by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Warren G. Harding, the 29th American president and who served in that office from March 1921 until his sudden death in early August 1923 just before a visit to Los Angeles, is usually considered by presidential historians to be at the bottom of the rankings of our 45 chief executives. The former Ohio senator’s short stint in the White House is usually remembered for the Teapot Dome oil scandal, which did not emerge in the public eye until after his death and which involved Los Angeles tycoon Edward L. Doheny as a principal.
There were, however, other unsavory aspects, including allegations of his extramarital affairs and a child born out of wedlock, while the “Ohio Gang” of his card-playing pals and political operatives were notorious for their corruption. This included Harding’s close friend Harry Daughtery, who as attorney general was tried twice, though acquitted both times (his personal secretary killed himself rather than face arrest), of selling illegal permits and pardons, and Veterans Bureau head Charles Forbes, who, with associates, siphoned $200 million from the bureau—his punishment was all of two years in prison.
So, unlike many presidents who have many schools, parks, buildings and others named for them, there are relatively few for Harding. There was a Los Angeles high school bestowed with his name when it opened in 1924 after his death, but it was rechristened University High in 1929 to mark the debut of the nearby University of California, Los Angeles campus. A surviving example, though, is out in Monrovia where the Harding Court complex of detached bungalows stands on Foothill Boulevard, several blocks east of Myrtle Avenue.
A new acquisition to the Homestead’s collection is a real photo postcard of Harding Court, probably taken not long after its completion, and which shows the dozen units lining the courtyard and a larger house at the north end, while the San Gabriel Mountains loom majestically in the distance. Also notable is that, painted on the curb along the street is “E. White Oak,” placed there because the photographer stood in the street at the terminus of California Avenue–White Oak was the original name for Foothill.
The word “bungalow,” according to the American Heritage dictionary, comes from the Hindi (India) bangla, or “house,” and refers to “a small house or cottage usu[ally] having a single story. The first known located local example of the use of the word in our region was a reference in the Los Angeles Times of 26 October 1884 as Mrs. Robert Fletcher took out a notice for her instruction of needlework at her “Bungalow Cottage” on Second Street near the Ellis Villa in the new Crown Hill section of the Angel City west of downtown.
The 8 February 1885 edition of the paper contained a description of Fletcher’s residence as “The Saunterer,” a nom de plume for Eliza Gray Otis, the wife of the Times’ publisher and a frequent contributor, sauntered out to Crown Hill and told readers,
I went on to “Bungalow Cottage” . . . It is all that its name suggests, and looks like a thing of the tropics . . . By and by it will be like India . . . It is a quaint little cottage, unique in architectural design and finish, full of pictures and works of art, a beginning of the homes such as will belong to Los Angeles’ future.
Otis’ prediction was spot on (the Bungalow Cottage was bought in early 1886 by new arrival Albert McFarland, who soon became a key figure with the Times).
In its 31 October 1887 edition, amid the full ferment of the Boom of the Eighties, the Los Angeles Herald wrote of the new town of Colton (named for David D. Colton of the Southern Pacific Railroad, a line of which ran through this community just south of San Bernardino) and informed readers that,
The first feature of peculiar and attractive interest in the new settlement will be the erection of a fine specimen of a bungalow, such as the Europeans have erected on the heights around Bombay [Mumbai]. Mr. [William] Curlett, the architect of the new [county] courthouse at Los Angeles, is the architect of the edifice, with Tom E. Rowan [banker, former Los Angeles County treasurer and future Angel City mayor] as advisory counsel with regard to the facilities for the special comfort of the inmates [residents].
An ad from Los Angeles realtor John A. Pirtle in January 1891 included an offer of an acre in the San Gabriel Valley town of Sierra Madre, adjacent to Monrovia, on which there was a “fine Bungalow residence,” this later accommodating boarders. Two years later, Ira W. More had plans made for a $2,000 eight-room bungalow at Cucamonga, with “an interior porch and porch around the entire outside,” while the same year, Claremont (another recent railroad boom town) had a residence inhabited by a woman from England (who may well have had a connection to British India) called “The Bungalow.”
By 1896, the use of “bungalow” became increasingly common and the proliferation of modest-sized, single-story residences, especially as the Craftsman style emerged as all the rage, in greater Los Angeles, especially with the dawn of the 20th century and the region’s third major boom, was a remarkable phenomenon. Then came the innovation of the “bungalow court” with the Los Angeles Express of 10 September 1908 reporting from a Pasadena correspondent, that,
The Frank G. Hogan company has completed the purchase of the unimproved property at the northwest corner of Colorado street and Hudson avenue, this city, and will erect thereon twelve handsome bungalows for rental purposes . . .
It is proposed to run a double row of cottages the length of the lot, with a private court between, the whole property to be known as St. Francis court . . . Sylvanus B. Marston of this city will design the improvements.
The Harding Court project was the brainchild of Sherman J. McQueen (1886-1942), a native of St. Cloud, Minnesota and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin who became a construction engineer, specializing in grain elevators which have been a major part of the Midwest economic landscape, though he also built a factory for auto titan Henry Ford and one for the Quaker Oats company.
