Agenda packet — Glendale City Council, October 28, 2025 (part 3 of 3)

Architectural Description
The house sits on a concrete foundation and the lot slopes downward from El Rito Avenue to the south towards the rear yard. The entry is at ground level from the north façade. The rear façade is elevated over a partial raised basement at the first floor and accessed by a series of exterior stairs and patios. The house has an irregularly shaped plan and is clad in textured stucco. It is capped by a multi-level hipped-and-gabled roof, with a conical roof at the entry turret, and a shed roof over the attached garage. The roofs are covered in two-piece barrel clay tiles and have exposed rafter tails and overhanging eaves.

The building features two exterior balconies with wood railings, wood multi-light casement windows, several stained-glass windows, an entry turret with a highly- decorated wood door that features a speakeasy window with a stained glass panel, an enclosed west courtyard surrounded by loggia on two sides, and a landscaped front setback with mature sycamore and oak trees. The property is bounded by a low-lying stucco wall to the north and west. The rear yard contains a patio, rectangular pool, and lawn.

The immediate neighborhood is primarily residential, characterized by single-family residences that are similar in style and scale to the subject property. Most of the homes surrounding the subject property were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s.

Notable character-defining features of 1600 El Rito Avenue include:
Two-story massing
Asymmetrical plan
Exterior loggia, enclosed courtyard, and balconies
Low pitched, barrel clay tile roofs
Turret entryway with an arched wood primary entry door, arched stained glass casement window and painted details
Elaborate stencil painted wood entry door with stained glass speakeasy Arcaded loggia along courtyard on west and north facades Original wood-sash casement windows and openings
Original stained-glass windows
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Alterations and Integrity
The residence at 1600 El Rito Avenue has undergone some alterations since the building’s construction in 1930 but nonetheless retains most of its original features and possesses high integrity. The current owners indicate that the balcony at the front façade had previously been enclosed, but they restored it to its original open condition in 2023. A few windows on the second story of the west façade were replaced with stained glass windows salvaged from a neighboring property and a window at the east wall of the kitchen was replaced with a stained-glass window. A balcony or sleeping porch on the west façade was converted into a sunroom at some point, which is a common early alteration to houses of this style. HPC discussed conditioning reopening this area, but staff cautioned against this due to the lack of information about the original appearance of this area and the fact that the enclosure was well done and does not call attention to itself. A pool, spa, and a small deck and rear stairs were also constructed at the property. At some point, multi-light glazed doors and windows opening onto the courtyard loggia were replaced with decorative beveled glass doors and windows that are not appropriate to the style of the house. Finally, the current owners replaced non- original garage doors with new doors that are appropriate to the design of the house.

Although there have been some alterations, the property retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance as an excellent example of a Spanish Colonial Revival residence. Some of the earlier alterations impacting character defining features such as the balcony have been reversed by the current owners and the resulting massing better reflects the original design intent.

HPC and staff recommend the following Mills Act conditions:

1. Replace the two beveled glass windows and doors in living room with doors and windows more appropriate for a Spanish Colonial Revival style home.

2. Engage a professional architectural conservation consultant to study the painted stenciling of the front door and develop and conduct an appropriate course of treatment as approved by staff.

3. Repair the damaged wood rafters at the rear façade underneath the balcony.

4. Repaint the rafter at the rear façade that was painted white so that it matches the rest of the wood details.

ANALYSIS
Finding of Eligibility
After reviewing the nomination submitted by the owner and its supporting documentation, as well as visiting the site, Planning Division staff concludes that the property appears to meet Criterion 3 of the eligibility criteria for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources.

Architectural Significance [Criterion 3]
To meet Criterion 3, a property must “embody the distinctive and exemplary characteristics of an architectural style, architectural type, period, or method of construction; or represent a notable work of a master designer, builder or 683 of 833

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architect whose genius influenced his or her profession; or possess high artistic values.”
1600 El Rito was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style at the height of the style’s popularity in Glendale’s Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood and throughout the city. The house fully expresses many of the character-defining features of the style, including a low-pitched clay tile roof, asymmetrical plan that emphasizes its three-dimensional massing, and arcaded loggia that establishes a porous boundary between exterior and interior. Features such as a turret, decorative tile details, balconies, stained glass windows and wrought iron details make 1600 El Rito an exemplary example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style.

STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
There are no stakeholders other than the property owner.

FISCAL IMPACT
Listing historic properties in the Glendale Register has no fiscal impact. However, future property tax savings to private owners of listed historic properties under Mills Act contracts will slightly reduce City property tax revenues from the general County tax levy received from each Mills Act property.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
The project is exempt from CEQA as a Class 8 “Actions by Regulatory Agencies for Protection of the Environment” exemption and a Class 31 “Historical Resource Restoration/Rehabilitation” exemption pursuant to Sections 15308 and 15331 of the State CEQA Guidelines because it involves the designation and restoration of a historic resource.

CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
The names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than 10% interest in the company proposed for contract in this Agenda Item Report are attached in Exhibit 4, in accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744.

ALTERNATIVES
Alternative 1: Reject designation/listing of 1600 El Rito Avenue on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, finding that the property does not meet Criterion 3 or any other criteria.

Alternative 2: Any other alternative chosen by City Council. 684 of 833

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ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Prepared by:

Ani Mnatsakanyan, Planner
Reviewed by:

Bradley Calvert, Director of Community Development
Approved by:

Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager

EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Glendale Register Nomination
Exhibit 2: Photographs
Exhibit 3: Mills Act Application
Exhibit 4: Campaign Disclosure
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1 RESOLUTION NO. _____________

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA, TO AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER

TO ENTER INTO A MILLS ACT HISTORICAL PROPERTY

CONTRACT THE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT
1600 EL RITO AVENUE
WHEREAS, the owner of record of the residential property located at 1600 El Rito Avenue (the “Property”) has consented to, and requests that the Property be designated as a historic resource on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the Historic Preservation Commission, at a regularly scheduled meeting on August 21, 2025, unanimously recommended designation of the Property for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources by a vote of 5-0; and WHEREAS, the City Council has conducted a duly noticed public hearing pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Glendale, pursuant to Sections

15.20.050 and 15.20.060, finds based on information in the record that the Property is eligible for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources because it qualifies under Criterion 3 (embody the distinctive and exemplary characteristics of an architectural style, architectural type, period, or method of construction; or represent a notable work of a master designer, builder or architect whose genius influenced his or her profession; or possess high artistic values) in that it was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style at the height of the style’s popularity in Glendale’s Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood and throughout the city; the house fully expresses many of the character-defining features of the style, including a low-pitched clay tile roof, asymmetrical plan that emphasizes its three- dimensional massing, and arcaded loggia that establishes a porous boundary between exterior and interior; it is an exemplary example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style due to features such as a turret, decorative tile details, balconies, stained glass windows and wrought iron details, as further described in the October 28, 2025 Staff Report regarding the Property; and
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Glendale further finds that because the Property qualifies for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, among other factors, that entering into a Mills Act contract with the Property owner is appropriate based on all of the information in the record.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GLENDALE AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. The recitals above are incorporated herein by this reference.

Section 2. That the property located at 1600 El Rito Avenue is to be designated as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources. 686 of 833

2 Section 3. That the City Manager is authorized to enter into a Mills Act historical property contract with the Property owner subject to the following conditions:

1. Replace the two beveled glass windows and doors in living room with doors and windows more appropriate for a Spanish Colonial Revival style home.

2. Engage a professional architectural conservation consultant to study the painted stenciling of the front door and develop and conduct an appropriate course of treatment as approved by staff.

3. Repair the damaged wood rafters at the rear façade underneath the balcony.

4. Repaint the rafter at the rear façade that was painted white so that it matches the rest of the wood details.

Section 4. That the designation of the Property as a Historic Resource for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and entering into a Mills Act contract with the Property owner is exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Title 14 CCR Sections 15331 (preservation of historic resources) and 15308 (actions by regulatory agencies for protection of the environment).

Adopted this _______ day of __________________________, 2025. ______________________________
Mayor
ATTEST:
___________________________
City Clerk
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4 STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ) ss.

CITY OF GLENDALE )
I, SUZIE ABAJIAN, Ph.D., Clerk of the City of Glendale, certify that the foregoing Resolution was adopted by the Council of the City of Glendale, California, at a regular meeting held on the ______day of _________, 2025, and that same was adopted by the following vote:

Ayes:

Noes:

Absent:

Abstain:
_________________________
City Clerk
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MOTION
Moved by Council Member ____________________________, seconded by Council Member ____________________________, that upon review and consideration of all documents, materials and exhibits relative to the request of the owner of record of the residential property located at 1600 El Rito Avenue (the “Property”) to list the Property on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, and after having conducted a public hearing on said request and receiving testimony, the City Council of the City of Glendale, California, based upon all of the evidence in the record, hereby denies the request of the owner of record of the Property to list the Property on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code and denies the request of the owner of record of the Property to authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act historical property contract with the Property owner. This denial is based on the Council’s determination, pursuant to Glendale Municipal Code Sections 15.20.050 and 15.20.060, that, based on information in the record, the Property is not eligible for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources because it does not meet any of the criteria enumerated in Glendale Municipal Code Section 15.20.050.

Vote as Follows:

Ayes:

Noes:

Absent:

Abstain:
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____ __________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. ALTERATIONS AND DATES OF ALTERATIONS (based on building permits, physical analysis, oral information, see attached “Sources of Information” for obtaining City building permit records, attach additional pages in necessary):
____
__________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ IS THE STRUCTURE (check one): ___ __ ON ITS ORIGINAL SITE ________MOVED _________ UNKNOWN LIST NAMES, OCCUPATIONS, AND TENURE OF ALL PREVIOUS OWNERS AND OCCUPANTS, IF KNOWN (see attached “Sources of Information” for obtaining prior ownership information):

Revised 11/2012 8
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18. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION IN THE GLENDALE REGISTER
In order to qualify for inclusion on the Glendale Register, the proposed resource must meet at least one of the following criteria.

Please explain how the proposed resource meets one or more of the following criteria. A proposed resource does not need to meet all criteria in order to qualify for the Glendale Register. However, if the proposed resource meets more than one criterion, please include all information in this application. If a criterion is inapplicable, indicate “Not Applicable”. Attach additional pages, if necessary. Identify the source from where the information was obtained and provide copies of any supporting information and documentation with this application.

CRITERION 1
IS T

HE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE IDENTIFIED WITH IMPORTANT EVENTS IN NATIONAL ,

STATE, OR CITY HISTORY, OR DOES IT EXEMPLIFY SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BROAD

CULTURAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, OR HISTORIC HERITAGE OF THE NATION, STATE, OR CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE:
___ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CRITERION 2

IS THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE ASSOCIATED WITH A PERSON, PERSONS, OR GROUPS WHO SIGNIFICANTLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE HISTORY OF THE NATION, STATE, REGION, OR CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE:
____ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CRITERION 3

DOES THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE EMBODY THE DISTINCTIVE AND EXEMPLARY

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE, ARCHITECTURAL TYPE, PERIOD, OR METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION; OR REPRESENT A NOTABLE WORK OF A MASTER DESIGNER, BUILDER OR ARCHITECT WHOSE GENIUS INFLUENCED HIS OR HER PROFESSION; OR POSSESS HIGH ARTISTIC VALUES? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE:
__ ____________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Revised 11/2012 9
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CRITERION 4

HAS THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE YIELDED, OR HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO YIELD,

INFORMATION IMPORTANT TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRE-HISTORY OR HISTORY OF THE NATION, STATE, REGION, OR CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE:
___ _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CRITERION 5
DOES THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE EXEMPLIFY THE EARLY HERITAGE OF THE CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE:
___ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

19. PLEASE STATE ANY ADDITIONAL FACTS PERTAINING TO THE PROPERTY THAT WAS NOT ADDRESSED ABOVE. ___ _______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Revised 11/2012 10
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20. OWNER CONSENT FORM
I Certify That I Am The Current Property Owner Of Record (Include All Owners):

Print Name
Signature Date
Print Name
Signature Date
Print Name
Signature Date
Revised 11/2012 11
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

1 Appendix A: Glendale Register Addendum

1. Name: Mason House (proposed)

2. Address: 1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale, CA 91208

3. APN: 5614-009-024

4. Legal Description: Tract 8055, Block 5, Lot 1

5. Owners: Jennifer McKenna Living Trust
1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale, CA 91208

6. Present Use: Single-family residential
Original Use: Single-family residential

7. Architectural Style, Including Architectural Details and Character- Features
Built in 1930, the property at 1600 El Rito Avenue is a two story, single-family residence constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The building is situated on a rectangular parcel on the southeast corner of El Rito Avenue and Bonita Drive in the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood of Glendale, California. The building sits on a concrete slab foundation and the lot slopes downward from El Rito Avenue to the south towards the rear yard. The entry to the building is at ground level from the north façade and the rear façade is elevated over a partial raised basement accessed by a series of exterior stairs and patios. The building has an irregularly shaped plan and is clad in stucco. It is capped by a multi-level combined hipped-and-gabled roof, with a conical roof on the turret, and a shed roof over the attached garage. The roofs are covered in barrel clay tiles and have exposed rafters and overhanging eaves.

The building features two exterior balconies, stained-glass windows, an entry turret, an enclosed west courtyard surrounded by loggia on two sides, and a landscaped front set back with mature sycamore and oak trees. The property is bounded by a low-lying stucco wall and the rear yard contains a patio, rectangular pool, and lawn. Notable wrought iron railings, original crystal
and a tiled interior fountain.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 2 The immediate neighborhood is primarily residential, characterized by single-family residences that are similar in style and scale to the subject property. Most of the homes surrounding the subject property were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s.

Spanish Colonial Revival Style
The Spanish Colonial Revival style was a popular architectural style in the Los Angeles region from 1912 to 1942, arising after the prominence of the Mission Style in the late- nineteenth and early- twentieth centuries. The 1915 Panama California Exposition in Spanish Colonial Revival style with the
showcase of several buildings of this type.1
The Spanish Colonial Revival was in
Architectural publications published multitudes of studies in the 1920s that encouraged the use of the style in Southern California. Architects, such as Richard Requa, who studied historic Spanish, Andalusian, Mexican, and Mediterranean buildings, declared the styles especially well-suited for Southern California’s climate.

The style is often characterized by a sprawling, asymmetrical arrangement; prominent arches above doors, windows, and principal entryways; and stucco siding. Low pitched and multi-level clay tile roofs; enclosed outdoors spaces, such as courtyards; the emphasis of three-dimensional design; incorporation of towers/turrets and balconies; decorative stucco and tile details; wrought-iron details; and fountains were also key design features.2
The style became a hallmark of Los Angeles regional architecture, and in the 1920s it became especially popular in suburban developments around the city and surrounding region. 3 Verdugo Woodlands particularly embraced the style and many Spanish 1 City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles City-Wide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering, 1850-1890:

Mediterranean and Indigenous Revival Architecture, 1893-1948, Los Angeles, California, November 2018, 14, https://planning.lacity.gov/odocument/097f6db5-feee-43f5-a448- fd140763de90/MediterraneanandIndigenousRevivalArchitecture_1893-1948.pdf. 2 City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles City-Wide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering, 1850-1890:

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022), 520-534.
3 City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles City-Wide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering, 1850-1890:

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 3 Colonial Revival residences of various levels of architectural expression appeared in the neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s. Several examples of Spanish Colonial Revival style houses are located on El Rito Avenue, including the three houses George Mason owned on tract 8055 (the subject property, 1608 El Rito Avenue and 2410 Bonita Drive).

