Old Studebaker Home Was Demolished and the Propert-Y Subdivided
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.. f THE CASE & STUDEBAKER HOUSES In the nor thwest portion of Monrovia on what is now Hillcrest Boulevard there stood for many years two large houses that appear ed to be identical in all exterior respects except that one was the "mirror image" of the other. It was not until after 1904 that house numbers came into general use in Monrovia and when this came about these houses became No. 409 and No. 447 we ~ t Hillcrest. One, which is still standing, No. 447, occupies the northeast corner of Mayflower and Hillcrestt and the other, No. 409 was located on the northwest corner of Alta Vista and Hillcrest. The latter was de molished in 1940 and the property on which it stood was subdivided. The street now called Hillcrest Boulevard was originally named Banana avenue and Alta Vista was formerly named J.I.C. avenue, for a race horse owned by Mr. Jerome I. Case, a wealthy machineTy manufact urer of Racine , Wisconsin. Some uncertainty about the early history of these houses has led to controvers~ and the purpose . of this paper is to shed ~hatever ~· light that can be obtained from a study of the records. To go back in ,time a bit, the town of Monrovia was started on May 17, 1886 when the first lot was sold in a new townsite marketed by a group of capitalists headed by W.N. Monroe, a retired railroad build er, and a few of his friends. At that time southern California was experiencing a fantastic real estate boom and property was being bought and sold at a rapid rate, pushing prices up far beyond real istic values. Within a year most of the area now included within the city limits had been subdivided and sold and re-sold. By the latter part -of 1888 :- the boom had . ~ co:Liapsed and several years · of __ severe ec onomic depression ensued. Among Mr. Monroe's many long-time friends were Mr. J.I. Case, of Racine, Wisconsin, and Mr. J.M. Studebaker, of South Bend, Indiana, each of whom played an active part during ..Monrovia's early days. This story is concerned with some of their operations her~ · 4uring that time. The Monrovia Planet, Monrovia's first newspaper, in its issue of March 5, 1887, carried the following announcement from the Los Angeles Times: "E.J. Baldwin(the owner of the Santa Anita Rancho) has sold · 15 acres of the Santa Anita ranch land to each of the two Studebaker brothers, recently from Indiana. Each will erect upon his place a $20 , 000 residence and five or six other wealthy men will put up ele ~ant homes in the same vicinity." A week later, on March 12, 1887, The Planet announced: "The Stude baker brothers of South Bend, Indiana, visited Monrovia one day this week. They have each purchased 15 acres of foothill property from E.J. Baldwin, of the Santa Anita ranch, and will !lllfe rect thereon elegant homes fDr t hemselves and t heir families. Their property nearly ad- joins that of General Pile so that Monrovia may claim them as citizens." The Studebaker brothers referred to above were J.M. Wohn Mohler) Studebaker and J.F.(Jacob Franklin) Studebaker. They were the sons of John Clement and Rebecca Mohler Studebaker who had a family of thirteen children, three of which died in early childhood. Of the ten " -2- who reached maturity, John M. was the sixth and Jacob F. the tenth. John was the ninth to die, having reached the age of 84 years while Jacob, the second to die only attained 47 years. It is believed John and Jacob .were close. as the latter lived in a large house adjoining the former's home, "Sunnyside", in South Bend, Indiana. A search of recorded deeds for early 1887 in the Hall of Records, Los Angeles, failed to disclose any such for Jacob F. Studebaker al though the record is replete with references to John M. Studebaker. Thus, it seems likely t~at Jacob did not purchase any land while visiting here early in March, 1887. At the conclusion of his visit he returned to his home in Indiana and on December 17,1887 he died, apparently of appendicitis, in Chicago• John M. Studebaker extended his visit here for about two months, buying properties in Monrovia and a ranch ~n Duarte. Among his ac quisitions were lots in Monrovia where the Leven Oaks Hotel now stands, The present owner of the hotel has in his possession the original deed signed by J.M. Studebaker. Also, Mr. Studebaker owned lots on the southeast corner of Lime and Myrtle avenues which he donated to the First Presbyterian Church on which was erected the church's original edifice. At about the $arne time