Verdugo Views: Nonprofit gave a mortuary new life
When the Assistance League of Glendale purchased the Kiefer and Eyerick Mortuary on Harvard Street, they knew they were taking over a historic property with ties to one of the earliest mortuaries in town: the Pulliam Undertaking Co. on Broadway.
Emil Kiefer, who began working for Pulliam in 1916 and John Eyerick, who joined the business in 1922, eventually formed Kiefer and Eyerick, and when Broadway became too busy, they built a new mortuary and chapel at a more secluded site on East Harvard.
The complex was designed in the Tudor Revival style by Glendale’s most prominent architect of the time, Alfred F. Priest. “It is probably the best example of that architectural fashion of the 1920s in Glendale,” as noted in a 1984 Historic Resources Inventory done by the Glendale Historical Society. “Clinker bricks added texture and color to the red-brick, two-story structure, with decorative elements in cast stone, topped by a steeply gabled roof sheathed with slate.”
Kiefer became sole owner in 1938, and his son Richard took over in 1984. The property was purchased by the league in 2002.
The league itself is a historic Glendale entity. Formed in 1937, their chapter house was at the corner of Glendale Avenue and Lexington; their ‘Thrift Corner’ was next door.
Christy Vasquez, who joined the league in 1991, wrote in a recent email from her Santa Fe home that she had been a member about ten years when the group decided to replace their overcrowded facility.
After looking at many properties, they were contemplating demolishing their old structures and rebuilding when the mortuary came on the market; the sellers were looking for a buyer who would appreciate the building’s architecture and not tear it down. “That had our name written all over it,’’ wrote Vasquez.
The league negotiated for several weeks and toured the building to see if the rooms would work for their purposes. The visits also “convinced some of us that we’d soon wipe out the memory of all the citizens of our town who had ‘passed’ through our building for many, many years,” Vasquez quipped.
Then they faced the biggest problem: where to put their thrift store.
The thrift store provided half the annual income needed to run their projects. Plus, Vasquez wrote, they would be going into debt with the new site.
They soon decided the adjacent garage, on the alley, would become a ‘Thrift Alley.’
“The whole process took a couple of years,” Vasquez added. “It was a lot of work and worry for the membership and for the ladies who did most of the work. Claire Collins was the chair as I recall, but, they soon paid off their mortgage.’’
Now, as before, all of the money raised by the group is used for their community projects.
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Assistance League member Judy Cabrera provided me with a copy of a talk — given at the league’s annual dinner in 2010 — by Claire Collins, president when they purchased the Kiefer and Eyerick mortuary. Here, with Collins’ permission, is a condensed portion of her thoughts on one of her first walks through the mortuary.
The kitchen could be in the long unused embalming area, as it had a big sink. The casket display room, upstairs, could become the Operation School Bell area; the chapel, with the lovely stained glass windows, their meeting area and the former family mourning rooms, storage for the Thrift Alley. Another area upstairs, where the organ works were installed, could become a storage area for Operation School Bell. “It was obvious from the beginning that we could make good use of this building,” she told her audience.
Escrow closed in November 2002 and after much cleaning, scrubbing and painting, they moved in, with the help of members who sorted and packed hundreds of boxes. “The movers came with three huge trucks, couldn’t believe that all of that ‘stuff’ could have come out of that building and ordered another truck.”
They sold all but two of the pews and found an organ buff who purchased the upstairs organ.
Since then, they have refurbished the patio, replumbed, rewired some portions and repaired the large stained glass window. “We have tried in our efforts, to remember that we are working with a beautiful historical building built in 1928,” she concluded.
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KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