The subject property is the most fully expressed and intact of these houses. Other nearby examples of Spanish Colonial Revival style residences include 1609 El Rito Avenue, 1611 El Rito Avenue, 1618 El Rito Avenue, and 1634 El Rito Avenue.

Character-
Asymmetrical plan that emphasizes its three-dimensional massing with exterior loggia, enclosed courtyard, and balconies
Stucco exterior
Low-pitched, barrel clay tile roofs
Turret entryway
Arched primary wood entry door with arched stained glass casement window and painted detailing.

West courtyard enclosed by a low-lying curved stucco wall Arched loggia lining the courtyard on the west and north façades.

Mosaic in the west courtyard
Original wood-sash casement windows and openings across all facades Arched picture window on the primary façade
Original stained-glass windows (excluding the salvaged stained-glass windows on the 2nd west façade)
Wood doors and French doors with horizontal lites (note: glazing in living room doors was replaced with compatible beveled glass in the mid-1970s) Balconies on the primary and rear façades with square wood posts and railings.

Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; “Spanish Type Of Homes To Be Erected,” Glendale Evening-News, June 12, 1926, Glendale Real Estate Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library. 697 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

4 Decorative stucco screens and tile vent detailing on the primary and secondary façades, turret and garage

8. Year Built: 1930

9. Original Architect: N/A

10. Original Builder: Claude Raymond Wardell, Wardell Engineering & Construction

11. Dates of Enclosed Photographs: April 2025

12. Square Footage: 3,411 sq. ft.

13. Alterations and Dates of Alterations:

Date Permit # Description of
Work
Owner
8/13/1920 1491 Application to build
a garage (prior
building on subject
parcel)
George D. Mason
3/24/1923 10427 Plumbing permit
(prior building on
subject parcel)
George D. Mason
9/16/1930 02120 Application to build
a ten-room
residence and
garage
George D. Mason
1976 N/A Plumbing permit Aivars Jerumanis
11/9/1992 N/A Electrical permit Aivars Jerumanis
11/1/2016 G-39-16 Right of Way
Excavation by Gas
Company
N/A
6/21/2023 BROOF-006818-
2023
Repair of existing
roof tile
1600 El Rito LLC
9/7/2023 BM-SFD-008877-
2023
Electrical permit 1600 El Rito LLC
9/19/2023 BSFD-007999-2023 Interior remodeling,
rewiring electrical,
plumbing re-piping,
replacing HVAC and
ducting, replacing
kitchen cabinets,
updating
bathrooms,
refinishing floors,
1600 El Rito LLC
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

5 repatching and
painting
11/22/23 BSFD-009125-2023 Restoring the
existing covered
deck roof rafters
(rotten) · Replacing
the existing study
room (second floor)
roof rafters (rotten)
Replacing damaged
structure like to like,
no change to design
and no floor area
addition.
1600 El Rito LLC
1/19/2024 BW-008813-2023 Construction of new
pool and spa
1600 El Rito LLC
1/19/2024 BSFD-009710-2023 Restoring the
unpermitted
covered room to
original covered
balcony, replacing
existing study room
window with new
window to match
existing windows,
closing the existing
window in the
kitchen.
1600 El Rito LLC
Other Alterations
During the ownership of the Jerumanis Family from 1973 to 2023, several alterations were made including: conversion of the front balcony on the second story of the primary façade into an enclosed room (later reversed in 2023), replacement of window and door glazing in the living room with beveled glass, replacement of the windows on the second story of the west façade with stained glass windows salvaged from a neighboring property, replacement of a window at the east wall of the kitchen with a stained-glass window, conversion of the balcony on the west façade into an enclosed sunroom, creation of a crawl space within the turret accessed from the master bedroom, and installation of the wrought iron light 699 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

6 4
above the picture windows in the living room and in the dining room in the 1970s.5 From 2023-2024, 1600 El Rito Avenue LLC rehabilitated the building and restored many of the original features. Changes that occurred during this renovation included: repairing and reinstalling the existing clay tile roof and adding new underlayment, rebuilding the front balcony on the primary façade (converting the unpermitted room back into a balcony as it was originally), restoration/replacement of damaged wood rafters under the rear balcony and the sunroom, replacement of the garage doors, pouring a conc
non-original stained glass window from the east wall of the kitchen due to damage. Additionally, a previously replaced window at the second -kind. All historic windows
and doors were restored. The mosaic in the west courtyard was retained and new pavement was installed around it.

On the interior, the kitchen was remodeled extensively, and the attached bathroom was installed, replacing a closet/small room that previously housed the refrigerator. -and-jill bathroom shared between bedrooms 3 and 4
was reco
bedroom 3 was also converted into a bathroom. The showers and surrounds on the . All
of the historic oak, ch
remodeled to include an inground pool, concrete patio/stairs, and new landscaping.

The building’s utilities were upgraded with new electrical wiring, plumbing re-piping, and replacement of the HVAC system and ducting. The exterior and interior walls were patched and repainted. New concrete block fencing was added to the rear and east sides of the property.6

14. Is the Structure (check one) _X_on its original site ___moved ___Unknown 4 Brigita Jerumanis (former owner) in discussion with Groundwork Preservation,” April 14, 2025. 5 Brigita Jerumanis (former owner) in discussion with Groundwork Preservation,” April 14, 2025. 6 Pool Engineering, “1600 El Rito Ave Rehabilitation Architectural Plans,” by Todd Lacher, June 6, 2023, Courtesy of Jennifer McKenna and Alex Finkel.; “Founders,” ISQ Estate Development, accessed May 16, 2025, https://1sq.info/founders/?lang=en.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

9 18. Criterion for Inclusion in the Glendale Register
a. Criterion 1: N/A
b. Criterion 2: N/A
c. Criterion 3: Wardell Engineering & Construction built the subject property in 1930. The company was founded by Claude R. Wardell in 1922 and focused on single- to construct homes. The company also provided architectural plans to prospective home buyers and Wardell acted as a designer-builder. It is probable that Wardell not only served as the builder for 1600 El Rito Avenue, but also served as the building’s architect, creating the plans for the building in 1930. Claude R. Wardell was a successful designer-builder from 1922 to the early 1950s, designing over 4,000 residences in the Los Angeles region.

Wardell does not appear to be a master architect or builder.

The subject property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type and period as a fully expressed example of a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence in Glendale at the height of the style’s popularity in the early 1930s. The building also possesses high artistic value in its architectural detailing. The Spanish Colonial Revival style was a popular architectural style in the Los Angeles region from 1912 to 1942. The style became a hallmark of Los Angeles regional architecture, and in the 1920s it became especially popular in suburban developments around the city and surrounding region.
7 Verdugo Woodlands particularly
embraced the style and many Spanish Colonial Revival residences of various levels of architectural expression appeared in the neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s. Several examples of Spanish Colonial Revival style houses are located on El Rito Avenue, including the three houses George Mason owned on tract 8055 (the subject property, 1608 El Rito Avenue and 2410 Bonita Drive). The subject property is the most fully expressed and intact of these houses.

The subject property displays numerous character-
a low-pitched and multi-level clay tile roof; a sprawling, asymmetrical plan arrangement that emphasizes its three-dimensional massing; stucco siding; an enclosed courtyard; and 7 City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles City-Wide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering, 1850-1890:

Mediterranean and Indigenous Revival Architecture, 1893-1948, Los Angeles, California, November 2018, 15, https://planning.lacity.gov/odocument/097f6db5-feee-43f5-a448- fd140763de90/MediterraneanandIndigenousRevivalArchitecture 1893-1948.pdf.; “Example of Spanish Architecture,” Glendale Evening-News, January 1, 1925, Glendale Houses 1920-1929 Folder, Glendale Houses Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; “Spanish Type Of Homes To Be Erected,” Glendale Evening-News, June 12, 1926, Glendale Real Estate Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library. 703 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 10 prominent arches above doors, windows, and principal entryways. The subject property also contains many of the more distinctive characteristics of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, including a turret, decorative balconies, decorative stucco and tile details, stained- glass windows, wrought-iron details, and a fountain in the interior of the building. As the property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence in Glendale during the height of the style’s popularity in the early 1930s and possesses high artistic values, the subject property is eligible for listing in the California and Glendale Register under Criterion 3.
d. Criterion 4: N/A
e. Criterion 5: N/A

19. Please list any Additional Facts Pertaining to the Property that Was Not Addressed above
Spanish
Colonial Revival residence was constructed.
1600 El Rito Avenue maintains a high level of integrity of location, design, setting, property under Glendale Register Criterion 3.

The building stands in its original location and retains integrity of location. maintains its original form, plan, spatial arrangement, structure, and major design elements that characterize it as a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence. These design elements include a low-pitched and multi-level clay tile roof; a sprawling, asymmetrical arrangement that emphasizes three-dimensional massing; courtyard and loggia; stucco siding; prominent arches above doors, windows, and principal entryways; turret entryway; two decorative balconies; decorative stucco and tile details; stained glass; wrought-iron details; and interior fountain. The enclosure of one of the original balconies on the west facade into a sunroom in the 1970s slightly diminished the integrity of the design and In 2023, the unpermitted enclosed
room on the front façade was reverted to its original use as an open balcony. The balcony was reconstructed using the same materials (stucco,
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

11 the existing original balcony on the rear façade. The design and materials of the remodeled balcony are consistent with the Spanish Colonial Revival style of the building and these changes meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and improves the integrity of design. The removal and replacement of window and door glazing in several parts of the subject property, such as the beveled glass windows and doors in the living room and the stained- lar alterations that
remain consistent with the Spanish Colonial Revival design and do not diminish the overall integrity of the design of the subject property.

The setting of the building retains its original 1930s context, with surrounding properties remaining residential and largely designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival or other period revival styles. The properties directly adjacent to the subject property (1608 El Rito Avenue and 2410 Bonita Drive), were also owned and developed by George Mason and are notably extant and represent the subdivision and development of the tract by the original owner in the 1920s and 1930s.

The removal of some of the historic window and door glazing and replacement of the original garage doors somewhat diminish the integrity of materials. All of the materials Spanish Colonial
Revival style. The beveled glass installed in the windows and doors on the east and west facades, the paired wood-framed stained-
façade, and the stucco and wood railing used for the front façade balcony are all stylistically appropriate replacement materials that do not diminish the overall integrity of materials.

The subject property retains a high degree of workmanship, as it still conveys the physical evidence of the popularity and importance Spanish Colonial Revival style in Glendale and Southern California in the early twentieth century. Overall, the materials of the property remain largely intact and convey the crafts of the designer-builder who designed the ials such as the decorative
The subject property also retains a high integrity of feeling, as its original design as a Spanish Colonial Revival residential building continues to convey its expression of the aesthetics of the style at its height in the 1930s.

The subject property maintains integrity of association as an example of a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence in Glendale through the retention of its character- of the style and continual use of the property as a single-family residence. 705 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 12 While the subject building has experienced some alterations to the design, materials, and workmanship --
example of a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence in Glendale under Criterion 3 for the of 1930.

This section provides a brief overview of the history of the site from its earliest development to the present day.

The subject property was originally plated in 1909 as lot 72, tract 250 out of a portion of the Teodora and Catalina Verdugo allotment in the Rancho San Rafael. The property was undeveloped land fronted by a seasonal stream and containing multiple sycamore and oaks trees, for which the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood was known. The surrounding area was subdivided in 1917 as Selvas de Verdugo, also known as the Verdugo Woodlands subdivision , although the subject parcel was not included in the original subdivision. In 1920, George and Grace Mason purchased the lot on the corner of El Rito Avenue and Bonita Drive in Glendale and built a garden shed and garage (permitted in 1920) to serve as their temporary residence.8
“fairyland” estate with a lodge to house visitors amongst gardens and the numerous sycamore trees on the tract. At the time of the article, the Masons had constructed a tree planned to create sunken lily pond gardens around a weeping willow tree and build themselves a Mission Style residence. The Masons do not appear to have followed their original plans for the estate and in December 1923, Mason subdivided the lot into tract 8055: including three separate lots, the largest being lot 1 which contained the subject property and was addressed as 1600 El Rito Avenue.9
8 Los Angeles County, “Tract No. 8055,” Los Angeles County Public Works, December 1923, https://dpw.lacounty.gov/smpm/landrecords/tractmaps.aspx.; “Regular Fairyland Made For Verdugo Home,” Glendale Evening-News, April 6, 1921, Glendale Houses 1920-1929 Folder, Glendale Houses Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.
9 “Regular Fairyland Made For Verdugo Home,” Glendale Evening-News, April 6, 1921, Glendale Houses 1920-1929 Folder, Glendale Houses Collection, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; City of Glendale, “Permit 1491,” August 13, 1920, City of Glendale Building & Safety Department.; Los Angeles County, “Tract No. 8055,” Los Angeles County Public Works, December 1923,
https://dpw.lacounty.gov/smpm/landrecords/tractmaps.aspx. 706 of 833

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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 16 Figure 6: Building Footprint of 1600 El Rito Avenue, original building permit, September 16, 1930, City of Glendale Building & Safety Department.

The Masons lived at 1600 El Rito Avenue from 1930 to 1933 when they sold the property to Harry Walton Renick. Mason moved to 2410 Bonita Drive, the neighboring house they owned directly south of the subject property. Renick lived in the subject property from 1933 to 1943 and sold the property to Charles White Henning in 1944. Lawrence A Lawson, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, purchased the subject property from Henning in 1945.

Helen Lawson, Lawrence’s wife, sold the property Robert Feland in 1958 and continued to live in Glendale. In 1970, William D. Little, a real estate businessman, purchased 1600 El Rito Avenue. No permitted or documented alterations occurred to the property from its construction through the early 1970s.12 See the Owner/Occupant Biographies below for further biographical information on the owners described above. 12 Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1930, Los Angeles, CA, 1930, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1932, Los Angeles, CA, 1932, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1933, Los Angeles, CA, 1933, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1943, Los Angeles, CA, 1943, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1944, Los Angeles, CA, 1944, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1945, Los Angeles, CA, 1945, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; 710 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 17 The property was sold to Aivars and Brigita Jerumanis in 1973. The Jerumanises lived at the 13 During their ownership of the property,
they made several alterations (see prior section for description of alterations). After Aivars passed away in 2023, Brigita sold the property to Hakob Avagyan.14 Hakob Avagyan, under 1600 El Rito Avenue LLC, renovated and restored the subject property from 2023 to 2024.

In 2024, 1600 El Rito LLC transferred ownership of the property to Jennifer McKenna, as trustee of the Jennifer McKenna Living Trust.15 Jennifer resides at the home with her husband, Alex Finkel, and their daughter. Following wind and tree fall damage caused by the Eaton Fire in 2025, the family undertook necessary repairs to the historic clay tile roof. bolting. As current stewards of the property, they are committed to its ongoing care, preservation, and responsible maintenance for generations to come.