Because of a breakdown in his health, attributed to overwork (though see below), McQueen came to Monrovia as a patient in the Pottenger Sanatorium, one of the most prominent of the many such institutions that proliferated in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not long after he left the Sanatorium, McQueen purchased the property on which he built his bungalow court and, with Harding just inaugurated as president, it was obviously seen as a good idea to bestow that name on the development, for which the owner applied his considerable construction experience.
While various sources state that Harding Court was built either in 1920 or 1922, the Pasadena Post of 16 April 1921 reported that “construction on Monrovia’s newest residential addition, Harding court, will be started by Contractor Charles P. Cramlet, according to S.J. McQueen, owner of the $50,000 project.” The account added,
The court will consist of a dozen colonial [style] bungalows, each with its garage, and each finished throughout in a separate color scheme. There will be a community laundry, and many new and labor-saving household devices.
In its 16 May issue, the Crown City’s Star-News provided an update that “frames are up and roofs will be on within a few days at Harding Court” and that “the owner expects to have the $60,000 property ready for occupancy early in July.” Also of note was that “another bungalow court on North Myrtle was started last week,” this being the still-extant Myrtle Court, located on that thoroughfare across from Oaks Avenue.
The timetable was, as so often the case, overly ambitious, with the Times of 14 August reporting that “Harding Court, declared to be one of the most beautiful and completely appointed bungalow courts along the foothills, will be opened Sept. 1, according to [an] announcement by S.J. McQueen, owner.” The first unit, #101, was finished and “open for inspection,” while “prospective tenants are making reservations” so they could customize the decorations and furnishings of their dwellings.
The article concluded that,
Features of the court, which consists of twelve, four-room, white-plastered bungalows, are electric laundry, complete janitor service, special heating system, individual telephones, hardware floors, fireplaces, etc. Each unit consists of [a] large combination living and dining room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bath.
The 27 November edition of the Los Angeles paper provided an early example of occupancy as it was recorded that Iowa State University Professor Henry Albert and his wife “have taken a bungalow at Harding Court,” obviously doing so for the winter season while the academic was on a one-year sabbatical. Also moving into a unit was an Army Air Corps officer working at the balloon school at Ross Field in Arcadia and his family.
In fact, “winter birds” commonly roosted at Harding Court during the Roaring Twenties, with, a just one example, the Star-News of 9 December 1924 observing that a couple “left their home in Milwaukee, shivering with the cold and trying to avoid snow banks” so “they are domiciled at Harding court and basking in the sunshine.” They found the complex when driving past on their way to Pasadena and, while they reached their destination to the west, “the lure of Harding court being too strong,” they took residence at Unit 102 “and are more than satisfied with their choice.”
An instance of an early advertisement for renting a unit at Harding Court was found in the 26 May 1922 edition of the Star-News, with it noted that the “completely and luxuriously furnished” unit, with included services being “telephone, water, porter service and ground[s] upkeep,” could be had for $67.50 monthly.
Speaking of the porter service, conducted by a Black man, McQueen, as reported in the Monrovia News of 12 September, gave a talk to the city’s Rotary Club, of which he was later president, in a meeting held at the well-known ‘Leven Oaks Hotel, which opened in 1911 and is now a senior residential facility. McQueen told the club members “everybody thinks a landlord is a son-of-a-gun, hence I am going to give you some inside dope on his troubles.”
The Harding Court owner added that he was sitting with Henry Ford while building a grain elevator for the auto magnate when Ford noticed McQueen’s persistent cough and had staff from a hospital he built check into it. This led to McQueen’s 74-week stay at Pottenger, after which, with encouragement from the president of the First National Bank of Monrovia, the bungalow court project was launched.
After telling the assemblage that he built the complex in just 93 days, McQueen mentioned the amenities, including wool blankets imported from Canada and then the article went on, with the rampant racism of the day almost casual in its commonness,
Service is the key-note, with a porter to attend to everything, even to the turning of the fifty-pound mattresses. “The coon flops ’em once a week,” said the speaker.
McQueen then told the crowd that “when you build a court, your troubles are just beginning. You gentlemen have got one woman to take care of—I’ve got thirteen [meaning his wife and the dozen in the bungalows].” He added that the Harding motto of “the tenant is always right” was “rigidly followed,” while adding that he handled the plumbing at the site and also talked about how he handled noise that rankled residents, though how specifically was not noted.
Recorded the News, “Mr. McQueen pointed out that a high-class rental proposition is a great advantage to a city, and said that a number of his tenants have built or are planning to build permanent homes here.” He also suggested another tourist hotel, aside from ‘Leven Oaks, observing that “with the anticipated twenty-five minute [streetcar] service to Los Angeles . . . the city was bound to grow.” Finally, he called for “more hospitality for strangers” as part of helping Monrovia develop.
