Living inside a mystery

Matthew DuBois’ 115-year-old Victorian home in Echo Park came with a wraparound porch, secluded gardens and a number of intriguing tales.

Old-timers from the neighborhood told him the home had been moved there from a different part of town. In another story, cash was discovered hidden behind the wainscoting in one of the rooms. DuBois even heard the place was haunted.

A segment on National Public Radio about uncovering the history of a home inspired DuBois to begin sleuthing.

“I just started doing research to find out what the real answers were instead of all the stories,” said the computer support manager, who bought the home five years ago for $325,000.

It’s a quest that can bring breakthroughs, dead ends and unexpected twists. But historical facts won’t necessarily translate into a higher price when it comes time to sell.

Typically, a home’s history is only likely to boost the market value if it was designed by a noted architect or someone famous lived in it, said Jim Hamilton, president of the California Assn. of Realtors. Still, a house doesn’t need big names to yield interesting stories.

For amateur home historians, the search for facts from the past can become an obsession.

“Be careful: History is addictive,” said Michael George, a Torrance reference librarian who gives talks on researching a home’s history. Clues to the past can be found in old documents or sometimes within the house itself, hidden away under floorboards or in the rafters.

DuBois’ research began at the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department, where the last name “Chatard” kept coming up in the records for his address. But those documents only went back to the 1930s.

He next turned to the Los Angeles Public Library, where old fire insurance maps took him back a few more decades.

Then he hit another wall.

The home didn’t appear on the fire insurance map for 1912, even though he knew it was likely the home had been built before then. Paging through old city directories, which contain names and addresses of residents, he found that the Chatard family had lived there since 1913.

So where was the house before that date? Dubois solved the mystery by undertaking the tedious task of looking through old building industry publications. One showed that a home had been moved from Towne Avenue to his current address in 1913. Again, the Chatard name surfaced.

For confirmation, he turned back to the fire insurance maps, which showed the footprint of the home on Towne matched that of his home shown on later maps.

Then came another surprise. This wasn’t the first time the house had been moved. Records showed the home had been relocated to Towne Avenue from downtown in 1905. He was able to trace the home’s origins to around 1890.

His research also revealed that one of the home’s early residents was a magnetic healer named Esther Dye, whose method of treating patients involved the magnetic field said to surround the body, and that the house had been used as a restaurant for a brief time after it was moved to Towne Avenue.

DuBois also got in touch with a member of the Chatard family, who told him Julia Chatard had lived in the home from 1913 to 1958 and gave him a photo of the home taken in 1915.

Even after his extensive research, DuBois still has questions about the 2,330-square-foot home’s past. He couldn’t corroborate the tale of hidden money in the wainscoting. And he’d like to find out more about former residents. As for the story that the home is haunted, DuBois hasn’t seen any ghosts.

Researching a home’s past often results in a mixture of explanations and lingering mysteries.

“Many times you uncover more questions than you do answers,” said George, the reference librarian. Neighbors, former residents and their relatives can be great sources of anecdotes and details. But they also might provide conflicting or dubious accounts.

The goal is to verify information through newspaper articles or other records. “Did George Washington really stay in that Hacienda Heights home?” George asked.

Obstacles that add to the challenge include changes of street names or addresses, the fact that homes were frequently moved in the old days and records sometimes were lost in floods or other disasters. Patience and persistence are important.

DuBois conducted his research off and on over two years. He was able to find the fire insurance maps online, but most of the research required old-fashioned legwork. He estimates he spent eight hours at the Los Angeles Central Library and another eight at governmental offices.

“Don’t think it’s going to happen immediately,” DuBois said. “Enjoy the hunt and think of each bit of information as something that feeds you to the next one.”

And be ready for surprises.

Gene Higginbotham and his wife, Vicki, knew little of the history behind the deteriorating, century-old Victorian home with creaky doors they bought in Torrance in 2000. But as their restoration work progressed, they couldn’t escape the past.