This section provides a brief narrative description of the history of the surrounding neighborhood, and the builders and craftspeople associated with the property.

Early Settlement of North Glendale
Gabrieliño, who stewarded the land prior to European colonization. The Tongva population numbered approximately 5,000 people pre-contact and lived in approximately 50-100 towns and settlements on the mainland between Topanga Canyon in the Northwest, Mount Wilson to the north, San Bernardino to the east, Aliso Creek to the southeast and the Channel Islands to the west. The subject property is in the northern portion of present-day Glendale in the Crescenta Valley. This area lacked reliable year-round water resources, and Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1958, Los Angeles, CA, 1958, U.S. Directories Collection, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1970, Los Angeles, CA, 1970, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Los Angeles County, “Deed,” July 6, 1973, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Document 319, Book D5935, Page 653.
13 Los Angeles County, “Deed,” July 6, 1973, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Document 319, Book D5935, Page 653.; Los Angeles County, “Deed #0367989,” June 6, 2023, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.
14 Brigita Jerumanis (former owner) in discussion with Groundwork Preservation,” April 14, 2025.; Los Angeles County, “Deed #0367989,” June 6, 2023, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.; Pool Engineering, “1600 El Rito Ave Rehabilitation Architectural Plans,” by Todd Lacher, June 6, 2023, Courtesy of Jennifer McKenna and Alex Finkel.; “Founders,” ISQ Estate Development, accessed May 16, 2025, https://1sq.info/founders/?lang=en.
15 Los Angeles County, “Deed #0657886,” September 19, 2024, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 18 it is unlikely that permanent settlements were in the area. However, due to seasonal streams and the presence of oaks trees, it is likely that the Tongva Indians came to the valley to hunt and forage.16
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, passed through Southern California in 1542. Extensive Catholic missionary expeditions began a period of extensive contact between the California Indians and Europeans in the 1770s. The establishment of Mission San Gabriel de Archangel in 1771 and Mission San Fernando Rey de España in 1797 in the Glendale area transformed both the physical and cultural landscape. The introduction of grazing animals such as cattle and sheep transformed the region’s environment, and the Tongva people around Glendale were drawn into the oppressive system of Catholic conversion and Hispanic acculturation of the Missions. The majority of the Tongva people in this area were drawn into Mission San Gabriel, 17
In 1784, Jose Maria Verdugo, a Spanish soldier stationed at Mission San Gabrielino, acquired grazing livestock and was granted the 36,000-acre Rancho San Rafael land grant, one of the largest ever granted by the Spanish Crown. Rancho San Rafael contained present day Glendale and North Glendale, including the area where the subject property is located. Verdugo retired from the army in 1797 and raised livestock and farmed grain, red peppers, fruit, and grapes. He also made wine on his land after Mexican Independence from Spain in 1821. Tongva labor supported Verdugo’s farming operations.18 Around 1828, Verdugo’s grandson, Teodoro Verdugo, built the Catalina Verdugo Adobe at 2211 Bonita Drive less than a quarter of a mile west of the subject property and one of the oldest properties in Glendale.19 When Verdugo passed away in 1831, he passed the property to his children, Julio and Catalina. The property ownership of the area around the subject in Los Angeles, was granted the 12,000-acre Rancho La Cañada. Coronel’s rancho bordered Rancho San Rafael to the north, and both ranchos appear to encompass parts of the present-day Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood. The subject property was located along the border of the two
16 City of Glendale, North Glendale Historic Context, Glendale, California, November 19, 2011, 5. 17 City of Glendale, North Glendale Historic Context, Glendale, California, November 19, 2011, 6. 18 Katherine Peters Yamada, “Still Standing After All of These Years,” The Glendale Historical Society, accessed May 15, 2025, https://glendalehistorical.org/still-standing-1. 19 City of Glendale, North Glendale Historic Context, Glendale, California, November 19, 2011, 6-7.; “Catalina Verdugo Adobe,” City of Glendale, accessed May 15, 2025, https://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/community-services-parks/parks-facilities-historic- sites/catalina-verdugo-adobe-main#ad-image-0.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 22 Figure 9: Section of the Glendale Annexation Map, Ca. 1986, Los Angeles Assessor’s Office. Location of property indicated by red arrow.

Figure 10: Newspaper advertisement for Verdugo Woodlands, June 22, 1917, Morning Tribune, Newspapers.com.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 23 Builder Biography: Claude Raymond Wardell
Claude Raymond Wardell, the builder of 1600 El Rito Avenue, was born in 1896 in Iowa.

Prior to his military service in 1918 in World War I, Wardell worked for a construction company in Iowa. At some point in his early adulthood, Wardell studied architecture and engineering. By 1922, Wardell moved to the Los Angeles region and married Jessie Caroline Aitken. The couple had one child.28
Wardell worked as an automobile mechanic in Los Angeles until he founded his construction company, Wardell Engineering & Construction, in 1922. Wardell Engineering & Construction Company was a successful construction company active in the Los Angeles region from 1922 to the early 1950s. The company focused on single-family residence homes on lots already owned by its clients. The company also provided architectural plans to prospective home buyers and Wardell acted as a designer-builder. It is probable that Wardell not only served as the builder for 1600 El Rito Avenue, but also served as the building’s architect, creating the plans for the building in 1930. 29 Wardell stated in 1950 that his company had built 4,000 houses since 1922. Wardell expanded his construction company to include larger projects, including the Bill Mooney Square Dance Ranch in Glendora, California in 1950. Wardell lived in Glendale through 1940, and by 1950 had moved to Arcadia, California. After he retired in ca. 1950, Wardell constructed, operated, and served as a dance instructor for The Palms Dance Hall in Glendora, California starting in 1953. Wardell passed away in Filmore, California in 1973.30 28 “Claude Raymond Wardell Birth Certificate,” Byron, Iowa, August 26, 1896, Iowa, U.S., Births (series) 1880-1904, 1921-1944 and Delayed Births (series), 1856-1940, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61441/records/164565.; “Claude Wardell World War I Draft Card,” Buchanan County, Iowa, June 5, 1918, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6482/records/29133048.; “Wardell Builds And Completely Finances Homes,” Daily News, June 19, 1926, Newspapers.com.; “Wardell – Aitken,” The Courier, July 21, 1922, Newspapers.com.; 1940 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 4, 1940, 1940 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com,
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/records/71558201. 29 “Wardell – Aitken,” The Courier, July 21, 1922, Newspapers.com.; “Wardell Builds And Completely Finances Homes,” Daily News, June 19, 1926, Newspapers.com.
30 “$100,000 Ranch Project Slated,” The Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1950, Newspapers.com.; 1950 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 6, 1950, 1950 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/259543785.; “He’s Made Hobby A Full-Time Job,” Daily News-Post, August 5, 1955, Newspapers.com.; “Child, Adult Dance Classes To Start Here,” Santa Ynez Valley News, February 7, 1964, Newspapers.com.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 24 Figure 11: Newspaper clipping advertising a Wardell Engineering & Construction Co. home, July 19, 1926, Daily News, Newspapers.com.

Figure 12: Newspaper clipping showing the concept drawings for the Bill Mooney Square Dance Ranch, July 23, 1950, The Los Angeles Times, Newspapers.com.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 25 The Batchelder Tile Company
-
molded and painted tiles by the Batchelder Tile Company. The Batchelder Tile Company was based in Pasadena, California and was active from 1909-1932. Founder Ernest Allan Batchelder was born in 1875 in New Hampshire and studied art at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston in 1899; the Harvard Summer School of Design under Denman Ross, a designer for Dedham Pottery; and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in Birmingham, England. In 1901, Batchelder moved to Pasadena, California and taught manual arts instruction at Throop Polytechnic Institute, now the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he became Art Director. From 1905 to 1908 he also taught at the Handcraft Guild in Minneapolis during the summers.
31 In 1909, Batchelder bought land and built an art studio in Pasadena where he began teaching and producing hand-molded, painted tiles that grew in popularity. In 1912, he &
-Wilson with new business partner Lucien H.
people by 1925.32
fauna - – castles, country scenes, and Mayan,
s, fountains,
th century.

Architectural advertisements for early 20th century properties in Glendale advertise Batchelder tile features, a nod to their popularity during this period.33 Not only were region, including in Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale, and Altadena, they were also featured at 216 W. 6th Street.34
31 Norman Karlson, American Art Tile, 1876-1941 (New York: Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc., 1998), 157. 32 Norman Karlson, American Art Tile, 1876-1941 (New York: Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc., 1998), 157. 33 “Pasadena Real-Estate Auction,” Pasadena Star-News, September 20, 1924, Newspapers.com.; “Beautiful New Wilshire Home,” The Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1923, Newspapers.com. 34 Norman Karlson, American Art Tile, 1876-1941 (New York: Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc., 1998), 157- 158.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 26 Figure 13: Example Batchelder tile designs, American Art Tile 1876-1941 by Norman Karlson.

Figure 14: Batchelder Tiles at 1600 El Rito Avenue, fireplace in living room. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025) continued pottery in his own studio, Kinneloa Kiln, until 1949. He married pianist Alice 720 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 27 Coleman and founder of the Coleman Chamber Music Association in 1912 and had one son. Batchelder passed away in 1957.35
Owner/Occupant Biographies
George D. Mason was born in 1871 in Vermont, and married Mary Orkins in New Hampshire in 1898. The couple moved to Maine by 1903, and sometime before 1910 the pair divorced.

Mason moved to the Los Angeles region and remarried Grace (nee Franklin) by 1910, and designed and built several mausoleums in Inglewood, Santa Maria, and Monrovia in the 1910s. Mason also operated a root beer store in San Pedro for several years in the 1910s alongside his mausoleum design business. Mason lived in Monrovia, California in 1915 and Glendale throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1937 he helped design the National Register of Historic Places nominated Morris Hill Mausoleum in Idaho. By 1950, he settled in Santa Ana Orange County, and he passed away in 1958.36
35 Norman Karlson, American Art Tile, 1876-1941 (New York: Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc., 1998), 157- 158.
36 Bureau of the Census, 1880 United States Federal Census, Brookfield, Vermont, June 1, 1880, 1880 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com,
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6742/records/22461291.; “George D. Mason,” January 10, 1898, New Hampshire, U.S., Marriage Records Index, 1637-1947, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2554/records/157222.; Bureau of the Census, 1910 United States Federal Census, Los Angeles, California, April 21, 1910, 1910 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/1166657.; “Expert On Mausoleums Will Make Home Here,” Monrovia Daily News, June 7, 1915, Newspapers.com.; “Buy Root Beer Store,” News-Pilot, November 4, 1920, Newspapers.com.; Bureau of the Census, 1930 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 14, 1930, 1930 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/records/89637005.; 1940 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 8, 1940, 1930 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/records/71585917.; 1940 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 8, 1940, 1940 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/records/71585917.; “Concrete Poured For Mausoleum On Morris Hill,” The Idaho Statesman, November 6, 1937, Newspapers.com.; 1950 United States Federal Census, Santa Ana, California, April 12, 1950, 1950 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/259737758.; “George David Mason,” February 4, 1958, California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5180/records/4673713. 721 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 28 Figure 15: Newspaper article on George Mason’s move to Monrovia, California, June 7, 1915, Monrovia Daily News, Newspapers.com.

Harry Walton Renick, a Los Angeles businessman, purchased the subject property from George Mason in 1933. Renick was born in Colorado in 1889 and worked as a brake and railroad supplies salesman. In 1910, he moved to California and conducted business in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in 1911 he married Olga (nee Adams). The pair had one child. While in Los Angeles he became a prominent businessman in the railroad industry.

He specialized in track and signal design, and his principles became standard across California railroad design during his lifetime. He established his own frog and switch company that manufactured steel railroad parts, which later merged with the larger Elliot Frog & Switch Company and American Brake Shoe Company. He later became Vice President of the American Brake Shoe Company and founder and President of the Magnetic Signal company, where he pioneered wigwag signals now standard at railroad crossings.

Renick was also an active member of several social clubs in the Los Angeles region. Renick lived at the subject property from 1933 to 1943 and sold the property to Charles White Henning in 1944. Renick passed away in 1951.37
37 Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1933, Los Angeles, CA, 1933, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; 1910 United States Federal Census, Denver, Colorado, April 21, 1910, 1910 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/134709768.; “Harry W Renick,” Los Angeles, California, August 17, 1911, California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61460/records/900486978.; “Renick Rites To Be Held Tomorrow,” Progress-Bulletin, August 27, 1951, Newspapers.com.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1944, Los Angeles, CA, 1944, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library. 722 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 29 Charles White Henning, a salesman, purchased the subject property from Harry Renick in 1944. Henning was born in 1910 in Haskell, New Jersey and as a child he grew up in Delaware where his father, Clarence I. B. Henning, worked as an internationally known munitions expert. By 1937, he returned to California and married Rosal (nee Bloom) in Berkeley. By 1940 he lived in Glendale and worked for the Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corporation. Henning owned and lived in 1600 El Rito Avenue for only a year before selling it to Lawrence Lawson in 1945. In 1950, Henning lived in Pennsylvania and worked for a synthetic organic chemicals company as a salesman and had one child. Henning passed away in Santa Barbara, California in 1982.
38 Lawrence Augustus Lawson, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, purchased the subject property from Henning in 1945. Lawson was born in 1896 in Menominee, Michigan, and his family migrated to Glendale in his youth. His family is noted to be a “pioneer family” of early Glendale, and his brother served as a city council member in the city. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section, of the Signal Reserve Corps 1918. He moved across the country to various military bases in multiple states from the late 1910s to the early 1940s and was promoted several times. During with the Tenth Army at Okinawa. In October
1945, he became Commanding General of the Okinawa Base Command (OBASCOM) and Military Governor of the Ryukyo Islands. During his long service, he earned the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, World War I Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic- Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and Army of Occupation Medal (Japan). He married his wife Helen (nee De Laine) in 1931 while living at a military base in Virginia and the pair had one daughter. After returning from the Army in World War II, he moved back to Glendale and 38 “Charles White Henning World War II Draft Card,” Glendale, California, October 16, 1940, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, Ancestry.com,
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/records/17680369.; “Henning, World War Munitions Authority, Dead,” Oakland Tribune, January 6, 1939, Newspapers.com.; “Miss Rosal Bloom To Wed Friday,” Oakland Tribune, November 10, 1937, Newspapers.com.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1945, Los Angeles, CA, 1945, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; 1950 United States Federal Census, Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1950, 1950 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/235872525.; “Charles Henning,” March 1982, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Ancestry.com,
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3693/records/27011422. 723 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 30 purchased the subject property. He also owned a citrus orchard near Porterville. In October 1951, Lawson committed suicide in the garage of 1600 El Rito Avenue.39 After her husband’s death, Helen Lawson continued to live in 1600 El Rito Avenue from 1952 to 1958. Helen was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1899. Helen moved to Glendale in her youth, where she met Lawrence Lawson. The pair married in Virginia in 1931 during his military service and she returned to Glendale in the 1940s with her husband and worked as a housewife. Lawson sold the property Robert Feland in 1958 and continued to live in Glendale. She passed away in Glendale in 1997 at 97 years old. 40 Robert Farris Feland purchased the subject property from Helen Lawson in 1958. Feland was born in 1917 in Phoenix, Arizona, and lived there until 1941. In 1941, he married Nadine Riggs, and later that year the pair moved to Los Angeles and had one son. In the 1950 Census, Feland was listed as an electrical wholesale salesman. In 1966, he established the International X-Ray Company with his brother Thomas, who also lived at the subject property. No further information about Feland was uncovered during research.