A prominent visitor to Harding Court in its early days was mentioned in the Times of 30 July 1922 when a resident of the complex hosted Helen Ring Robinson, who secured a summer place at Sierra Madre. Robinson (1860-1923) had the distinction of being the first woman to serve in the Colorado Senate, holding office from 1913-1917, while she also was widely known as a public speaker and writer of magazine articles.
The News of 18 June 1923 reported on a new resident, who would later play a prominent role as a librarian at the world-famous and nearby Huntington Library. Lindley Bynum (1895-1965) was born in Los Angeles and raised there and then in Monrovia, was a 1919 graduate of Stanford University and lived in the then-independent city of Venice on the coast near Santa Monica when he and his wife Helen moved into a bungalow at Harding Court, while he worked as an insurance agent.
Bynum worked at the Huntington from 1928-1941 and is credited with a major role in developing its California history collections, traveling widely to acquire materials, including those from Spanish-speaking Californio families, in the years after 1934, before he took a job at UCLA. After he and his wife left Harding Court within a couple of years, they settled in a home on North Myrtle, a couple blocks from Myrtle Court, residing there for many years.
In February 1925, McQueen, who got into home building (including on Colorado Boulevard, then known as Orange Avenue, in town), a septic tank business and then was an auto dealer for the rest of his life, sold Harding Court for some $70,000 to Ulva L. Ettinger, an attorney and phone company owner in Washington state, though Ettinger’s tenure was short. In July, Charles J. Muller (1881-1945) purchased the property. A native of Omaha who also lived on the family’s stock ranch in Missouri, Muller was raised in a family of caterers known for supplying large amounts of food at fairs, with one of his early examples of managing one was in his hometown at age 17.
Over the years, the Muller Catering Company handled food concessions for the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904; the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915; the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940; and many others. The 2 July edition of the News reported that the sale was in escrow and that Muller, his wife and a son were migrating down from Madera, northwest of Fresno, where they operated a fruit orchard.
Later in 1925, Muller spoke to the News about building several more bungalows with garages on an developed part of the Harding property, but it does not appear this was done (modern attached dwellings are on that strip fronting Grand Avenue now). The following year, after returning from Philadelphia where he had catering concessions for the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (we are now in the 250th anniversary year), Muller told the Monrovia paper that “I have thought of having a tavern [at the Court] enclosing [an old] oak tree in glass.” He also considered adding a space for card parties and, after being in the City of Brotherly Love for much of 1926 exclaimed, upon returning, “the sun never shined so bright as it did when I arrived in Monrovia again.”
Muller also owned a 1,200-acre wheat ranch in Kansas and, after returning from a summer 1928 trip there and to Chicago, Omaha and other Midwestern stops, he offered his view to the News that Republican presidential candidate, and winner of that fall’s election, Herbert Hoover, was very popular there. He then commented that, based on conversations with railroad officials, “I believe that Southern California is due for one of its heaviest tourist seasons.” One wonders how much of a winter tourist business Harding Court was doing at that point.
Muller, who was president of an Oregon gold mine company, maintained his ownership of Harding Court continued through the rest of the Roaring Twenties (it won a Monrovia beautification award in 1929) and most of the Great Depression years, as well, with the development apparently lost to a bank by 1938, though he and his family moved to a house they built in the foothill section of Monrovia.
As a side note, there were a few other Harding Court residential projects in greater Los Angeles during the 1920s, including in Burbank and Long Beach, while one that still stands in the Angel City happens to be in the general vicinity of the 1880s “Bungalow Cottage” in Crown Hill mentioned above.
Monrovia’s Harding Court, meanwhile, was remodeled nearly 25 years ago and with some changes over the years, the complex now has 15 units, including the larger three-bedroom and 1 3/4 bath unit at the north end, the dozen two-bedroom cottages, and a pair of studios. The renovation, taking 2 1/2 years, involved finding similar lamp posts to those in the highlighted photo here, the remaking of the landscape saving some palm trees and bougainvillea, and larger porches, while foundations were redone and crawl spaces created. In the units, most of the hardwood floors were retained, while bathrooms and kitchens (with built-in microwaves and dishwashers were redone and central air and heat were added. Aluminum windows were replaced with wood-frame ones evocative of the 1920s.
Harding Court has survived for over a century and may it continue to exist at least that long!
I first heard the term “bungalow” during a visit to Singapore decades ago. A local friend invited me to his home, which he referred to as a bungalow. Just as described in this post, it was a single-story house with a yard. Singapore, of course, is a place of strong British influence and having long historical connections with India.
In the city-state of Singapore, most people live in mid-rise or high-rise residential buildings, much like in other Asian metropolises. To live in a detached, single-story house with its own yard is quite exceptional – something people can proudly show off, and certainly not to be considered a modest or humble residence.
As a side note the Harding Court is located on Route 66! Although the transportation designation did not happen until a few years after construction in 1926.
This being the centennial year for the famous highway, it is nice to see a excellent write up about another roadside structure-business. Motels and fueling depots receive a lot of focus but not often does a longer term rental enterprise enter the spotlight.
Hi Jim, thanks for the note about the Route 66 connection. The Homestead is looking at hosting a Route 66 event this fall, though we’re still working on ideas.