CC_10282025_10a_Exhibit1_Nomination — Glendale City Council, October 28, 2025

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

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. ALTERATIONS AND DATES OF ALTERATIONS (based on building permits, physical analysis, oral information, see attached “Sources of Information” f
or obtaining City building permit records, attach additional pages in necessary):

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

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

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

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
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 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 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. 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 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

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.” 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.
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. 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/.
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/. 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.”
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. 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

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

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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.

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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/.

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.

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________. “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/.

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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.

Glendale City CouncilOctober 28, 2025

Glendale City Council
October 28, 2025