by M. Michelson, APG Board of Directors
Thanks to one of our vigilant members who apprised us of the gigantic “For Sale” sign posted at 403 South Garfield Avenue, Alhambra Preservation Group’s Advocacy & Action Committee has been involved in researching the impressive and unique, multi-story triplex on the corner of South Garfield Avenue and West Beacon Street, two blocks south of Alhambra’s main post office. Together with its three adjacent parcels, this property is being sold for likely commercial development.
The 1920 U.S. Census shows that 403 S. Garfield was originally used as multi-family housing. According to an early 20th Century Alhambra directory, two families lived in what is the oldest and largest structure on the lot. Clifford H. Everdon, a shoe salesman, and his wife Edith and their daughter and son, rented the property along with the Coleman family. Calvin Coleman, who was a laborer in an oil field, also lived there with his wife and son.
The LA County Assessor’s Office shows three structures on the property, with the oldest possibly dating from 1918, though we estimate it is older than that based on its Victorian architectural features. Flanked on either side by what looks like the original grove of trees, it is listed at 3,370 square feet with six bedrooms and two baths; a one-room sleeping porch was added in 1927. Also on the lot are two other units, both built in 1941, each with one bedroom and one bathroom.
In July 2015, J&KD LLC bought this property for $3.1 million from ANJ LLC, just 2 months after ANJ LLC bought it for $600,000 from Eretz G4 Properties LLC. It is now on the market again.
We are very concerned about developers razing Alhambra’s heritage along with this historic house, one of few remaining Victorian homes in Alhambra. This is a unique exemplar of how early Alhambrans lived and needs to be saved! If you have further information or photos of this property, or if you want to join the Advocacy & Action Committee to help save 403 South Garfield Avenue, please contact APG at info@alhambrapreservation.org.
Gkad you are starting..Ned to do a lot immediately….you must be relentless to save this treasure and the camphor trees which make it impossible to move it etc. Never use phrases such as “will be sold” use only ” could or would’ ..emphasize that no money can ever replace the value of having such an authentic, unique, historic, ‘tourist attraction” which if donated, could or should provide the generous benefactor with tax breaks and kudos…delve deeply into pre computerized city records and the memories of concerned citizens to find out the official status of the property..i recall that many years ago it was designated historically relevant and not destroyed.cite negllgance if the sale of it did not reveal this …if so, you need to augment that with state and maybe nationsal status..,members and other citizens must appear at every city council meeting and during public orally and continuous letters to the editors,public forums and informational literature, , emphasize respecting the multi cultural past not just kow towing to the current majority or the quest for endless profits.. bring out the reasons Alhahambra needs this building intact instead of yet another dreary, probably constantly empty loffice complex..and how such a multi family structure is so much more aesthetically pleasing than the metastasizing, grim, prison like mixed use uber urban/new york city tenament like structures lining Garfield and Main ..this building could also be multipurpose in a culturally relevant way..ypur headquarters? see the Breed Street as example…..thank goodness yours was not abandoned and vandalized…
I am finally getting family, business and health issues under control and want to help more soon..passing the Beacon Stret house gives me pleasure as I wend my north way up garfielld from montebello through Alhambra to South and regular Pasadena….with this house intact , maybe with a tea room, I might be tempted to stop and spend some money in Alhambra..oh…the music store building was saved..hope with proper safeguards.,,,too bad about the beautiful library…..I am good with slogans and rousing activism and participation…
This is the original Thomas. J. Stuart house built around 1885. He is buried in the old San Gabriel cemetery. One of the last great homes built in that era still remaining. There are several others east of here on Beacon St., The earliest being from 1879.
Thanks for the refresher. I remember my grandmother telling me that TJ Stuart’s daughter had come to the house and asked to see it again. Probably really disappointed with all the renovations. Not sure what year that was.
My father’s family owned this property from the mid 1920’s until 1991. It was originally built abt 1881 by the J Stewart/Stuart Family. My granduncle George Olin Wareham bought it with his wife Georgia but because of the 1929 market crash and depression, he had to sell it to his sister June and her new husband James Edgar Moore. June’s mother, a pioneer in Montana in the 1880’s, Elizabeth Galloway Wareham lived there and died there in 1952. My father, Frank Wareham Moore, lived there and attended Alhambra schools and graduated from Alhambra High in 1939. His uncle George passed away that year. Frank lived there until 1941 when he went into the military service in WW2 and brought his bride home in 1945 to live in the attic with the beautiful view of the railroad. They later lived in one of the apartments over the garages and brought their first born, Suzanne, who was born up the street at Alhambra Community Hospital. James E Moore lived there until shortly before his death in 1982. He was a salesman and bought Larchmont Hardware in Hancock Park in 1952 and sold it to his adopted son in 1963. June had a stroke in 1981 and vacated the house and passed away in 1990. I lived there for 11 years from 1980 to 1991. My father inherited the house after the death of his mother but felt it was too much for him to take care of so he sold it to the CEO of China Airlines. I have many fond memories of the tennants of this house and the attic was full of antiques and memories of people who died there with no family except my grandparents. One lady, Florence Wintetta, lived through the San Francisco earthquake and had a bird that she called Sweet. Another tennant was a Mr Gus Bertch and his wife also died there and the memory of his tobacco from his pipe still lingers. I hated that we had to let the house go. But the repairs were mounting. I survived many earthquakes but in 1971 the chimneys came down and in 1987 the Whittier Narrows earthquake sent a shock through the middle of the house breaking the original plastered walls on both sides of each room from the front to the back. The house always seemed a little less level after that. If you put a marble on the original hardwood floors of the downstairs livingroom, it would move to the side of the house. The house had been renovated so many times it had staircases to nowhere. Much like the Winchester House in San Jose. The little apartment on the north side had originally been part of the main house. The porch had been renovated to add my grandfather’s bedroom and it had a closet that would lead to the front entry hall that my friend’s always called the “hidden passage way”. It originally had a dumbwaiter that would go to the attic. Many people lived in that attic but it was my play house and my favorite place to spend my time when visiting my grandparents. My grandmother would have all her 1920’s dresses and hats for me to play dress-up. Sorry about rambling on, but this house brings out the memories and I still love going by to see if anything has changed. It will be ashame to see it gone one day. Jane E Moore
Hi Jane, Thank you so much for your memories of this grand home. Do you have any old photos of the home that you would be willing to share? We have a group of Cal Poly Pomona students who are considering adopting this house as a class project and seeing if they can get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Any information or photos that you may have of this home would help them/us with this project. Thanks again! You’re welcome to e-mail me directly at info@alhambrapreservation.org. – Joyce
I used to have a newspaper article with a pre-renovation picture. But I have not seen it quite a few years. It had a hitching post in the front. I believe it was from the Alhambra Post. Are there any archives for that newspaper? I will do some digging but I do not have any pre-renovation pictures. I can look for what I have but most would be post WW2.
