156 Westmoreland Place
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- Built in 1911 on Lot 156 of Clark & Bryan's Westmoreland Place Tract
- Architects: John C. Austin and Woodbury C. Pennell; the team had also recently completed plans for 143 Westmoreland Place, just up the street, which was also in its final stages of construction
- On July 6, 1911, the Department of Buildings issued a permit for the construction of 156 Westmoreland Place; listed as owners on the document are Wesley Clark and John C. Austin. Along with #60, the house was built on spec as part of a last-ditch attempt during 1912 at marketing the subdivision, which would prove to be a failure, with just nine residences, if elaborate ones, dotting the windswept neighborhood
- The Los Angeles Sunday Times featured 156 Westmoreland Place in its real estate pages on December 17, 1911, offering details of its interior:
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While white Colonial Revival and seemingly simpler Craftsman styles were one reaction to the busy turrets and spindles and asymmetry of the Victorian era, complicated English half-timbered designs were popular from the aughts into the 1920s across Los Angeles, along West Adams, in Westmoreland Place, along Wilshire Boulevard, in Windsor Square and Hancock Park, all the way out to distant Brentwood. What better way for transplants to imply heritage and expensive good taste in still young Los Angeles? Only nine houses were built in Westmoreland Place—men of means wanted to be farther from the business and industrial areas of the city, and rapid strides in automotive engineering were making relatively remote and similarly gated enclaves such as Berkeley Square (opened in 1905) and Fremont Place (opened in 1911) even more appealing. Having built #156 and #60 on spec, the anxious developers of Westmoreland Place were trying in vain to sell more lots with a series of advertisements appearing in the press in early 1912, the one below in the Los Angeles Herald on February 17, 1912. Ralph E. Wells took the bait. |
- Ralph E. Wells, a former railroad executive of the California Club variety who was now in the local taxicab business, bought 156 Westmoreland Place in November 1912, either unaware of the lack of success the developers were having in selling any additional lots in the tract or having gotten a palatial house at a bargain price. The house itself would have been an upgrade from the dwelling he had been renting at 2433 South Grand Avenue in a rapidly declining West Adams neighborhood. With new subdivisions opening constantly, notably along the Wilshire Corridor (Windsor Square and Fremont Place in 1911), 156 would be the last house built in Westmoreland Place. Wells and his family were making plans to be out of the house even before the youngest child, Grace, was married to architect Donald Parkinson, who was in practice with his eminent father John Parkinson, at St. John's on September 12, 1921, a reception following at 156. On the previous May 3, a large display advertisement appeared in the Herald announcing that the house would be auctioned off on May 5. There appears to have been no acceptable bid
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| As seen in the Los Angeles Herald on May 3, 1921 |
- With their white elephant now an empty nest, the Wellses moved to an apartment at 624 South New Hampshire Avenue, retaining 156 Westmoreland Place as rental property. Occupying the house from 1922 to 1924 was old Angeleno Fred L. Baker, president of the venerable Baker Iron Works, one of the city's major industrial concerns, and until recently president of the Automobile Club of Southern California. Baker and his wife Lillian lived at 156 with their divorced daughter Earlda Wallace and her three children
- In one of the many busts of its kind during Prohibition, 156 Westmoreland Place was raided by police and Federal agents on the night of October 1, 1924; George Murphy, apparently renting the house after the departure of the Bakers, was arrested along with two associates after 442 quarts of gin and 178 gallons of other spirits were found along with a complete bottling setup
- With prospects for a sale no better as Westmoreland Place lots, whether improved or unimproved, remained empty even as Los Angeles's population more than doubled during the 1920s, Ralph and Grace Wells returned to live at 156 in 1925 with her widowed mother, Pauline Hawley, long a part of the Wells household
- During the 1920s, many large houses in declining neighborhoods were being divided up into apartments as a result of housing pressures; the Wellses, however, do not appear to have begun renting rooms even after the onset of the Depression. With their elaborate stone gates disappearing in the latter days of the '20s, the two main streets of Westmoreland Place were incorporated into the surrounding street grid, with the Wellses' 156 Westmoreland Place being redesignated 1218 Menlo Avenue
- Mrs. Wells's mother, Pauline Hawley, remained at 1218 Menlo Avenue until she died in the house on October 10, 1932
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| As seen in the Los Angeles Times on June 4, 1935 |
- The Wellses would be leaving 1218 Menlo Avenue by late 1934 to move to Santa Monica, where Ralph Wells died on September 19, 1936. Their longtime house would not be demolished or divided up into flats, as might be expected with new apartment buildings beginning to fill the long-empty lots of the Westmoreland Place Tract, but rather given over to institutional use. After some renovations and the addition of a fire escape, 1218 was dedicated as the headquarters of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross on June 3, 1935. The chairman of the organization, David C. MacWatters, told the Times that acquisition of the house "was made possible through bequests, low realty values and the generous philanthropy of the former owners of the property, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Wells." The paper described the new layout on June 2: "The first floor of the home has rooms for the executive secretary, clerical force, board of directors and reception rooms. A kitchen provides facilities to serve luncheons. The second floor has quarters for case workers, the director of first aid and life saving and home hygiene, nutrition, Junior Red Cross and branch activities.... The third floor will be used for production rooms and storerooms." Even as it built a more modern headquarters in 1942 followed by a blood bank in 1951, both a block west on Vermont Avenue, the Red Cross would retain 1218 Menlo for 20 years, adding a three-car garage to the rear of the property in 1949
- In December 1955, the Japanese Language School Unified System purchased 1218 Menlo Avenue for use as its junior high school division, with a senior high school being added in 1957. In addition, offices of the Japanese Art and Culture Institute were listed at 1218 in the 1956 city directory. The Japanese Language School Unified System remains in the house today along with the Horizon Institute, an evangelical Christian college