Gene was ripping out the plaster ceiling over the kitchen when something dropped to the floor from the rafters. It was a black .38-caliber revolver -- loaded.

“It was kind of a freaky thing,” said the 48-year-old construction manager. “I thought, wow, this thing could have gone off and killed me.”

Higginbotham had police run a check on the revolver, which dated back to the 1930s or ‘40s. There were no signs it had been linked to a crime.

That wasn’t the only artifact Higginbotham discovered during remodeling. Under a floorboard he found an old shoebox containing a watch, costume jewelry and a 1925 class ring from Pennsylvania’s Geneva College.

With help from the Torrance Historical Society, the Higginbothams dug into the home’s history. Their research determined the house was built around 1900 and was moved from an address in Los Angeles near USC to its location in Torrance sometime between 1914 and 1920.

The house twice has been included on tours of historical homes in Torrance, drawing hundreds of visitors and plenty of stories about its past. During one tour, a former resident of the neighborhood told Higginbotham that a city attorney lived in the home during the 1930s and 1940s, a fact that later was corroborated through newspaper clippings. The revolver Higginbotham discovered dates to the same period, so he conjectures the city attorney kept it for protection.

Christie and Jimmie Romero learned some interesting tidbits before buying their 90-year-old Craftsman bungalow in Anaheim more than a decade ago. A woman named Elsie had lived there for 50 years before her death in 1980. The wood paneling in the home’s office conceals a secret compartment once used by a bookie, as the neighborhood story goes.

“That’s where they would hide the betting slips in case they were raided,” said Christie Romero, a 58-year-old decorative arts historian.

Knowing these tidbits before buying was an added bonus for the Romeros. They already had fallen in love with the home’s hardwood floors, built-in cabinets with leaded glass and other original fixtures.

But as they settled into the home, they felt a deeper connection to its past and sought more information. They planted pink flowers in the frontyard after learning from an elderly neighbor that that’s what Elsie used to do. They painted parts of the bathroom and breakfast room blue because Elsie liked that color. “We feel a connection to her,” said Christie Romero.

Carol Wiese of Curtis Real Estate in Claremont advises sellers to compile a history as a way of showing buyers the care put into the place over the years. “It can be perceived as a home that’s well-loved,” Wiese said.

Knowing a home’s past can enrich the experience of living there and, perhaps, provide a comforting sense of life’s continuity. DuBois’ research not only boosted his pride of ownership, but also gave him a sense of his own mortality.

“This house has been around a lot longer than I have,” DuBois said. “And it’s probably going to be around a lot longer than I will be.”

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How to follow a home’s paper trail

Home historians rely on anecdotes, written records and physical evidence in the house to flesh out the facts from the past. Here’s how to get started:

* Write down everything you already know about the house, said Galen Beery, who helps people research their homes as head of the Historical Society of La Verne.

* Take your paperwork -- deeds, titles and other documents -- and jot down all the names listed, said Michael George, a Torrance reference librarian who also helps with home research.

* Inspect your home, looking in closets or other places where a contractor may have stamped his name, George said. Also check the sidewalks or pavement in your neighborhood for these stamps.

* Talk to your neighbors, previous owners of your home and longtime residents of the area. Try to verify the stories you hear. In some cases, local historical societies can help.

* Archived newspapers, often available on microfiche at local libraries, can be a great source of colorful details. Also look there for advertisements for housing developments, which can be a fun source of information, George said. Old phone books and city directories are useful as well.

* Fire insurance maps produced by the Sanborn Co., starting in the 1800s, show the footprint of every structure on a street. They are available online through the Los Angeles Public Library at www.lapl.org, though you’ll need your library card number to access the maps.

* Records from the county assessor’s office may reveal the date a home was built, past remodeling jobs and other facts. Building permits from the city or county may show the architect, cost of construction and other information, according to George.

Freelance writer Mark Kendall can be reached at mkend27@aol.com.