Pasadena Realty Company Marks 100th Anniversary

The William Wilson Co., a residential real estate company in Pasadena, celebrated its 100th anniversary last month.

William R. Staats, an entrepreneur from Connecticut, founded the firm, which was known at first as the William R. Staats Co. William Wilson Sr., a young Irishman who came to Pasadena to improve his health, joined the company in 1909. In 1916, the William R. Staats Co. spun off its real estate and insurance division into a new company, the Staats-Macy Co., which Wilson bought in 1921, and named after himself.

Wilson died in 1954, and the company was purchased by the R. A. Rowan & Co. in 1965. The firm has recorded more than $51 million in sales this year.