by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With the completion of the back nine holes in late 1923, the Hacienda Country Club, founded in 1920 in the new subdivision of La Habra Heights (whose principal figure, Edwin G. Hart, was also the leading light in the establishment of the adjacent North Whittier [Hacienda] Heights), the institution had a completed and fully functioning 18-hole course.
What is needed, however, to be considered a Club with all of its necessary amenities was an up-to-date clubhouse, as a temporary one was created from a barn that was on the 151-acre property before it acquisition. Another major factor was ready access and that was set in motion when Hart and others prevailed on Los Angeles County, as well as Orange County for a small segment, to allow for a new road that would connect the Club to La Habra on the south and the Puente area of the San Gabriel Valley to the north.
While most Club members hailed from such Orange County communities as Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton and La Habra, as well as the Los Angeles County city of Whittier, it was hoped that the new road coming in from the north would bring additional members from Puente, Covina and other locales, though it was added that the thoroughfare was necessary as a shortcut from the San Gabriel Valley to the coastal plain leading to the Pacific.
The composition of the board, following an early 1924 election, reflected the dominance of Whittier among Club members, as five of the eight newcomers chosen were from the Quaker City, while the other trio hailed from Anaheim, Buena Park and Fullerton. There was also a change in the by-laws to allow for staggered terms, thus avoiding too much turnover at one time, so that three directors would serve that number of years and four each would have two-year and one-year terms. Notably, oil producer and real estate developer Alphonzo Bell stepped down as founding president.
The 16 March edition of the Los Angeles Times cited Hart as reporting for the La Habra Heights Company that “the market for avocado lands,” a key component of the new community and its neighbor, North Whittier Heights, “is very active,” even as the peak of the massive real estate boom in greater Los Angeles peaked the prior year (when Homestead owner Walter P. Temple founded his Town of Temple, renamed Temple City in 1928), “and the development of La Habra Heights is progressing rapidly.”
This included some $300,000 in improvements, such as a water distribution system, while it was added that the Club, part of the first phase of the subdivision, “recently completed a clubhouse,” more precisely, a remodeling of the existing structure, “and eighteen-hole golf course,” specifically the back nine. The paper concluded that “a new highway, Hacienda Boulevard,” named for the Club, “connecting San Diego Boulevard [Whittier Boulevard as part of a system of roads from San Diego to Los Angeles] and the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway [Valley Boulevard decades before Interstate 10 became that Pacific to Atlantic route], extends through the property.”
Meanwhile, another improvement to get access to the Club was noted in the Whittier News of 20 February, with that city’s chamber of commerce calling on the Los Angeles County Engineer “to survey the proposed Foothill boulevard which will connect the new Hacienda Boulevard and Ocean View Lane [Avenue], making a boulevard from Whittier to the entrance of the Hacienda Country Club.”
It appears the idea was to build an east-west route through what became Friendly Hills in east Whittier to La Habra Heights, though no such thoroughfare was built. The closest example may be West Road, extending from Hacienda and terminating with Santa Gertrudes Avenue, unless the plan embraced what is now Mar Vista Avenue continuing into La Habra Heights beyond today’s Friendly Hills Country Club.
With respect to Hacienda Boulevard (Hacienda Road through La Habra and La Habra Heights and a boulevard from Hacienda Heights northward), the 12 September number of the News informed readers that,
A delegation from this city stormed the offices of the road department and urged immediate action on a portion of the new direct route from Puente to the Whittier boulevard, which bisects the La Habra Heights district, and also a portion of the Hacienda boulevard which connects with this new highway and also runs through the La Habra Heights property to the east past the clubhouse.
What this statement seemed to mean was Hacienda Road/Boulevard going north and south and East Road, which wends its way along the north side of the Hacienda Country Club, including past the original nine holes at the east end of the club property and then continues out to Fullerton Road.
The paper remarked that “this news will be most welcome to the scores of playing members” of the Club “who are dependent on these two roads to reach the club.” While it was acknowledged that both thoroughfares “are very good,” it was added that “the first rain would place them in an almost impassable condition.”