Feland stopped living at the subject property in 1969.41 In 1970, William D., Little, a real estate businessman, purchased 1600 El Rito Avenue. Little was a foreclosure expert and bought hundreds of foreclosed houses in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s and 1980s, so it is possible that he bought 1600 El Rito Avenue on 39 “Brigadier General Lawrence Augustus Lawson,” Air Force, accessed May 19, 2025, https://www.af.mil/About- Us/Biographies/Display/Article/2966687/lawrence-augustus-lawson/.; “Owner Of Local Citrus Property Dies In Glendale,” Porterville Recorder, October 30, 1951, Newspapers.com.; “Helen Delaine,” District of Colombia, USA, September 7, 1931, District of Columbia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61404/records/900213540.; “Retired General Commits Suicide,” Valley Times, October 29, 1951, Newspapers.com.
40 Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1952, Los Angeles, CA, 1952, U.S. Directories Collection, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1958, Los Angeles, CA, 1958, U.S. Directories Collection, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com.; “Lawson, Helen D.,” The Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1997, Newspapers.com.; 1950 United States Federal Census, Glendale, California, April 13, 1950, 1950 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/257481185. 41 Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1958, Los Angeles, CA, 1958, U.S. Directories Collection, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com.; “Robert Farris Feland Birth Certificate,” Phoenix, Arizona, April 1, 1917, Arizona, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1880-1935, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8703/records/33126.; “Church Rites Set Today,” The Arizona Republic, May 11, 1941, Newspapers.com.; 1950 United States Federal Census, Signal Hill, Los Angeles, California, April 5, 1950, 1950 United States Federal Census Collection, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/264675499.; “Certificate of Business Fictitious Name,” The Daily Breeze, May 18, 1966, Newspapers.com. Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1969, Los Angeles, CA, 1969, U.S. Directories Collection, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com. 724 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 31 and pricing people out of neighborhoods. The subject property was vacant during Little’s ownership. Little sold the subject property to Aivars and Brigita Jerumanis in 1973.42 1973 to 2023. Aivars and Brigita were born in Latvia in 1938 and 1939 respectively. Both immigrated to the United States with their families, Aivars in 1951 and Brigita in 1949, after being displaced due to Soviet occupation during World War II and settled in New York. The pair married in 1965 in Brooklyn, New York and were involved in the activism promoting the independence of Baltic States from the Soviet Union. By 1973, the couple moved to Glendale, California and purchased 1600 El Rito Avenue. They remained an active part of the Latvian and larger Baltic community, and Aivars was a co-founder of the Baltic American Freedom League in 1981. While living at 1600 El Rito Avenue, Aivars served as both Vice President of Maxicare Health Plans and as the honorary Latvian Consul from 1987 to 1996. While Aivars position was honorary in the 1980s, his role became more viet Union and renewed push for
-
ran for President of the newly independent Latvia.43
42 Los Angeles County, “Deed,” July 6, 1973, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Document 319, Book D5935, Page 653.; Frederick M. Muir, “He Reigns Over the ’40 Thieves’ Of L.A.’s Foreclosed Real Estate,” The Los Angeles Times, September 28, 1987, Los Angeles Times (1923-1995) Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1970, Los Angeles, CA, 1970, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1971, Los Angeles, CA, 1971, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.; Polk’s Glendale City Directory 1972, Los Angeles, CA, 1972, Glendale History Room, Glendale Public Library.
43 Los Angeles County, “Deed,” July 6, 1973, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, Document 319, Book D5935, Page 653.; Los Angeles County, “Deed #0367989,” June 6, 2023, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.; “Brigita Zurnis,” August 31, 1949, Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971, Ancestry.com,
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61704/records/1488364.; “Aivars Jerumanis,” March 30, 1951, Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61704/records/1678266.; “Aivars Jerumanis,” Brooklynn, New York City, New York, 1965, New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61406/records/3115642.; Baltic American Freedom League – BAFL, “In Memorium post for Aivars Jerumanis,” Facebook, May 9, 2023, https://www.facebook.com/BAFLorg/posts/today-we-said-goodbye-to-one-of-bafls-greats-aivars-jerumanis- aivars-was-one-of-/519537847023136/.; Michael Szymanski, “Symbols of Freedom: The Baltic States’ Drive for Independence Has Places the Regions’ Honorary Consuls Here in L.A. Firmly in the Diplomatic Spotlight,” The Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1990, Newspapers.com.; United States Department of State, “Foreign Consular Offices in the United States,” Washington D.C., Revised February 1988, 53, Hathi Trust, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$c44093&seq=1&q1=%221600+el+rito%22.; United States Department of State, “Foreign Consular Offices in the United States,” Washington D.C., Revised March 1996, 43, 725 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices

32 the United States. The Jerumanises made several alterations to the subject property while they lived there as previously described. After Aivars passed away in 2023 Brigita sold the property to Hakob Avagyan and moved to a property across Bonita Drive.44

Hathi Trust, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035352189&seq=61&q1=%221600+el+rito%22.; “Latvian parliament picks president,” The Republican, July 8, 1993, Newspapers.com. 44 United States Department of State, “Foreign Consular Offices in the United States,” Washington D.C., Revised February 1988, 53, Hathi Trust,
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$c44093&seq=1&q1=%221600+el+rito%22.; United States Department of State, “Foreign Consular Offices in the United States,” Washington D.C., Revised March 1996, 43, Hathi Trust, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035352189&seq=61&q1=%221600+el+rito%22.; Brigita Jerumanis (former owner) in discussion with Groundwork Preservation,” April 14, 2025.; Los Angeles County, “Deed #0367989,” June 6, 2023, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office. 726 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 33 727 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 34 1.100-
acre
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 35 729 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 36 730 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 38 :
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 39 Subject property from corner of El Rito Avenue and Bonita Drive, facing southeast. (Jo David, 2025).

Subject property from Bonita Drive facing east. ( Jo David, 2025). 732 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 40 North (primary) façade and entry turret, facing south. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025). 733 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 41 North (primary) façade entry turret, facing south. (Jo David, 2025).

Photograph of the Jerumanis family and the primary facade of 1600 El Rito Avenue, ca. late 1970s, Courtesy of Brigita Jerumanis.
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 42 North (primary) façade and entry door, facing south. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025). 735 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 43 Entry door, stained glass window from interior, facing north. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).

Entryway, stained glass window from interior, facing southeast. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 44 Stained glass windows, Sitting Room from interior, facing west. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).

North façade, facing south. (Jo David, 2025).
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 45 West façade, courtyard, loggia and balcony, facing southeast. (Jo David, 2025).

West courtyard loggia and
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1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 46 West courtyard loggia looking east. (Alex Finkel, 2025).

West courtyard loggia, ca. 1973, Courtesy of Brigita Jerumanis. 739 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 47 West courtyard loggia, facing northwest. (Jo David, 2025).

West courtyard loggia, facing southwest. (Jo David, 2025). 740 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 48 West courtyard mosaic detail. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).

View from the Front Balcony, facing northwest. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025). 741 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 49 West façade and sunroom at 2nd facing east. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).

South façade and rear balcony, facing north. (Jo David, 2025). 742 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 50 entry doors, facing northwest. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025).

South (left), east (right) façades and rear yard, facing northwest. (Jo David, 2025). 743 of 833

1600 El Rito Avenue, Glendale Register of Historic Resources Appendices 51 View from the rear balcony, facing southeast. (Alex Finkel, 2025).

East façade, facing west. (Groundwork Preservation, 2025). 744 of 833

Mason House
1600 El Rito Avenue
August 2025
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View of north and west façades, looking southeast from the corner of El Rito Avenue and Bonita Drive. 746 of 833

View of north (primary) façade, looking south
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View of west façade, looking east
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North (primary) façade entry turret, looking south.
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Photograph of the Jerumanis family and the primary facade of 1600 El Rito Avenue, ca. late 1970s, Courtesy of Brigita Jerumanis.
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North (primary) façade and entry door, looking south.
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Entry door, stained glass window from interior, looking north. 752 of 833

Entryway, stained glass window from interior, looking southeast. 753 of 833

Stained glass windows, Sitting Room from interior, looking west. 754 of 833

North façade, looking south.
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West façade, courtyard, loggia and balcony, view southeast. 756 of 833

West courtyard loggia and fireplace, view east.
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West courtyard loggia, looking east.
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West courtyard loggia, ca. 1973, Courtesy of Brigita Jerumanis. 759 of 833

West courtyard loggia, looking northwest.
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West courtyard loggia, facing southwest.
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West courtyard mosaic detail.
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Balcony at second floor, looking northwest
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West façade and sunroom at 2nd floor, looking east.
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South façade and rear balcony, looking north.
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South façade office and garage entry doors, looking northwest. 766 of 833

South (left), east (right) façades and rear yard, looking northwest. 767 of 833

View from the rear balcony, looking southeast.
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East façade, looking west.
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Mills Act Contract Application (revised 7/2019) 2

5. Is the property listed on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources? Yes ___________ No ___ ________ ______

6. Work Plan. List any proposed or anticipated work that will be done to the property over the next ten years.

For example: 2011 - new roof; 2011 - upgrade electrical. (Attach a separate page, if necessary) All Property Owners MUST Sign This Application:

1. _ _______________________________ 2. ______________________________________ Please Print
___________________________________________________
P ure/s
___________________________________________________
Property Owne Please Print
_________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Date Date

3. ___________________________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________________ Please Print Please Print
___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Pr
___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Date Date

FOR STAFF USE ONLY
Date received in Permit Services Center ___________________ Received by ____________ Date Stamp Fee paid _______________ Receipt No. _________________ 771 of 833

City of Glendale
Disclosure - Campaign Finance Ordinance
Applicants Seeking Entitlement
Submit to Permit Services Center, 633 E. Broadway, Rm. 101.

For more information, call 818-548-3200.
(To be Completed Prior to Preparation of Staff Reports for Consideration of Entitlement Matter by Council, Agency, or Authority, or at Time of Appeal to the City Council if the Applicant is also the Appellant) The Applicant and the Owner/Lessor hereby discloses as follows. (If printing, please print legibly. Use additional sheets as necessary.) I. Name of Applicant and Name of Owner/Lessor on whose behalf application is filed:

Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
772 of 833

II. Officers or owners/investors of Applicant Entity.

Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
III. Contractor of Applicant(s) Seeking Entitlement*
Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
IV. Subcontractor of Applicant(s) Seeking Entitlement** Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
773 of 833

V. Disclosure. The Applicant Seeking Entitlement has made campaign or officeholder contributions in the preceding 12 months to City of Glendale elected officials as follows:

Elected Official Name of Individual or Entity Date of Contribution 774 of 833

10b

CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA

REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL

AGENDA ITEM
Report: 900 Eilinita Avenue: Consideration of Glendale Register Nomination and Request for a Mills Act Historic Property Contract.

1. Resolution to designate the residential property at 900 Eilinita Avenue as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act Historical Property Contract with the property owner.

2. Motion to deny the request of the property owner to designate the residential property at 900 Eilinita as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources.

COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Public Hearing
Approved for October 28, 2025 calendar

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The owners of 900 Eilinita Avenue request that City Council list the property in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and authorize a Mills Act historic property contract. The one-story, single-family residence was built in 1913 and is one of the oldest houses remaining in North Glendale.

On July 17, 2025, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) reviewed the nomination and voted unanimously (3-0) to recommend to the City Council that the property at 900 Eilinita Avenue be listed in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources. In accordance with the City’s naming protocol, HPC recommends the house be identified by its historic name, “Onondarka.” The property was given this name by its first owner and builder, Homer Baldridge and has been referred to as such by the community since then. HPC also recommended that the City Manager be authorized to enter into a Mills Act historic property contract with the property owner, including the work conditions approved by the commission, under Section 15.20.070A of the Glendale Municipal Code. 775 of 833

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RECOMMENDATION
That City Council list the property in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources under designation Criterion 1 and authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act historic property contract, with the conditions approved by HPC, between the City and the property owner under Section 15.20.070A of the Glendale Municipal Code.

BACKGROUND
Historical Background
900 Eilinita Avenue, historically named “Onondarka,” is a one-story single-family house with a detached garage and maid’s quarters built in 1913 and located in Engelhard Canyon in North Glendale. To get to the house, one passes through the 1950s subdivision of Oakmont Woods before arriving at the home’s long, winding driveway. In some ways, this short journey synopsizes the 20th century history of the Crescenta Valley. Onondarka is one of the oldest remaining houses in North Glendale, bearing witness to the area’s dramatic growth while remaining a rustic retreat surrounded by nature.

Onondarka’s primary significance lies in its association and continued reflection of the earliest days of the Crescenta Valley’s Anglo settlement. It appears to be the last large property in the Glendale portion of the Crescenta Valley that still captures the spirit and feel of the area’s earliest years of Anglo settlement, with acres of hillside chapparal and native oaks surrounding the house. The older portions of the house maintain a simple rusticity despite the more modern addition. While never particularly architecturally distinctive in terms of any specific style, the high stucco walls and tall roof parapets give it a feeling unlike any other house still standing in Glendale, conveying a feel of the West appropriate for a site that was one of the last vestiges of the true western lifestyle, with it stables, riding rings, and rodeos, in North Glendale. Further information that explains the sociocultural impact of Onondarka can be found in the nomination, attached to this report (Exhibit1). It continues to reflect important contributions made by this area to the city’s heritage and to its social and cultural life. Based on information provided in the nomination and referred to in this staff report, the staff and the Historic Preservation Commission believe the property is eligible for designation under Criterion 1 as detailed in the “Findings of Eligibility” section below.

The property’s development history goes back to the late 19th century. In 1875, George Engelhardt purchased 148 acres of former Verdugo family land and converted 100 acres of it into orchards. The canyon in which Onondarka sits is named after him. In 1900, he sold the property to members of the Sepulveda family, who quickly sold the land to Angelino Galentino, who planted vineyards. In 1912, Homer Baldridge, a Pasadena businessman specializing in decorative concrete outdoor vases, benches, and planters, purchased the land and moved his horses there. The following year, he constructed the residence and named it “Onondarka” – a Seneca term meaning “on a hill.”
In its early years, Onondarka was a social hub for the Crescenta Valley, with Baldridge hosting various activities like parties and birdwatching events. During prohibition, he 776 of 833

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hosted dances on Onondarka’s roof, which originally had an 8-foot tall fireplace and a loggia. Primarily associated with the romanticized idea of the West and the Californian concept of open land and “Western Living,” Onondarka Ranch became a hub for equestrian activity, with descendents of the Verdugo family keeping horses at the site.

During World War II, the property became the base of operations for the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s “Montrose Mounted Posse” that patrolled the unincorporated Crescenta Valley at the time. Onondarka continued to be a social, cultural, and equestrian hub in the postwar days, hosting a rodeo for the community during the annual “Western Days” celebrations.