he also acquired considerable acreage in the northwest part of Monrovia north of Hillcrest which he developed and formed the Studebaker Addition to the town of Monrovia, first shown on the McDonald Map . of Monrovia issued in August 1887. The portion of the Studebaker Addition pertaining to this discussion is the SW* NW* and a portion of NW*SW* of Section 23 SBBM .which J.M. Studebaker subdivided and sold to J.I. Case on April 18,1887 ex cepting a small tract ~aving a frontage on Hillcrest of 210 feet which he retained for his own homestead. This was augmented by the purchase from John M. Thomas of a strip along Alta Vista avenue with a frontage on Hillcrest of 157 feet. Thus both Case and Stude baker acquired land for their homesteads in April 1887 and each pro ceeded to build their respective homes thereon. The Studebaker home stead occupied the northwest corner of what is now Alta Vista. and Hillcrest with a frontage on Hillcrest of 367 feet. Likewise, the Case homestead occupied the northeast corner of Mayflower and Hill- _crest with a frontage on Hillcrest of 367 feet. In its issue of August 6, 1887 the Monrovia Planet announced "Messrs. Studebaker and Case, the former of South Bend, Indiana, pnd the latter of Racine, Wisconsin, are receiving bids for the construction of their handsome cottages above Banana avenue." On November 5, 1887 the Planet announced,"The foundation of J.M. Studebaker's residence, corner of J.I.C. and Banana avenues, has been completed and construction of the house.- ommenced." Alth6ugh his house was still under construction, Mr. Studebaker announced his intention to be back in Monrovia for Christmas 1887, but his trip was delayed by the death of his brother, Jacob, as mentioned earlier. He finally arrived in February 1888 and stayed until the middle of April. Both the Studebaker and Case hduses appear in the list of houses built in 1887 published i~ the Monrovia Planet for December 31, 1887. -3- With respect to the Case homestead the Planet had little to say beyond what is mentioned above. However, there was an indica tion that the Case family spent the winter of 1887-88 here which suggests that the Case house was built at about the same time as the Studebaker house. In the March 21, 1889 issue of the Monrovia Messenger, suc ce.ssor to the Monrovia Planet, the following item appeared: "J.I. Case, of Racine, Wis., arrived last Thursday. His daughter, Mrs. Wallace and her little daughter, reached here this week and they now occupy Mr. Case's elegant residence on Banana avenue. Mr. Case has been in poor health but is improved and he comes to Monrovia to still further recuperate." Mr. Case together with Mr. Studebaker had considerabl~~holdings in real property here , some of which they held jointly at one time or another. Mr. Case ultimately bought much of the Studebaker lands and these belonged to his estate which were sold in 1914 to Sidney Luther, a capitalist of Los Angeles, for $32,000. The property con sisted of 116 acres of unimproved land. So much for the early newspaper accounts---now for the evidence from contemporary witnesses that were published sometime after the events mentioned above all of whom were living here in Monrovia in the same time frame as those events. They are J.W. Harvey, editor and publisher of the Monrovia Planet and its successor, the Monrovia Messenger; W.A. Chess, cashier of the First National Bank of Mon rovia; and Mrs. L.E. Hotchkiss, this writer's mother who came to Mon rovia with her parents in October 1886 and spent the rest of her life here. In 1897 there appeared a "Souvenir Edition" · of the Monrovia Mess enger to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Monrovia as an incorpor ated city. It was lavishly illustrated fo~ its time and although only two copies are known to this writer to have survived to the present day, it is a valuable source of information for the early period. On p. 13 there appears a picture of the house presently standing at 447 west Hillcrest as it was in 1897· At that time it ·was owned by Jonathan B. Harris, reputed to be Monrovia's first ·millionaire. The picture with its accompanying caption states, in part: "The house was built by the late J. I. Case of Racine, Wis., for a winter home. It is a commodious house of ten rooms, at the cor ~er of Banana and Mayflower avenues, and is surrounded by a great variety of flowers and tropical plants. His orchard consists of ten .acres, mostly planted . to oranges and lemons. The - place has a large reservoir and a private water supply." ~nfortunately Mr.