Moreover, it was observed that,
The residents of La Habra Heights will also rejoice over the news, because these two main arteries are used to reach the entire area in the Heights and during the winter season it has been necessary to use horses, to travel to and from their homes. School children who are living on the tract and who attend either the Lowell school or the Whittier high school have been greatly inconvenienced by the poor roads during the rainy weather.
The Lowell school was in southeast Whittier, west of today’s Beach Boulevard and south of modern Lambert Road. The piece concluded that “the improvement of that portion of Hacienda boulevard extending to the easterly [westerly?] limits of the club property will be of great benefit to the hundreds who visit the country club.”
The road department supervisor added that a “No. 3 Macadam” surface, comprising three inches of decomposed granite as a base and then three inches of compacted crush stone was to be used. Paving, especially in more rural areas that were rapidly developing, was becoming a greater issue during this period.
The News reported that new Club president, George W. Finch, Hart, the latter’s sales agent at North Whittier Heights, Grover T. Russell, Russell’s real estate partner Amos C. Maple, and Club director Wallace Gregg, were among those who “stormed” the road office. Lastly, it was mentioned that “the Hacienda boulevard will be deeded to the county line” by Hart, while “it was urged . . . that the county accept at this time the road connecting with the Hacienda boulevard known as the Anaheim-Puente road, making a circle through the hills and affording two entrances to La Habra Heights.”
This last part concerns Fullerton Road, which not that long ago was bypassed by an extension to the east of Harbor Boulevard coming north from La Habra and reconnects with Fullerton at the southern of Rowland Heights. The Anaheim-Puente Road was Fullerton Road, which then extended to modern Colima Road (long called 5th Avenue), turned west to modern Azusa Avenue and headed north to Valley Boulevard. In fact, a short segment of Anaheim-Puente Road still exists in the City of Industry veering north from Azusa and ending just short of Valley Boulevard, where its terminus used to be.
In late spring 1925, Hacienda Road/Boulevard was completed, with the News of 29 May reporting that “the new boulevard from the State Highway [Whittier Boulevard] to the Hacienda Country club” was to open at Noon on the following Saturday and that the thoroughfare “is a part of the Hacienda boulevard which connects the state highway with the Valley boulevard, near Puente.”
While the Orange County portion was finished several months prior, though it was a small section, “the road department of Los Angeles county is now closing its part of the work” and it “had two bridges to build and considerable filling to do before actual road building could be started, and the county has speeded up the work in fine shape.” The paper added that “about 300 golfers will welcome the news, as they have been forced to detour during the construction work” but “a fine paved roadway now connects the Country club property with the state highway system.”
A week-and-a-half later, the News discussed how Grover Russell’s real estate firm led nearly three dozen Whittier business figures “on an educational trip through the North Whittier [Hacienda] Heights and La Habra Heights subdivisions today.” The group left the Quaker City office and took Turnbull Canyon Road, stopping at founder Hart’s avocado grove, learning about how the fruit was raised, and, going “over the scenic hill and wooded canyon” areas of North Whittier Heights, also saw lemon and orange orchards.
From there, “the party was taken through the new Hacienda Boulevard route to the La Habra Heights 3700-acre subdivision on the south slope of the Whittier-Puente hills, surrounding the Hacienda Country Club” where they saw more avocado, lemon and orange orchards “as well as several fine homes” built at costs ranging from $10,000 to $75,000. A lunch was held at the La Habra Heights land company with plenty of avocadoes available for the party.
Yet, within three years, a substantial amount of work was undertaken on the road, with the Times of 12 February 1928 sharing that,
Hacienda Boulevard, the north and south connecting link between Valley Boulevard, near Puente and Whittier Boulevard near La Habra, six miles east of Whittier, is being improved for a distance of several miles through the La Habra Heights district. Several grades are being reduced and sharp curves eliminated. About $80,000 will be expended on the work which will include quite a bit of concrete paving. From Puente southward to the La Habra Heights foothills the boulevard is concrete paving as well as about one mile northward from Whittier Boulevard.