Various ranch hands and other hired employees lived in various buildings on the property that have since been demolished. Among these was T.O. Potts, who in 1915 opened the first store in Montrose, located at the corner of Honolulu and Verdugo Boulevards, and the noted tenor Lawrence Tibbett, who was discovered in 1921 and became an important singer with the Metropolitan Opera in New York for many years, as well as appearing in several Hollywood films. While the residents at Onondarka were active in Glendale civic and social life, none were individually significant in the history or development of the City of Glendale. Therefore, HPC did not find the property to be eligible under designation Criterion 2.

The Commission recommends that, in accordance with the City’s naming protocol, the house be identified by its historic name, “Onondarka”. The property was given this name by Baldridge and has been referred to as such by the community since then. The naming protocol would honor the history of the property and make official the common name of the property since its construction.

Architectural Description
Onondarka is located in North Glendale, nestled in Engelhard Canyon, at the dead end of Eilinita Avenue. The neighborhood below the residence consists of 1-story Ranch- style homes throughout the 1950s Oakmont Woods subdivision. A low gateway of smooth stucco walls with piers and carriage-style lamps flanks either side of the single- lane vehicular entry where the property line borders the public right-of-way. The winding driveway is surrounded by mature trees and open space. Mature oak trees surround the curvilinear road as guests drive uphill to the three-car garage building/living quarters.

The property also contains a natural watercourse that is presently dry and a non-historic swimming pool and wood trellis that surrounded by a wrought iron fence and stucco posts. A wide concrete and brick driveway leads to the historic loggia, which now consist primarily of its tall stone pillars. The original low stone clad wall with concrete caps continues along the path to the residence.

The original garage and attached maid’s quarters, which have been somewhat altered, is located west of the primary residence, and encountered before the house comes into view. It is clad in stucco and has a flat roof that is surmounted by a blank stucco parapet. The south façade features two single garage bays and a third single bay in a projecting box-form mass on the southwest corner of the façade. The northeast 777 of 833

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elevation of the garage has two original divided light wood windows with wood vents above.

The house is clad in stucco, has an irregular plan and an asymmetrical main façade with multiple bays projecting off the primary volume. While a large portion of the house reflects aspects of its 1913 appearance, a large addition at the eastern end was added in 1966 that features aspects of post-and-beam Modernism. This gives the house something of a split personality and precludes consideration under Glendale Register Criterion 3 for the quality of its architectural design. The west elevation has a projecting block-form massing that including a prominent, frontal bay, with a flat roof of its own. A non-original wooden lattice covers an original bay window located at the west elevation.

Double hung and casement windows with different divided light patterns and a single stained glass window line the south elevation leading to the primary entrance, which faces west off the south elevation, accessed by a walkway clad in terra cotta pavers and covered by a wood trellis. The original front door is a stained wood slab door with a speakeasy window with six divided lights.

At the modern addition to the east, large expanses of picture windows, jalousie windows, and divided light French doors lead to a wooden deck and provide scenic views across the valley. The eastern portion of the house’s south elevation has flat, broad eaves, with exposed wood beams with notched ends. The north portion of the east elevation features a projecting, stucco-clad box-form massing.

The north elevation projects off an inaccessible, steep hillside and is away from pedestrian views. The 1960s midcentury architectural features wrap around to the north elevation’s eastern portions, including flat, wide, overhanging eaves. A secondary entrance is accessed by a walkway of terracotta pavers off the north façade. The door has similar wood low-relief insets as the primary residence, but with larger four-part glass panels.

Notable character-defining features of 900 Eilinita Avenue include:
One-story massing
Complex, irregular plan with multiple projecting bays off the primary massing Asymmetrical main façade
Flat roof with parapets
Stucco clad walls
Arroyo stone walls, base, and piers on the residence and around the property Stone columns that once carried an arbor leading to the main entry Wood slab primary door and secondary entry door
Wood hung and casement windows
Alterations and Integrity
The residence at 900 Eilinita has undergone several substantial alterations since its construction in 1913. The pool was added to the property in 1964, though it is set away 778 of 833

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from the house and does not distract from it visually. According to permits pulled in 1966, a bedroom, bathroom, and family room were added at the north and east portions of the residence. In 1966, the garage was re-roofed. In addition to permitted work, on- site conditions show that some of the windows were replaced at some time. The rooftop chimney and loggia, which were evident in historic photographs, were removed. A bay window on the west elevation was covered at some point with a latticed enclosure to expand the interior closet. However, the current property owners propose to restore this elevation to the original condition by removing the lattice. The doors at secondary entrances were replaced with 6-panel wood doors. Also, the balustrades at the wood deck off the 1966 addition at the east elevation were replaced more recently. Some parts of the primary residence, as well as the garage, appear to have been restuccoed.

In addition to the alterations at the primary residence, the garage bays were resized to fit new garage doors. The lamps at the original piers leading to the primary residence have been replaced. Also, there is evidence that some of the original exterior elements, including a deck, concrete and boulder elements, have been eroded.

Despite being an interesting building that displays aspects of its early construction date and rural heritage, Onondarka has undergone several alterations, including a major addition and does not reflect a cohesive sense of architectural style or period of construction. It was built by its first owner, Homer Baldridge, who is not a notable designer whose work influenced his profession. Therefore, the property is not eligible for listing under Criterion 3. To qualify for listing in the Glendale Register, a property needs to meet only one criterion. HPC and staff strongly believe that this rare example of an early house in the Crescenta Valley that still reflects the area’s early years of settlement and is the last remnant of a Homer Baldridge’s fascinating role in the area’s history clearly makes it eligible under Criterion 1 and that, despite its alterations, many parts of the house still reflect the period when he built and lived in the house.

The applicants propose a Mills Act work program that was supported by HPC that involves exterior work at the historic western portion of the house to be completed in 2027 including:
Repair/replace termite damaged wood
Restore wood windows
Restore roof eaves and projecting rafters
Reconstruct roof loggia and fireplace
Other work will involve restoration of windows and a balcony at the 1960s wing.

Proposed future work includes exterior restoration at the garage structure and landscaped areas. All of this will help bring the property closer to its original appearance and was found by HPC to reinforce approval of a Mills Act contract. 779 of 833

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ANALYSIS
After reviewing the nomination submitted by the owner and its supporting documentation, as well as visiting the site, HPC and staff conclude that the property appears to meet Criterion 1 of the eligibility criteria for listing in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources.

Architectural Significance [Criterion 1]
To meet Criterion 1, a property must be “identified with important events in national, state, or city history, or exemplify significant contributions to the broad cultural, political, economic, social, or historic heritage of the nation, state, or city.”
900 Eilinita Avenue, historically known as “Onondarka,” is significant for its association with the social, historic, and cultural heritage of North Glendale and the Crescenta Valley. Located in Engelhardt Canyon of the Verdugo Mountains, Onondarka was designed with outdoor activities in mind and integrated with nature, expressing the historic legacy of outdoor California living. Historically a ranch property with orchards and vineyards, Onondarka also housed the Verdugo heirs’ horses, hosted rodeos, and featured stables. Livery owner Homer Baldridge built the residence as his own home in 1913 using boulders from a nearby wash hauled by mule train, which is typical in the construction of early Southern California residential properties that incorporated arroyo stone in their construction. During prohibition, Baldridge hosted dance parties on Onondarka’s rooftop. During World War II, Onondarka Ranch became the base of operations for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s “Montrose Mounted Posse” that patrolled the area’s hills. In the immediate postwar years, Onondarka Ranch hosted a rodeo to conclude Crescenta Valley’s annual week-long “Western Days” celebrations. The property reflects Glendale early history and association with equestrian and Western culture. It predates the annexation of the parts of the Crescenta Valley into the City of Glendale and is the last remaining portion of the original Onondarka property. The property remained an important social and cultural hub for the community for many years and remains one of the oldest and most storied properties in North Glendale.

STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
There are no stakeholders other than the property owner.

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Restoration/Rehabilitation” exemption pursuant to Sections 15308 and 15331 of the State CEQA Guidelines because it involves the designation and restoration of a historic resource.

ALTERNATIVES
Alternative 1: Reject designation/listing of 900 Eilinita Avenue on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, finding that the property does not meet Criterion 1 or any other criteria.

Alternative 2: Any other alternative chosen by City Council.

ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Prepared by:

Ani Mnatsakanyan, Planner
Reviewed by:

Bradley Calvert, Director of Community Development
Approved by:

Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager

EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Glendale Register Nomination
Exhibit 2: Photographs
Exhibit 3: Mills Act Application
Exhibit 4: Campaign Disclosure
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1 RESOLUTION NO. _____________

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA, TO AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER

TO ENTER INTO A MILLS ACT HISTORICAL PROPERTY

CONTRACT THE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY LOCATED AT
900 EILINITA AVENUE
WHEREAS, the owner of record of the residential property located at 900 Eilinita Avenue (the “Property”) has consented to, and requests that the Property be designated as a historic resource on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the Historic Preservation Commission, at a regularly scheduled meeting on July 17, 2025, unanimously recommended designation of the Property for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources by a vote of 3-0; and WHEREAS, the City Council has conducted a duly noticed public hearing pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Glendale, pursuant to Sections

15.20.050 and 15.20.060, finds based on information in the record that the Property is eligible for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources because it qualifies under Criterion 1 (identified with important events in national, state, or city history, or exemplify significant contributions to the broad cultural, political, economic, social, or historic heritage of the nation, state, or city) in that it is significant for its association with the social, historic, and cultural heritage of North Glendale and the Crescenta Valley because it reflects Glendale early history and association with equestrian and Western culture; it predates the annexation of the parts of the Crescenta Valley into the City of Glendale; it is the last remaining portion of the original Onondarka property; and it remained an important social and cultural hub for the community for many years and remains one of the oldest and most storied properties in North Glendale, as further described in the October 28, 2025 Staff Report regarding the Property; and
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Glendale further finds that because the Property qualifies for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, among other factors, that entering into a Mills Act contract with the Property owner is appropriate based on all of the information in the record.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GLENDALE AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. The recitals above are incorporated herein by this reference.

Section 2. That the property located at 900 Eilinita Avenue is to be designated as a historic resource in the Glendale Register of Historic Resources. 782 of 833

2 Section 3. That the City Manager is authorized to enter into a Mills Act historical property contract with the Property owner subject to the following conditions:

1. Repair/replace termite damaged wood at the historic western portion of the house to be completed in 2027.

2. Restore wood windows at the historic western portion of the house to be completed in 2027.

3. Restore roof eaves and projecting rafters at the historic western portion of the house to be completed in 2027.

4. Reconstruct roof loggia and fireplace at the historic western portion of the house to be completed in 2027

5. Restore windows and a balcony at the 1960s wing.

6. Exterior restoration at the garage structure and landscaped areas.

Adopted this _______ day of __________________________, 2025. ______________________________
Mayor
ATTEST:
___________________________
City Clerk
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4 STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ) ss.

Ayes:

Noes:

Absent:

Abstain:
_________________________
City Clerk
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MOTION
Moved by Council Member ____________________________, seconded by Council Member ____________________________, that upon review and consideration of all documents, materials and exhibits relative to the request of the owner of record of the residential property located at 900 Eilinita Avenue (the “Property”) to list the Property on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources, and after having conducted a public hearing on said request and receiving testimony, the City Council of the City of Glendale, California, based upon all of the evidence in the record, hereby denies the request of the owner of record of the Property to list the Property on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources pursuant to the provisions of Section 15.20.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code and denies the request of the owner of record of the Property to authorize the City Manager to enter into a Mills Act historical property contract with the Property owner. This denial is based on the Council’s determination, pursuant to Glendale Municipal Code Sections 15.20.050 and 15.20.060, that, based on information in the record, the Property is not eligible for listing on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources because it does not meet any of the criteria enumerated in Glendale Municipal Code Section 15.20.050.

Vote as Follows:

Ayes:

Noes:

Absent:

Abstain:
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IDENTIFICATION

1. HISTORIC NAME OF PROPOSED RESOURCE (if any) Onondarka

2. STREET ADDRESS (include all addresses associated with the property) 900 Eilinita Avenue Glendale, CA ZIP CODE 91208 (Formerly 3699 La Crescenta Avenue)

3. ASSESSOR’S PARCEL NO(s)
5617-023-033; 5617-023-034

4. COMPLETE LEGAL DESCRIPTION (attach legal description): TRACT Please see attachment, p.1.

BLOCK______________________________LOT(s)____________________________________________

5. OWNER(s) David Schneller and Jacob Stavis
ADDRESS (if different from above) N/A_______________________CITY_______________STATE________ZIPCODE_____

PHONE ( EMAIL

6. PRESENT USE residential
ORIGINAL USE residential

PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
Describe as much as possible about the history of the structure. It is required that copies of any articles, information, or other supplementary d
ocumentation to support this application be attached.

7. ARCHITECTURAL STYLE, INCUDING ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS AND CHARACTER DEFINING FEATURES.

Attach ad
ditional
pages if necessary. (For residential use, please see the Glendale Design Guidelines for Adopted Historic Districts, “Sources of Information”)
Please see attachment, p. 1.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. YEAR BUILT: 1913 SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Local historians Lawler and Yamada; assessor records.

9. ORIGINAL ARCHITECT (if known) unknown

10. ORIGINAL BUILDER (if known) Baldridge, Homer Adolphus

11. DATES OF ENCLOSED PHOTOGRAPHS (see attached instructions for submitting photographs) February and March, 2025.

12. SQUARE FOOTAGE (if known) 3,360 (Onondarka); 1,395 (Garage and Maid s 4uarters)
Revised 11/2012 7
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please see attachment, p. 5.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. IS THE STRUCTURE (check one): ; ON ITS ORIGINAL SITE ________MOVED _______ __ UNKNOWN

15. LIST NAMES, OCCUPATIONS, AND TENURE OF ALL PREVIOUS OWNERS AND OCCUPANTS, IF KNOWN (see attached “Sources of Information” for obtaining prior ownership information): Homer Baldridge livery stable owner
and co-Iounder oI Art Concrete :orks; Chester Chet .no[ race car driver, business owner (Cyclone
Headers) and bookstore owner (Autobooks-Aerobooks)
Revised 11/2012 8
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18. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION IN THE GLENDALE REGISTER
In order to qualify for inclusion on the Glendale Regi ste r, the proposed resource must meet at least one of the fo llowing criteria.

Please explain how the proposed resource meets one or more of the following criteria. A proposed resourc e does not need to meet all criteria in order to qua lify for the Glendale R egister. However, if the proposed resource meets more than one criterion, please include al
l information in this application. If a criterion is inapplicable, indic ate “Not Applicable”. Att ach additional pages, if necessary. Identify the source from where the information was obtained and provide copies of any supporting information and documentation with this application.

