursued a banking career. He needed to demonstrate to the public and regulatory authorities that he was financially independent, not beholden to any financial institution, free from conflicts of interest, and not over-leveraged – unlike his famous namesake uncle, who had attempted to use banks to rescue his own financial urgencies three decades prior. Also as noted in the post, his properties needed to be free from financial “encumbrances.”
In summary, I think William H. Workman was a deliberate and strategic figure, who persistently planned, practiced, and protected his reputation as both a respected public servant and a respected businessman.