Photos that are post WW 2 are OK. We’d love to see them! We have one photo of the house that was from the Post Advocate.:) Joyce
Glad you heeded my warning and advise… Seems that there are a lot of resources and people wanting to save this neat place…. wonderful that students are involved… ..glad you put it out on the new media!!!!!!. keep on keeping on.. do research, be at every meeting of every entity involved to present facts, figures and historical and let people speak about their own personal memories and connection etc.. send these to the city council and the other commissions involved etc……. put them in press releases in other media.. there are probably grants which some may know how to acquire… I would come and speak or write letters telling how nice it is to see such an interesting house and also how wonderful the mature trees are …. let me know…. I will mention that I would like to tour the house when it is a museum.. the dresses etc in the attic etc. would be great exhibits…
Today I went to the Sanchez Adobe in Montebello for an historic reenactment of the Battle of Rio Hondo.. learned a lot, and besides food, music and dancing, there was gun fire and at the last volley, the Montebello police, obviously half cocked, rolled up… luckily, a seductive member of the Historical Society convinced them there was no danger and they got to fire off the historic fully loaded, lock stock and barrel weapons..next time the group will do the proper notification…
Persevere with Preservation!!!!!
me
I was born in Alhambra Hospital in 1947 and was brought home to 403 S Garfield to my grandparents’ home, June Wareham and James E. Moore. I lived with my parents in an apartment over the garages while my parents built our home in Temple City. I spent so much time in the big house as a little girl visiting the my grandparents and great-grandmother Wareham, and all the elderly boarders they had in the house. In grammar school, I progressed to the attic where my father had lived when he was in high school. Besides all his memorabilia there was a treasure trove of trunks and furniture up there. Grandmother cleaned it up and I spent hours dressing up in old clothes from the 20’s. I loved watching the trains from the balcony pass by. So many memories of walking with my grandmother down Garfield Avenue passing by all the other lovely old homes and “not stepping on a crack” in the sidewalk. Our destination of course was the toy store on Garfield. Also memories of eating out at Rice and Henderson’s on Garfield. In later years I dreamed of opening a “tea room” in the house but alas met a wonderful man and moved to Northern California. My sister moved in with my grandparents until they could not live there anymore and needed 24 hour care. It was with great sadness the family realized the house was too much to care for and maintain. I remember a great last Christmas hosted by my sister as she beautifully decorated the living room and we brought my grandmother home one last time. My last visit I took movies of the house. Every trip I came down I drove past the house and told stories to my daughter and now to my grandchildren.
I was under the impression the house was labeled as historical then and could not be torn down until my sister sent me this article. Margot, you are entirely correct about these homes I have watched destroyed or “accidentally burned down” over the years.
Something is really “fishy” about the selling prices. I know my parents listed it for a million but it did not sell as the market turned bad and I think it finally went for 700,000 and that was in about the mid 1980’s. I remember feeling such relief to know the house would be in the historically preserved when we were doing this as the sale was traumatic for us all.
Thank you Alhambra Preservation Group for what you are doing. I would appreciate hearing the status of the house.
Hi Suzanne, Thank you so much for your memories of this grand home. Do you have any old photos or those old Christmas movies of the home that you would be willing to share? We have a group of Cal Poly Pomona students who are considering adopting this house as a class project and seeing if they can get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Any information or photos that you may have of this home would help them/us with this project. Thanks again! You’re welcome to e-mail me directly at info@alhambrapreservation.org. – Joyce
So was was this amazing house saved? I always wondered about it’s history. It should be preserved because we don’t have that many Victorian houses in Alhambra. Please save it.
That historic structure definitely should be saved. Buildings like that give any city a beautiful reminder of its history. Our city had such a dismal record of allowing important historic structures – both residential and commercial – to be destroyed. We need to do an about-face and learn to treasure our beautiful historic buildings. Every time I’ve driven by that lovely house in the many years I’ve lived in Alhambra, it’s made me happy just to be able to view a piece of our city’s past.