CRITERION 1
IS

THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURC E IDENTIFIED WITH IMPORTANT EVENTS IN NATIONAL,

STATE, OR CITY HISTORY, OR DOES IT EXEMPLIFY SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BROAD

CULTURAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, OR HISTORIC HERITAGE OF THE NATION, STATE, OR CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE: Please see attachment, p. 6. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CRITERION
2 IS THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE ASSOCIATED WITH A PERSON, PERSONS, OR GROUPS WHO

SIGNIFICANTLY CON
TRIBUTED TO THE HISTORY OF THE NATION, STATE, REGION, OR CITY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE: N/A
________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CRITERION 3

DOES THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE EMBODY THE DISTINCTI VE AND EXEMPLARY

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE, ARCHITECTURAL TYPE, PERIOD, OR METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION; OR REPRESENT A NOTABLE WORK OF A MASTER DE SIGNER, BUILDER OR ARCHITECT WHOSE GENIUS INFLUENCED HIS OR HER PROFESSION; OR POSSESS HIGH ARTISTIC VALUES? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE: N/A
________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Revised 11/2012 9
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CRITERION 4

HAS THE PROPOSED HISTORIC RESOURCE YIELDED, OR HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO YIELD,

INFORMATION IMPORTA

NT TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRE-HISTORY OR HISTORY OF THE NATION, STATE, REGION, OR CI TY? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE : N/A ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

19. PLEASE STATE ANY ADDITIONAL FACTS PERTAINING TO THE PROPERTY THAT WAS NOT ADDRESSED ABOVE. N/A
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Revised 11/2012 10
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20. OWNER CONSENT FORM
I Certify That I Am The Current Property Owner Of Record (Include All Owners):

Print Name
Signature Date
Print Name
Signature Date
Print Name
Signature Date
Revised 11/2012 11
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1 ONONDARKA
900 Eilinita Avenue, Glendale, CA, 91208

Glendale Register of Historic Resources Application: Written Portions and Attachments

Identiﬁcation: 4: LEGAL DESCRIPTION
APN/ PARCEL ID(S) 5617-023-033 AND 5617-023-034. PARCELS A AND B OF PARCEL MAP GLN NO. 910, IN THE CITY OF GLENDALE , COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AS PER MAP FILED IN BOOK 12, PAGE 4 OF PARCEL MAPS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF SAID COUNTY .

Property Description: 7:
900 Eilinita Avenue, historically named “Onondarka, ” is a single-story, irregular plan house with ﬂat roofs and mottled stucco cladding. The house is rustic in its character: a low- slung, Western vernacular, with Mission overtones and Craftsman design elements. The house reads as two parts: a rectangular plan eastern portion, projecting oa its hillside, then upon a raised landing, the house’s s western portion: a longer, canted steeped rectangle with box-form massings both projecting and stepped. Many of the house’s roofs, particularly at its western portion, are ﬂat and eaveless with raised, ﬂat parapets atop the roof’s center. Western portion roofs are underscored with a blank frieze of the same stucco cladding as the rest of the house.

Onondarka does not have an obvious front elevation. Its west and south elevations both read as frontal, while its east and north elevations both read as rear. As one approaches Onondarka from the driveway west of it, its narrow, west elevation has stepped and projecting block-form massing. This includes a prominent, frontal bay, with a ﬂat roof of its own. At present this bay contains three tall doors of recent-era wood lattice, behind which is an original window bay. The house’s south elevation is long and contains a variety of window types such as 2-and-2 wood frame casement, 4/1 wood frame double-hung, 1/1 wood frame double hung, and in one instance toward the main entry, a recent and small, single-lite decorative stained-glass window, depicting a stylized red tree on a golden hilltop against a blue sky. Two secondary pedestrian doors are present at the south elevation, both of wood with metal ﬂoorboards. The house’s main entrance faces west oa the south elevation. The walkway to the main entrance is clad in terra cotta pavers and along its outer edge, a low, running wall of rubble course boulderwork with concrete slab capping ﬂanks 791 of 833

2 the walkway along its outer edge. As it moves nearer the main entrance, this low, running wall is stucco clad. Projecting oa the house and covering the walk is a low-pitched roof, with notched-end wood rafter tails and a full-length wood lintel, itself notched. Atop the running wall are painted wood posts, themselves with double-notched wood capitals that support the walkway roof along its outer end.

Onondarka’s front door is an original, Arts and Crafts styled door of stained wood slab with an inset, wood plank cross framing pattern in low relief, and a miniature, six-lite vision window. The door retains early-era, if not original, brass handle and latch hardware and textured brass plates. The house appears have its original push-button doorbell, itself set within a small brass plate with braided brass frame. North of the main entrance, a boxed massing oa the south elevation’s eastern portion projects outward with a central, ﬁxed picture window, with wood framing and sill. Its stucco-clad walls have a base of just a few large boulders. The south elevation’s easternmost portion has a projecting, tall base against its steep hillside, of irregular course boulderwork. Above it are substantial, full- height picture windows with jalousie sidelights. A portion of the base appears to have once possessed a deck or balconette, now broken oa.

The eastern portion of the house’s south elevation has ﬂat, broad eaves, underscored with extended wood beams with notched ends, that in many cases appear to be of separate pieces. These eaves wrap the entire eastern portion of the house. Onondarka’s east elevation is of two primary parts: a recessed portion fronted by a wood deck, then to the north, a projecting, stucco-clad box-form massing. Projecting out at a 45-degree angle oa the house’s southeast corner is an unusual, pylon-formed boulder work pier, with concrete slab capping containing an opening: either a drain or for conduit, and the pier may have once had a light ﬁxture atop it.

Behind the deck, the house’s east elevation has a slightly projecting bay with substantial, full-height wood frame picture window, along with a pair of smaller wood frame picture windows atop a boulderwork water table. Paired 8-and-8 wood frame French doors open onto the deck, which is clad in painted wood plank, and enclosed by a 2x4 wood matchstick balustrade atop a tall base fronted by recent wood lattice panels. The east elevation’s projecting northern portion has two ﬁxed, wood frame windows, each ﬂanked by a single jalousie sidelight, and topping this portion are the broad ﬂat eaves, detailed as prior described.

Similar to its east elevation, Onondarka’s north elevation also reads as a rear one. It is not only away from any pedestrian views, but projects oa an inaccessible, steep hillside. The north elevation’s eastern portion possesses the broad, ﬂat eaves wrapping other sides of the eastern portion’s rectangle plan. Eastern and middle portions of the north elevation 792 of 833

3 read as later walls of blank stucco, sharply cut at their raised bottom line, revealing beneath and behind them a slightly recessed, irregular boulderwork base that is part of the house’s original construction. The base is presently fronted with recent PVC pipe. As the north elevation continues westward, its center, stucco-clad bays cant inward toward the landing, and the hillside descends revealing a taller, more prominent boulderwork base beneath and behind the later stucco wall. The north elevation has a variety of window types that include two ribbons of single-lite woodframe casement, and ﬁxed picture windows with operable sidelights.

As the north elevation continues westward, the house is now back upon its landing. Box- form massings step back behind a walkway of the same terra cotta pavers as that leading to the main entrance oa the house’s other side. This walkway leads to a secondary entrance, with a stylized door of similar inset frame-in-relief plank pattern as the main entrance, but here having four vertical lites, for a wood and glass door. This doorway has a small porch; its wood, pent roof underscored with extended rafter tails. The door is raised and recessed behind a small, rectangular landing and two steps clad in terra-cotta pavers.

Next to this door is another auxiliary entrance with a recent, six-panel wood door.

Rubble course boulderwork is a prominent feature of the Onondarka property: as steep bases upon the south and north hillsides beneath the house, and as watertables. Upon the larger property the boulder work continues oa the house as low, running walls against the walkways at the house’s south and north sides, as standalone piers and pylons, and where a bouldered stair descends oa the house’s landing to the property’s lower hillside slope, due west, revealing a ﬂat-faced rubble course boulder retaining wall of about ten feet in height, present beneath the driveway. In this sunken area oa the north-facing slope is what appears to have been a large garden planter constructed into the hillside and made of ﬂat- faced irregular form boulder work retaining walls topped with concrete slab-form capping.

Bouldered pylons located oa the driveway support recent light ﬁxtures.

Garage and Maid’s Quarters
Located west of the main house, the larger, 900 Eilinita Avenue property has a garage and maid’s quarters building of modiﬁed square plan, and like much of the main house, is clad in mottled stucco, with an eaveless ﬂat roof underscored with a blank stucco frieze. The garage faces southeast and contains two side-by-side single garage bays, plus a third single bay in a projecting, box-form massing due southwest. Each of the garage bays is fronted with a recent, multi-paneled wood garage door. The garage’s northeast-side elevation has two 18-lite original wood frame ﬁxed windows, underscored with wood sills. 793 of 833

4 Centered above each of the 18-lite windows, just beneath the rooﬂine, is a wood vent, with unusual, hinge-like wood projections. Similar vents- and similar 18-lite wood windows, are present at the building’s opposite side.

Along the building’s northeast elevation, a recent concrete walkway with brickwork scoring leads to the building’s main entrance, located oa a projecting massing, and containing a recent, six-panel wood door. Above the walkway is a trellis-like wood roof of multiple 2x4 painted beams, topped with corrugated metal sheets. The northeast elevation’s rear portion projects, is topped by a raised ﬂat parapet, and contains four 12-lite original woodframe windows. The building’s northwest rear portion reads as a full-length lean-to. It has a low-pitched roof with small eaves underscored with wood rafter tails, and a recent, metal rain gutter fronts it. This elevation includes narrow vertically acclimated window bays of 12-light wood frame windows with small wood sills; two bays of paired single-lite casement windows, and a single panel wood door.

Nestled against a hillside, the garage and maid’s quarters building’s southwest elevation reads as a rear one. This elevation is of two parts: a projecting portion at the rear, and a recessed portion toward the front. The southwest elevation’s rear portion has wood-frame fenestration with missing windows, an electrical meter, a jalousie window, and a wide, single-lite wood door with metal ﬂoorboard. The southwest elevation’s frontal portion has two original 18-lite wood frame windows, their sills clad in metal ﬂashing.

Landscape Elements
Guest parking for Onondarka is present in front of the garage and maid’s quarters building, and between the garage and the main house is a 1960s-era swimming pool. The irregular, vaguely hexagonal-shaped pool is present within a recent wrought iron fence with stucco piers topped with faux craftsman styled lights. Just oa the pool to the southeast, a wood veranda with notched beams like those seen upon the main house, is, like rest of the pool area, of recent construction. Near the veranda are a pair of mature Italian Cypress trees.

Between the pool and the main house is a long, recent, concrete driveway with a brick scoring pattern. The driveway’s north edge undulates, accommodating planter spaces containing mature olive trees. The driveway leads to eight pylon-formed piers of rubble course boulderwork, in a four-and-four arrangement. These piers once supported a removed, ﬂat-roofed wood canopy. Each set of four piers still supports a multi-part wood lintel.

Onondarka, its garage and maid’s quarters building, plus its pool and house driveway, are all present upon a raised landing atop a high point of the larger 6.5 acre, two-parcel total 794 of 833

5 property. Much of the rest of the property is open, natural terrain: a gulley dotted with mature oak and toyon trees, containing a natural watercourse that at present is dry. The boulder remains of what appears to have once been a walkway are present oa the east- facing slope upon which the house resides. Onondarka is accessed by a single lane blacktopped vehicular road that winds between tree trunks, uphill to the garage building.

Where the property line borders the public right of way at the Oakmont neighborhood due east of it, the property is fronted by a recent, low gateway wall of smooth stucco cladding, symmetrical and concave. The wall contains stucco piers ﬂanking either side of the vehicular entry. Recent-era glass and bronze carriage-styled light top each pier 13: Alterations And Date of Alterations:

Building Permit History
April and May, 1951: Unknown lathe and plastering (250 x 50 yards), and plumbing work undertaken. (County of Los Angeles Property inspection record listing plumbing permit no. 1277, dated May 15, 1951)
October, 1961: Permit to “Remodel Kitchen Area. ” (City of Glendale Building Permit No. 28967, October 16, 1961; City of Glendale Lathing and Plastering Permit No. 29431, October 24, 1961)
1964: 21’ x 40’ swimming pool added. (City of Glendale Swimming Pool Permit No. 75824, May 27, 1964.)
March-October, 1966: major alteration to the house’s eastern portion that includes adding bedroom, bath, and family room (City of Glendale Building Permit No. 05666, March 3, 1966; City of Glendale Lathing and Plastering permit No. 14480, September 29, 1966).

January 1996: rerooﬁng of garage building. (City of Glendale Permit No. B10056219, January 29, 1996).

Other Observed Alterations (Exterior Only)
House: Substantial alteration to north elevation; largely redesigned c.1966, having ﬂat and unadorned pitched stucco wall projecting beyond original rock wall foundation below it and revised fenestration patterns, though wood frame windows, early-era if not original, appear to be reincorporated; loss of rooftop chimney and loggia evident from historic-era pictures; window bays fronted with wood trellis panels at west elevation; recent six-panel 795 of 833

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7 and former butcher George Engelhardt purchased 148 acres of former Verdugo family land.

He did so, according to various sources, from either Prudent Beaudry, or directly from the Verdugo family.1 Engelhardt converted approximately 100 acres of into orchards, and constructed a small cabin for he and his family, near what is today a Shirlyjean Street bridge over Verdugo Wash, into the heart of the Oakmont Woods housing development.2 The canyon where the Onondarka house today exists is named after Engelhardt.3 In 1900, Engelhardt sold the property to members of the Sepulveda family, before they quickly sold the land to Angelino Galentino and his family, who converted the land into vineyards.4 Homer Baldridge Arrives
Homer Adolphus Baldridge constructed the Onondarka House, living there with his family from its 1913 completion until 1950. Baldridge was born in Parker County, Texas, on April 27, 1878. By 1900, Baldridge, his parents, and sister Lulu, lived in Pasadena. In 1909 Baldrige married Louise Andregg, who had two daughters from a prior marriage, and at 42 was 10 years Homer’s senior.5 By 1910 the Baldridges lived at 761 N. Fair Oaks Avenue, and during this time Homer oversaw a livery stable at 35 E. Villa Street, advertising “gentle driving and riding horses for rent. ”6 In 1911, Baldridge, with Leo Haase, co-founded the Pasadena-based company “Art Concrete Works” that made decorative concrete benches, vases, planters for outdoor yards and landscapes, including benches purchased by the City of Pasadena.7

1 Katherine Yamada, “Recalling the House on the Hill, ” Glendale News-Press, January 18, 2007, https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-xpm-2007-01-19-gnp-yamada19- story.html; John Calvin Sherer, History of Glendale and Vicinity ([Glendale, CA.]: The Glendale Publishing Company, 1922), 293.
2 Yamada, “Recalling the House”; Mike Lawler, “Oakmont Woods was once Onondarka Ranch], ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, February 16, 2012,
https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/02/16/2012/treasures-of-the-valley-%C2%BB-mike- lawler-27/.
3 Di`erent sources, including USGS maps, spell the name of the canyon “Engleheard”, “Engelhard,” or “Englehardt. ” “Engelhardt” is the proper spelling of George Engelhardt’s name according to historic-era census records and multiple early newspaper articles, and his own gravestone. 4 Mike Lawler, “Onondarka’s Beginnings, ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, June 2, 2016, https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/06/02/2016/treasures-valley-mike-lawler-129/; “Certiﬁcate of Co-Partnership,” Pasadena Star, February 27, 1911. 5 “Marriage Licenses,” Los Angeles Herald, September 30, 1909. 6 “Livery Stables, ” Los Angeles Evening Express, (classiﬁed advertisement), January 10, 1908. Katherine Yamada, “Recalling the House”; 1910 United States Census, Los Angeles County, Pasadena, CA., District 0307, Ward 2, April 15, 1910, Sheet 13.
7 “Novel Exhibit at Flower Show, ” Pasadena Star News, October 27, 1911. “Certiﬁcate of Co-Partnership.” 797 of 833

