Verdugo Views: Sisters’ real estate buy benefited from prohibition
In 1921, newspaper headlines announced that three sisters had purchased two unique properties in northwest Glendale.
“The biggest real estate deal ever yet put through in Glendale was consummated yesterday when the Misses Jeanette, Ida and Myrtle Baldwin, sisters, of 903 South Central, purchased from the Pacific Electric Railway company and Maier’s Brewing company both La Ramada and Casa Verdugo Spanish restaurant and grounds covering the entire block bounded by Brand Boulevard, Randolph, Louise and Stocker streets,” trumpeted the Glendale Evening News, April 28, 1921.
At the time, both were very high-profile properties and both had been restaurants serving Spanish food. In fact, for a while, they were competitors.
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Sean Bersell, executive director of the Glendale Historical Society, who often researches historic properties, provided me, via email, with information on the purchase and the story behind the two restaurants.
In 1905, Pacific Electric, having completed an interurban railway line along Brand to Mountain Avenue and wanting to provide an attractive destination at the end of the line, established a restaurant in an old adobe built years before by a member of the extended Verdugo family.
The adobe was at the rear of a large property fronting on Brand between Randolph and Stocker. The restaurant became known as Casa Verdugo.
Piedad and Charles Sowl were hired to run the establishment, advertised as being “out Glendale way,” well above what was then the northern border at Lexington Avenue. This meant that wine could be served, and, since Glendale was “dry” in those days, that became part of the restaurant’s draw.
It was a dignified, family-style place and very popular. But, when the five-year contract ran out, Pacific Electric officials did not renew the lease, so the Sowls left, taking the name, Casa Verdugo, to a large house at the corner of Louise and Randolph that literally abutted the first restaurant’s property.
The house, built just a few years before, in 1907, in the Mission Revival style, had two wings enclosing a courtyard. Huge porches and an arbor in the side yard provided outdoor dining areas.
Meanwhile, back at the first restaurant, Pacific Electric crews began remodeling the old adobe. They posted a sign saying that Casa Verdugo was closed for repairs, but that the grounds were open to the public. They reopened on Thanksgiving Day, 1910, with the Casa Verdugo name.
Within days, the Sowls were in court, suing for damages and the right to the name — and they won.
So, railroad officials started calling the old adobe La Ramada, and, for a while, both restaurants operated in the same area.
Prohibition, enacted in 1920, was a huge blow for La Ramada, as wines had been prominent on the menu. The Glendale News reported that insurance agents met at La Ramada in July 1920, and that’s one of its last known references.
The Sowls left their location at Louise and Randolph in 1921, after the property was sold to the sisters.
The Baldwin sisters snapped up the properties at a time when Glendale was growing rapidly. Within two years, they subdivided the huge parcel into two blocks of 17 lots each. The house sheltering the second Casa Verdugo was left as it was and is now private property.
The old adobe was most likely torn down when the area was subdivided, Bersell said. One of the sisters, Ida, kept a lot on North Maryland and built a house for herself and her brother.
Readers Write:
Elizabeth Schetina wants to know if Tom Mix once lived in their home in the Montecito Park area.
She recently emailed, “as soon as we moved in, (in 1999) neighbors and even passersby told us that our home was built and owned by Tom Mix, the silent movie cowboy star. I have heard that he had a studio in Glendale in the ‘30s, but have not been able to verify that on the Internet. I pulled the permits for the house, and find nothing mentioning Tom Mix at all. Of course, he could have a different name. But this story seems to persist — we recently had a passerby tell us that he knew for sure that Tom Mix lived here, since he was friends with an old film star who had worked with Tom Mix.”
The Schetinas have also heard that the 1927 house had a ballroom on the second floor and that pictures exist of parties that took place there in the ‘30s.
“The only thing we know about Tom Mix is the small display at the Autry Museum,” Schetina wrote. “We love the story, and would be interested to know if it is true. Thanks so much for any help or information.”
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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.