The account continued that the thoroughfare went through “the rapidly developing La Habra Heights commercial orange district where much new planting to avocados and citrus has been done during the last two years,” with Hart’s firm subdividing the former Sansinena and Hole Ranch into lots of one to 10 acres. Ten days prior, at the Puente end and next to the Homestead, then owned by Walter Temple, the gruesome discovery of a decapitated Latino youth led to significant press coverage, though the case went unsolved until later in the year.
There was one last major piece of the Hacienda Country Club project to complete and this was a purpose-built clubhouse. While we’ve noted that a preexisting barn was adapted as a temporary facility, including the major remodeling noted at the beginning of the post, officials worked toward an entirely new edifice. The Carleton M. Winslow design, however, was superseded by one from a little-known architect, Rudolph Falkenrath, Jr., who was licensed in 1922.
The former St. Louis architect, however, was formerly employed by the well-known Jewish architect, Alfred F. Rosenheim, who also long practiced in the Missouri metropolis, and on one project in 1913, in which Falkenrath oversaw work on a conservatory and natatorium (indoor swimming pool) for oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, at his posh Chester Place mansion in Los Angeles, Doheny got upset about work that did not, in his view, match the approved plans. Not getting a satisfactory answer, Doheny punched Falkenrath in the face, breaking his nose and injuring a eye, which led to a personal injury suit of more than $25,000, though the result was not located.
In fall 1925, Falkenrath moved to Whittier and began work designing structures in the Quaker City, including in the College Heights section, near Whittier College, which was the new tony area of town. One of his clients was Shelley M. Stoody, whose metal alloy manufacturing process helped revolutionize deeper drilling for oil wells. In early May 1926, the News reported, “a drawing of the proposed clubhouse for the Hacienda country club . . . is on display in the window of the Whittier National bank.”
The 1 August issue of the Times stated that “work is being rushed on the new $40,000” edifice and that this would push the total of site improvements to in excess of $200,000. The piece observed that the approximately 300 members would benefit from a structure that “is to follow [the] Mediterranean type of architecture, embodying features of the Moorish, Spanish and early California architecture.” Notably, the contractor was Whittier Mayor John H. Linkletter (Club director Wallace Gregg was the mayor of the city nearly two decades before.)
The Times of 8 May 1927 informed readers that,
Of interest to golf enthusiasts was the opening of the new Hacienda Country clubhouse near Whittier last week. It is declared one of the most attractive and completely equipped club homes in the Southland. The architecture is Mediterranean, showing the early Italian and Spanish influence . . .
Hanging balconies give the early California atmosphere, and the studio windows in the ladies’ parlor, dining room and lounge add attractiveness. A well-equipped grill, kitchen, servants’ quarters and the office are all on the ground floor. On the main floor, the lounge, ladies’ parlor and dining-room are so arranged that they can be thrown together for a ballroom. The cost of the new clubhouse was approximately $30,000.
Also of note was that it was stated that the Club comprised 280 acres of land, close to double the amount when the institution was established seven years earlier. With the clubhouse finished, the Hacienda was considered complete and it has now been in operation for over a century and is known as the Hacienda Golf Club.
While there were some lean years during the Great Depression and World War II, issues experienced by other golf courses, the situation improved during the massive postwar boom. The clubhouse was rebuilt in the mid-Fifties and the course, while retaining its layout, was significantly revamped about a decade later.
As for Sarazen’s course record of 70 strokes back in 1923, that was easily surpassed over seven decades later when an Orange County prodigy and amateur, 18-year old Eldrick “Tiger” Woods posted a stunning score of 62, winning by 10 strokes, in 1994 at the Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship.
In 2005, John Harbottle III oversaw a major reworking of the course, including reopening the creek running through the property while lengthening the course to nearly 7,000 yards and presided over subsequent changes before his death seven years later. At this time, architect Greg Lee designed and supervised the razing of the clubhouse and the construction of a new one on the same site.
Golf courses throughout greater Los Angeles have undergone major demographic changes over the years with respect to more women playing the sport, as well as people of color and this industry publication article set about “Busting Golf’s Myths” on multiple fronts, so it will certainly be interesting to see where the game goes in the future, including at the Hacienda Golf Club.