8 With all his recent life activity of the prior couple years, it is unknown if Baldridge was actively looking for a new property in which to live. Nonetheless, riding through the Verdugo City area in 1912, Baldridge came across what was then Galentino’s land, purchasing it that same year. Baldridge moved the horses of his livery stable there at once, and by the following year he constructed his house. Baldridge named the recently completed house “Onondarka” – a Seneca term meaning “on a hill.”8 First mapped in 1771, Onondarka was also the name of a Six Nations Seneca town, located south of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York.9
In its early years, Baldridge’s Onondarka became a Crescenta Valley social hub, hosting various activities from parties to Audubon Society birdwatching events.10 In 1916 Baldridge’s step-daughter Mae was married there, with an Indian themed wedding that includ
ed an archery contest whereby winners would get ﬁrst dibs at picking partners for the evening, in “the red man’s own way.”11 During prohibition, Baldridge, who would come to be known as “Colonel” Baldridge, though he never served in the military, hosted dances upon Onondarka’s roof, capable of holding 200, accessed by an indoor wood stair, and originally possessing an eight-foot tall ﬁreplace upon it.12
Onondarka in Character
After selling in 1950, an aged Homer Baldridge told new property owners Chet and Dolores Knox that the boulders comprising the house’s foundation were hauled uphill from the nearby wash and by mule train for two straight weeks, followed by a ﬁve-month endeavor of hauling additional boulders uphill to construct a long rock wall that once ran along the driveway uphill to the residence itself.13 Though at close inspection there appears to be evidence of some loss due to hillside erosion, any variety of Baldridge’s boulder elements remain, and are all character deﬁning features of the property. These include: the sizeable house foundation itself; a tall retaining wall and bouldered stairset oa the driveway facing north; running walls accented by giant boulders at their ends; a decorative ﬁreplace within the house’s living room; a basement space of bouldered walls; what may have once been a sizeable pen, paddock or planter space with three hillside retaining walls; and pylon 8 Frederick Webb Hodge, Ed., Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2 (Washington: Government Printing O`ice, 1910), 135. 9 Arthur C. Parker, An Analytical History of the Seneca Indians (Rochester, NY: Lewis H. Morgan Chapter, 1926), 60.
10 “Audubon Society Plans Field Day,” The Pasadena Post, March 23, 1929. 11 “Moonlight Dance”
12 Yamada, “Recalling the house.”
13 Ibid.
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9 shaped piers supporting a canopy at the driveway, as light ﬁxtures at the driveway, and as piers oa the house’s foundation. For some of these elements, it is unknown if Baldridge worked alone, or perhaps with staa from his Art Concrete Works enterprise.14 Upon its completion the house was recognized is one of the Crescenta Valley’s signature residences. A 1928 La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce brochure, intended to be sent far and wide, features 12 separate houses upon it, one of which is “The Baldridge Residence”- Onondarka.15
Even before various alterations, Onondarka was never a pure design system in any traditional, schooled sense. However, the house touches on any variety of Western vernaculars. The house is literally a Western ranch house and would come to represent qualities of “Western Living” decades before Sunset Magazine marketed the term for the Postwar Ranch house. Like later Ranch houses, Onondarka has a rambling, low-slung character, but its stucco-clad block form massing alludes to the Mission style, itself a popular, turn-of-the-century California vernacular. Similar boulder work was upon newly completed, popular Craftsman house designs in Pasadena when Baldridge lived there, including Greene and Greene’s Mary Cole House (1907), located next door the better- known Gamble House (1907). Early Onondarka images present what appear to be projecting beams, rooftop loggia, and smooth, block-form massing all similar to contemporaneous work undertaken by San Diego-based architects Mead and Requa such as at Krotona Court of one year earlier (1912, Beachwood Canyon), or the work that Frank Mead undertook with Irving Gill slightly earlier such as the Wheeler Bailey Residence (Gill and Mead, La Jolla, 1907) and the intentionally ﬁreproof Russell Allen House (Bonita, CA, 1908).16 More Western than Modern, the house’s blocky abstraction nonetheless parallels the broader regional trends of Irving Gill himself, in works like the Timken or Barker Houses (both San Diego, 1911), or the pergola’d South Pasadena Miltimore house of (1911), all of which Baldridge may have been familiar through his Art Concrete Works business.

Certainly it was the only house in the 1928 La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce brochure that possessed this cubical, Gill-like character. One early press article refers to the style of Onondarka as “built after Aztec architecture, ” some years before either architects Robert Stacy Judd or Frank Lloyd Wright designed regional works with Mesoamerican references.17 But perhaps more than any of the above, Onondarka is in spirit and character to El Alisal,

14 “Post and Lighting Standards, Molds, Etc.,” Concrete Products, July 1922, 133, Google Books. 15 La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce, “La Crescenta, California, ” brochure, (La Crescenta, CA: La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce, ” April 12, 1928), 13.
16 John Crosse, “Frank Mead: 'A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest, ' Part II, 1907-1920, ” Southern California Architectural History, May 13, 2016, https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/frank-mead- new-type-of-architecture-in.html; Bruce Kamerling, Irving Gill, Architect (San Diego: San Diego Historical Society, 1993), 52.
17 “Moonlight Dance at Picturesque La Crescenta, ” Pasadena Star News, June 29, 1916. 799 of 833

10 the handmade 1897 home of Charles Fletcher Lummis, itself of bouldered and of Mission style elements. Charles Fletcher Lummis was one of the region’s primary boosters, and editor of the publication Land of Sunshine, extolling Southern California and the West. El Alisal and Onondarka both romanticize the West, and in language that works for Onondarka as well, architectural historian Robert Winter described El Alisal as a place where “civilization and nature, if not wedded, at least met. ”18

Notable Tenants
In his ﬁrst decades upon the property, Baldridge lived as a gentleman farmer, tending to the vineyards and orchards that pre-existed his purchase. Aside from Onondarka, the property includes a second dwelling integrated into what is today a two-car garage. During Baldridge’s time, the property also possessed the original cabin Engelhardt made, with various ranch hands and other hired help living in it during Baldridge’s time. Among those who did were T.O. Potts, who in 1915 opened the very ﬁrst store in Montrose, located at the corner of Honolulu and Verdugo Boulevards.19 The North Glendale historic context statement features Potts’ building on the cover, with Onondarka Ranch, and Onondarka itself directly behind it.20
Ranch-hand Lawrence Tibbett lived in the Engelhardt cabin with his wife and young twin sons. According to Baldridge, Tibbett practiced singing in Onondarka’s orchards and vineyards after work.21 Concurrently Tibbet landed work at the La Crescenta Hotel, located at the corner of Foothill and Rosemont, where he sang for guests.22 During this time, Tibbet was discovered, and by 1921, Tibbet had joined New York’s Metropolitan Opera. His breakout role in Verdi’s Falstaa occurred in 1923, and by 1932, according to the Peter Clark, archives director for the Metropolitan Opera, baritone Lawrence Tibbet, the Country’s ﬁrst home-grown opera star, was “something of an American icon. ”23 Beyond his Met position, where he undertook over 600 performances while there from 1923 to 1950,

18 Robert Winter, “The Arroyo Culture, ” in California Design, 1910 (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publishers, 1980), 16.
19 Mike Lawler, “Memories of Early Montrose/ La Canada – Part 2,” Crescenta Valley Weekly, February 15, 2024, https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/02/15/2024/treasures-of-the-valley-153/. 20 City of Glendale, “North Glendale Community Plan- City of Glendale, CA, Appendix A: Historic Context- City of Glendale, California, ” technical report, adopted November 29, 2011, https://www.glendaleca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12480/638549104049730000. 21 Mike Lawler, “The Opera Star from La Crescenta, ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, January 31, 2013. 22 Lawler, “Oakmont Woods was once. ”
23 Peter Clark, “Lawrence Tibbett- The Met’s First Boccanegra, ” The Metropolitan Opera, accessed April 16, 2025, https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/lawrence-tibbettthe- mets-ﬁrst-boccanegra/.
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11 Tibbett also had screen acting and radio roles, including a weekly Saturday afternoon radio opera broadcast aired across the Country. In 1936 Tibbett co-founded the American Guild of Musical Artists, which serves at the Met’s performers union to this day.24 Tibbett passed at age 63 in 1960, and today is considered “The most important and most versatile operatic baritone ever produced in the U.S. ”25
Cowboys and Horses
Through the ﬁrst half of the twentieth century, and peaking in the post- World War II era, lore of the romanticized West, of cowboys and Indians, of open land and “Western Living, ” became a signiﬁcant aspect of US popular culture. Commensurate to the trend, by the late 1930s, Baldridge, who as prior mentioned possessed horses and once ran a livery, cleared out some of the acreage, constructing various rodeo rings and stables. Onondarka Ranch became home to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.26 Descendants of the Verdugo and Urquidez land grant families kept their own horses onsite. During World War II, Onondarka Ranch became the base of operations for the Los Angeles County Sherria’s “Montrose Mounted Posse,” that patrolled the area’s hills at a time when the entirety of the Crescenta Valley was still unincorporated land. At the suggestion of Onondarka foreman Bill Russell, the Posse formed against the threat of sabotage to World War II-era aircraft production in Burbank and Glendale.27
In the immediate post-World War II years, the Crescenta Valley hosted an annual, week- long “Western Days” celebration each spring, that concluded with a rodeo, which in 1945, 1947 and 1948 Baldridge held at Onondarka Ranch.28 For the Crescenta Valley, perhaps no property epitomized this character more than the Onondarka Ranch itself, where according to Mike Lawler, “Onondarka became the Valley’s tie to the old west, where every kid, and many adults, could live out their cowboy fantasies. ”29

24 Ibid.
25 Rupert Allman, “More Than Music: The Story of Lawrence Tibbett, ” NPR Illinois [Fresh Air], March 18, 2024, https://www.nprillinois.org/2024-03-18/more-than-music-the-story-of-lawrence-tibbett. 26 Lawler, “Oakmont Woods was once”; “Desert International Horse Park Welcomes Onondarka Medal Final to National Championship Series for 2022, ” Desert International Horse Park, June 3, 2022, https://deserthorsepark.com/desert-international-horse-park-welcomes-onondarka-medal-ﬁnal-to-national- sunshine-series-for-2022/.
27 “Mounted Group form to Patrol Verdugo Hills, ” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1942. 28 Mike Lawler, “Oakmont Woods was once”; Barnadine Horney, “La Crescenta – La Canada, ” Valley Times, April 29, 1948, 23; “Six Compete for the Title of Rodeo Queen,” L o s A n g e l e s T i m e s, June 2, 1947. 29 Mike Lawler, “Onondarka’s Golden Years - Horses and Rodeos, ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, June 9, 2016, https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/06/09/2016/treasures-valley-mike-lawler-130/. 801 of 833

12 During these years the Los Angeles Equestrian Center continued with riding lessons, onsite horse trails of various lengths, moonlight rides, the establishment of a drill team, relay races. Baldridge’s stable manager Harry Simington oversaw the activities, though Baldridge himself was also known to occasionally teach.30 At the ranch in 1948 Simington established “Onondarka Riding Club.” Emphasizing equestrian training and activities for children 12 and under, the Onondarka Riding Club still exists today, is based in Thermal, CA and is overseen by a third generation of Simington family. Since 1963, the Onondarka Medal: an important Southern California riding prize awarded to one young equestrian per year.31
Changes
By 1950, major changes were afoot for the Verdugo Hills, the Crescenta Valley, and Onondarka property itself. On July 6, 1950, the City of Glendale annexed the Verdugo Hills area containing Onondarka.32 Later that year, Homer Baldridge, by then 72 years old, sold 136 acres of the Onondarka Ranch to the developers Hyman Minkoa and Emanual Fagen.33 Shortly thereafter, Minkoa and Fagen would demolish the onsite equestrian facilities and remaining agriculture, and begin construction of the Oakmont Woods housing tract.

Minkoa and Fagen spared Baldridge’s Onondarka home, and an oak and toyon covered gully just south of it containing the houses winding and ascending one-lane driveway. In 1951, Minkoa’s daughter Dolores received the Onondarka house as a wedding present when she married automobile racer and car enthusiast Chester “Chet” Knox, owner of Cyclone Headers, and later a noted auto-related bookstore in Burbank named “Autobooks- Aerobooks. ”34 The Knox’s raised four children in the home. Dolores Knox passed away in 2019, and after nearly 75 years of living at Onondarka, Chet passed away in January of 2025. In March of 2025, the Knox Family Trust sold the present six-and-a-half-acre, two- parcel Onondarka property to Dr. Jacob Stavis and Dr. David Schneller.

30 Ibid.
31 Tyler Biddle, “Onondarka Rides in for 60th Reunion, ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, May 23, 2013, https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/news/05/23/2013/onondarka-rides-in-for-60th-reunion/. 32 City of Glendale, 18.
33 Katherine Yamada, “Onondarka Gives Way to Oakmont Woods, ” Glendale News-Press, February 16, 2007, https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-xpm-2007-02-16-gnp-yamada16- story.html; Mike Lawler, “The Development of Oakmont Woods, ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, March 22, 2012, https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/03/22/2012/treasures-of-the-valley-%C2%BB-mike- lawler-32/.
34 Tim Bernsau, “Hot Rodding’s World Famous Book Store, ” Hot Rod, December 21, 2020, https://www.hotrod.com/features/hot-roddings-world-famous-book-store-autobooks-aerobooks/; Yamada, “Onondarka Gives Way.”
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13 TIMELINE
1875: George Engelhardt purchases 148 acres from the Verdugo family. The canyon in which Onondarka resides today is named Engelhardt Canyon. Around this time, Engelhardt constructs a cabin that remains on the property until c. 1950. 1900: Engelhardt sells the land to the Sepulveda family who promptly sell it to Angelo Galentino and family. The Galentino plant a vineyard that remains onsite through the late 1930s.
1912: Livery stable owner, and co-founder of the business “Art Concrete Works, ” Homer Baldridge purchases the 100-plus acre ranch from the Galentino family 1913: Baldrige builds Onondarka, naming the house after a Seneca term meaning “On a hill, ” also the name of a Seneca village located in upstate New York. For the next 25 years, “Colonel” Baldridge becomes a gentleman farmer tending to the property’s orchards and vineyards.
1920s: The larger Onondarka property is named Onondarka Ranch. The Engelhardt cabin remains during this time and among those who live in it are the Potts family, who open the ﬁrst commercial store in Montrose, and ranch-hand Lawrence Tibbett, who would go on to become a globally signiﬁcant baritone with the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Late-1930s: Baldridge removes some of the orchard and vineyard acreage to construct equestrian facilities, including rodeo rings and stables. 1930s and 1940s: Property is associated with the “Los Angeles Equestrian Center” World War II: Onondarka Ranch is home to the Montrose Mounted Posse, established by the Los Angeles County Sherria.
1945 and 1948. Onondarka Ranch hosts the Montrose Rodeo, part of a larger, week-long Western Days celebration, held annually during this time. 1948: Harry Simington establishes the Onondarka Riding Club July 6, 1950: The Verdugo Hills area containing Onondarka is annexed into the City of Glendale.
1950: Homer Baldridge sells the Onondarka property, including the house itself, to developers Hyman Minkoa and Emanual Fagen, who promptly raze much of the acreage and begin building the Oakmont Woods single family residential development. 803 of 833

14 1951: Minkoa gives the Onondarka house to his daughter, Dolores Knox, when she marries race car driver Chester “Chet” Knox. The Knox’s will raise four children in the house.

