VERDUGO VIEWS: A house with an illustrious past

New homeowner Arye Gross was thrilled to discover that he and his family live in the house that Dora Verdugo built.

During a recent trip to the Special Collections Room of the Central Library, Gross learned that his house on Verdugo Road was built by Dora Verdugo, great-granddaughter of land grant owner Jose Maria Verdugo.

Dora Verdugo was born in 1882 in an adobe built by her father, Teodoro, in what is now the Verdugo Woodlands. After her father died in 1904, she sold the adobe. According to the late Ellen Perry, a former News-Press columnist, Teodoro Verdugo died on June 2, the same day the Pacific Electric railroad arrived in Glendale.

In December 1904, at age 22, Dora Verdugo married Walter P. Bullock. The couple, along with her mother, moved to the last 100 acres still belonging to the Verdugos, Perry wrote in a 1981 Glendale News-Press article.

The Bullocks set up a dairy, building a $10,000 barn and milking 100 cows.

They built a two-story house in 1911 on Verdugo Road, east of Opechee Way.

But times were tough, and the Bullocks soon lost whatever money Verdugo had inherited. They sold most of the acreage to Verdugo Woodlands developer F.J. Newport in 1923. About that time, Verdugo opened a restaurant and began serving tamales.

Recently, Gross invited me to come see his new property, which he is restoring to the days of the Verdugos, incorporating environmentally safe materials whenever possible.

He and his wife, Lisa, purchased the property in May 2006 and spent several months restoring it before moving in. Last summer, while the windows and doors were out for paint stripping, neighbors dropped in to say hello and told him of his house’s illustrious history.

Gross grew up in Los Feliz and frequently visited an uncle in Glendale, but said he was not familiar with Glendale’s history until his move. Later, he began taking his infant daughter on walks to the nearby Verdugo Adobe on Bonita Drive. The adobe, Dora Verdugo’s birthplace, is now a city park and museum.

There, Gross said, he discovered an affinity for the Verdugos.

“I didn’t know of a connection then, but I was drawn to that spot, perhaps because of my interest in early Anglo-California history,” he said.

Most of the home’s original Douglas Fir window and door framing had been removed by previous owners. While looking for recycled Douglas Fir to match the original, he came across someone who told him more about the house.

“I couldn’t figure out why the basement walls were covered in carpet and sound board,” he said. “It made sense when I heard that a member of a band lived here for awhile.”

The large yard slopes down to the Verdugo Wash, and Gross speculated that the many terraces on the lower level might be left from the days of the tamale restaurant.

In 1929, Verdugo’s mother and husband both died, leaving her on her own. In 1936, she moved to a small house on Elk Avenue and supported herself by taking in boarders. Meanwhile, the Verdugo Road house changed hands several times.

Verdugo (who preferred using her family name rather than her married name) often rode in the Days of Verdugo parade.

She served as grand marshal at Glendale’s 75th anniversary in 1981 and was honored as the city’s first lady on her 100th birthday the next year.

When she died in 1984, then-mayor Carroll Parcher told the Los Angeles Times, “She was our last real link with the old Verdugo family.”

Now that he knows who built the house, Gross wants to learn more about her.

“We are passionately engaged in restoring the house in a way that would please Señora Verdugo, while bringing it and her story into the 21st century,” he said.

READERS WRITE

Glendale resident Phyllis Matlick Kenney writes: “I always look forward to your articles in the News-Press so much. The two most recent reminded me of Alma Danford.

“My family, including my father’s mother, Mabel Danford Matlick, came to Glendale in 1930 from Philadelphia. We bought a house on Los Encinos Avenue, but my grandmother rented a Craftsman house on a street in East Glendale.

“As she had done in the East, she rented out a room. For some time, she rented to Alma Danford, who was retired. They both enjoyed the companionship, as my grandmother had gone to college in the days when hardly any women did.

“They learned through the friendship that they were cousins. At that time, I knew none of her history. Alma suggested I join the Tuesday Afternoon Club Juniors and she sponsored me. Knowing her really enriched my life, especially later when I was in charge of circulation for the Riverside County Library.”