March 1957: Property address changed from 3699 La Crescenta Avenue to 900 Eilinita Avenue.

September 1966: parcel is split.
2019: Dolores Knox passes away.

January 2024: Chet Knox passes away.

October, 2024: The Knox children sell the Onondarka property now consisting of two parcels totaling 6.5 acres, and including the house, to Jake Stavis and Dr. David Schneller.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allman, Rupert. “More Than Music: The Story of Lawrence Tibbett. ” NPR Illinois [Fresh Air].

March 18, 2024. https://www.nprillinois.org/2024-03-18/more-than-music-the-story-of- lawrence-tibbett.

“Audubon Society Plans Field Day. ” The Pasadena Post, March 23, 1929.

Bernsau, Tim. “Hot Rodding’s World-Famous Book Store. ” Hot Rod. December 21, 2020. https://www.hotrod.com/features/hot-roddings-world-famous-book-store-autobooks- aerobooks/.

Biddle, Tyler. “Onondarka Rides in for 60th Reunion. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly. May 23, 2013. https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/news/05/23/2013/onondarka-rides-in-for- 60th-reunion/.

“Certiﬁcate of Co-Partnership.” Pasadena Star, February 27, 1911.

City of Glendale. “North Glendale Community Plan- City of Glendale, CA, Appendix A:

Historic Context- City of Glendale, California. ” technical report. Adopted November 29, 2011, 18.

Clark, Peter. “Lawrence Tibbett- The Met’s First Boccanegra. ” The Metropolitan Opera. accessed April 16, 2025. https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera- streams/articles/lawrence-tibbettthe-mets-ﬁrst-boccanegra/.

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15 Crosse, John. “Frank Mead: 'A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest, ' Part II, 1907- 1920. ” Southern California Architectural History, May 13, 2016. https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/frank-mead-new-type-of-architecture- in.html.

“Desert International Horse Park Welcomes Onondarka Medal Final to National Championship Series for 2022. ” Desert International Horse Park. June 3, 2022. https://deserthorsepark.com/desert-international-horse-park-welcomes-onondarka- medal-ﬁnal-to-national-sunshine-series-for-2022/.

Hodge, Frederick Webb, Ed. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2. Washington: Government Printing Oaice, 1910.

Horney, Barnadine. “La Crescenta – La Canada. ” Valley Times, April 29, 1948.

Kamerling, Bruce. Irving Gill, Architect. San Diego: San Diego Historical Society, 1993.

La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce. “La Crescenta, California. ” brochure. La Crescenta, CA: La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce, ” April 12, 1928.

Lawler, Mike. “Memories of Early Montrose/ La Canada – Part 2.” Crescenta Valley Weekly, February 15, 2024.
https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/02/15/2024/treasures-of-the-valley- 153/.

________. “Oakmont Woods was once Onondarka Ranch. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, February 16, 2012.
https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/02/16/2012/treasures-of-the-valley- %C2%BB-mike-lawler-27/.

________. “Onondarka’s Beginnings. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, June 2, 2016. https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/06/02/2016/treasures-valley-mike- lawler-129/.

________. “Onondarka’s Golden Years - Horses and Rodeos. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, June 9, 2016. https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/06/09/2016/treasures-valley- mike-lawler-130/.

________. “The Development of Oakmont Woods. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, March 22, 2012. https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/viewpoints/03/22/2012/treasures-of-the- valley-%C2%BB-mike-lawler-32/.

________. “The Opera Star from La Crescenta. ” Crescenta Valley Weekly, January 31, 2013. 805 of 833

16 “Livery Stables. ” Los Angeles Evening Express. classiﬁed advertisement, January 10, 1908.

“Los Angeles County, Pasadena, CA., District 0307, Ward 2. ” 1910 United States Census.

April 15, 1910. Sheet 13.

“Marriage Licenses. ” Los Angeles Herald, September 30, 1909.

“Moonlight Dance at Picturesque La Crescenta. ” Pasadena Star News, June 29, 1916.

“Mounted Group form to Patrol Verdugo Hills. ” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1942.

“Novel Exhibit at Flower Show. ” Pasadena Star News, October 27, 1911.

Parker, Arthur C. An Analytical History of the Seneca Indians. Rochester, NY: Lewis H.

Morgan Chapter, 1926.

“Post and Lighting Standards, Molds, Etc. ” Concrete Products, July 1922. Google Books.

Sherer, John Calvin. History of Glendale and Vicinity. [Glendale, CA.]: The Glendale Publishing Company, 1922.

“Six Compete for the Title of Rodeo Queen. ” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1947.

Winter, Robert. “The Arroyo Culture. ” in California Design, 1910. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publishers, 1980.

Yamada, Katherine. “Onondarka Gives Way to Oakmont Woods. ” Glendale News-Press, February 16, 2007. https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp- xpm-2007-02-16-gnp-yamada16-story.html.

________. “Recalling the House on the Hill. ” Glendale News-Press, January 18, 2007. https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-xpm-2007-01-19-gnp- yamada19-story.html.
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Onondarka
900 Eilinita Avenue
July 2025
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Onondarka in foreground, n.d. View southwest.
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Onondarka and Onondarka Ranch agriculture, n.d. View southeast. 809 of 833

Potts Store at corner of Honolulu and Verdugo Avenues, Montrose, with Onondarka at hillside background, n.d. View west.
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La Crescenta Chamber of Commerce brochure, 1928. Onondarka (“Baldridge Residence”) at upper right. 811 of 833

Rodeo ring at Onondarka Ranch, n.d. View east.
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Onondarka property, highlighted,
1944. Flight DDF , Frame 7-63,
November 22, 1944. Courtesy
University of California Santa
Barbara Library.
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View of driveway leading up to the residence.
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West elevation, view east.

Covered window bay, view east.
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South elevation, view northeast.
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Walkway to main entry and south elevation
detail, view east.

Walkway and south elevation detail, view
west.
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Southeast corner, view northwest.
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East elevation, view northwest.
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North elevation, view southeast.

North elevation, view east.
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Rear entrance at recessed portion of west
elevation. View east
Patio and portion of west elevation, view
southeast.
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View of garage and maid’s quarters, view northwest.
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View of garage and maid’s quarters, view southwest.
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Walkway to main house, view west.

Running wall detail, view southwest.
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Bouldered light post, view east.
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Swimming pool, view southeast.
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Mills Act Contract Application (revised 7/2019) 1

Case No. ___________________
The deadline for submitting an application for a Mills Act contract is July 31st to ensure recordation by December 31st. Applications wil l be accepted after that dat e, but the Planning Division cannot guarantee that the contract wil l be recorded by year’s end.

The Mills Act fee is based on the valuation of the property at the time of application. Please submit your most recent tax bil l or, for recent transactions, information about the purchase price .

Please PRINT or TYPE all information
Date April 23, 2025

1. Property Owner(s) David Schneller and Jacob Stavis

2. Property Address (include all addresses associated with the property) 900 Eilinita Avenue, Glendale, CA Zip Code 91208

4. Assessor’s Parcel Number(s) 5617-023-033 and 5617-023-034

5. Complete Legal Description (MUST attach a copy
of Grant Deed/Exhibit A containing Legal Description)

PARCELS A AND B
OF PARCEL MAP GLN NO. 910, IN THE CITY OF GLENDALE , COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AS PER MAP FILED IN BOOK 12, PAGE 4 OF PARCEL MAPS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF SAID COUNTY.

4. Owner Information
Mailing Address (if different from above) 3622 Landa Street City Los Angeles State CA Zip Code 90039 Phone EMAIL:

MILLS ACT CONTRACT
Mills Act Property Tax Reduction Contracts are available for owners of properties listed on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources and, in some cases, contributors to historic districts. Applications can be processed concurrently with Glendale Register nominations or independently for properties already listed on the Register. Call (818) 548 -2140 for information about the Mills Act fee or any other issues . 827 of 833

Mills Act Contract Application (revised 7/2019) 2

5. Is the property listed on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources? Yes ______ _____ No 9 If yes, Date Listed NA If not, date scheduled to be on HPC’s agenda pendinH 04232025

6. Work Plan. List any proposed or anticipated work that will be done to the property over the next ten years.

For example: 2011 - new roof; 2011 - upgrade electrical. (Attach a separate page, if necessary) All Property Owners MUST Sign This Application:

1. ___________________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________________ Property Owner’s Name – Please Print Property Owner’s Name – Please Print ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Property Owner’s Signature/s Property Owner’s Signature/s ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Date Date

3. ___________________________________________________ 4._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________ Property Owner’s Name – Please Print Property Owner’s Name – Please Print ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Property Owner’s Signature/s Property Owner’s Signature/s ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Date Date

FOR STAFF USE ONLY
Date received in Permit Services Center ___________________ Received by ____________ Date Stamp Fee paid _______________ Receipt No. _________________ please see attached
David Schneller Jacob Stavis
April 23, 2025 April 23, 2025
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ONONDARKA
David Schneller & Jacob Stavis, property owners.
900 Eilinita Avenue, Glendale, CA, 91208

Mills Act work plan, 2024-27

Exterior Features:

Restore termite damaged wood
Restore windows in western wing
Replace floor to ceiling windows in eastern wing with tempered glass Restore eaves and projecting rafters around exterior roofline Restore roof loggias
Restore balconette at southeastern corner

Interior Features:

Restore fireplaces and chimneys
Restore wood paneling in dining room (walls) and living room (walls and ceiling) New flooring throughout
Restore doors

Restore roof access via central staircase

Safety and Infrastructure:

Upgrade roof to KEE membrane
Upgrade electrical panel
Upgrade electrical wiring throughout
Upgrade plumbing with copper piping throughout
Upgrade HVAC to heat pump and add new ducting throughout Upgrade boiler to heat pump
Upgrade fire prevention sprinkler system
Install solar panels

Mills Act work plan, 2028-32

Garage and Maid’s Quarters:

Restore doors and windows
Restore termite damaged wood
New flooring throughout
Upgrade roof to KEE membrane
Upgrade electrical panel
Upgrade electrical wiring throughout
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Upgrade plumbing and add copper piping throughout
Upgrade HVAC to heat pump and add new ducting throughout Upgrade boiler to heat pump
Upgrade fire prevention sprinkler system

Grounds (ongoing)
Restore Baldridge-era boulder elements
Restore stone path along east facing slope
Maintain semiannual brush clearing
Maintain protected oak specimens
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I I I I I I I
City of Glendale
Disclosure - Campaign Finance Ordinance
Applicants Seeking Entitlement
Submit to Permit Services Center, 633 E. Broadway, Rm. 101.

For more information, call 818-548-3200.
(To be Completed Prior to Preparation of Staff Reports for Consideration of Entitlement Matter by Council, Agency, or Authority, or at Time of Appeal to the City Council if the Applicant is also the Appellant) In August 2011, the Glendale City Council adopted Ordinance No. 5744, which becomes effective on September 9, 2011 (“Ordinance”). The Ordinance prohibits campaign contributions from “applicants seeking entitlement,” their contractors and subcontractors (including their architects, engineers, and design professionals) while the application is “pending” and for 12 months thereafter. The Ordinance also prohibits Council Members from vo ting on any matter pertaining to an entitlement if the Council member has received a campaign contribution from the applicant seeking the entitlement, or certain contractors or subcontractors of the applicant, within the 12-month period preceding the vote.

The Applicant and the Owner/Lessor hereby discloses as follows. (If printing, please print legibly. Use additional sheets as necessary.) I. Name of Applicant and Name of Owner/Lessor on whose behalf application is filed:

Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip

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City of Glendale, Community Development Department (9/9/11) 831 of 833

II. Officers or owners/investors of Applicant Entity. Please also disclose the following persons or entities related to the applicant entity: CEO/President, Chairperson, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer, any member of the Board of Directors, a nd any individual or entity that owns 10% or more the contractor of applicant seeking entitlement, as well as any campaign + Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
III. Contractor of Applicant(s) Seeking Entitlement*
Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
* “Contractor of Applicant Seeking Entitlement” means “a person who has, or has been promised, a contract as an architect, design professional, engineer, or general or prime contract with an applicant seeking entitlement. “Contractor of applicant seeking entitlement,” includes not only the contracting party but also the CEO/President, Chairperson, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer, any member of the Board of Directors, and any individual or entity that owns 10% or more the contractor of applicant seeking entitlement, as well as any campaign committee that is sponsored and controlled by the contracting party.

Please list the names and addresses of all of these parties.

IV. Subcontractor of Applicant(s) Seeking Entitlement** Full Name Title Business Address City State Zip
** “Subcontractor of Applicant Seeking Entitlement” means “a person who has, or has been promised, a subcontract as an architect, design professional, engineer, or perform other work with a ‘contractor an applicant seeking entitlement.”

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City of Glendale, Community Development Department (9/9/11) 832 of 833

“Subcontractor of applicant seeking entitlement,” includes not only the subcontracting party, but also the CEO/President, Chairperson, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer, any member of the Board of Directors, and any individual or entity that owns 10% or more the subcontractor of applicant seeking entitlement, as well as any campaign committee that is sponsored and controlled by the subcontracting party. Please list the name and addresses of all of these parties.

V. Disclosure. The Applicant Seeking Entitlement has made campaign or officeholder contributions in the preceding 12 months to City of Glendale elected officials as follows:

Elected Official Name of Individual or Entity Date of Contribution I hereby certify, on behalf of the above-named applicant(s) and owner(s)/lessor(s), that the applicant seeking entitlement has made the campaign contributions as set forth above. I also certify that the names of all contractors of applicant and all subcontractors of applicant, as of today’s date, are fully set forth above. I further acknowledge that the applicant has a continuing obligation to update this disclosure form if the applicant selects additional or substitute architects, design professionals, contractors or subcontractors within ten (10) days of the selection or change. I hereby certify that I have been legally authorized by the applicant/owner/lessor to submit this disclosure form and certify to the content hereof.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed on ___________________ at _____________________________, California Applicant’s Signature_____________________________, Print Applicant’s Full Name ___________________________________ Applicant’s Address _____________________________________________________________________ Applicant’s Contact Phone Number ________________________________________________________ Applicant’s Email Address _______________________________________________________________

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City of Glendale, Community Development Department (9/9/11) 833 of 833

Glendale City CouncilOctober 28, 2025

Glendale City Council
October 28, 2025