MacBride Residence
Architectural Description
The MacBride Residence is a whimsical asymmetrical Tudor Revival house built on an irregular, somewhat crescent shaped plan sitting on a hilltop above the street.
Built in three sections, each with rounded gabled ends, along with a smaller gabled roof over the kitchen area, the stucco clad house is accented with Tudor style half timbering on the interior, only. However, the building corners are stained wood posts
The custom wooden windows are in casement, fixed pane and double hung configurations with leaded glass lights, some stained, and muttons defining others.
Many are angular with various arrangements of leaded glass and wooden muttons.
Two small angular fixed pane windows are at different levels, under the eaves on the street facing gable above the single story kitchen wing. All of the windows have wooden sills and are topped by heavy wooden lentils. Red bricks in small groupings are found at various point on the facade, hinting at exposed bricks on an adobe structure. The roof has two small glassed eyebrow dormers above the two-story living room. There are two chimneys, one along the outside wall, the other with a double roofed flue, is poking through the roof. The plank front door has large extended hinges.
Interior details include angular hardwood flooring , open beam ed ceilings in the living and dining rooms, some half-timbering with a large brick fireplace and hearth.
A stucco two-car garage (built concurrent with the house) at the front of the property. The garage door was replaced in the 1960s or 1970s and has recently been replaced again as it was not operational.
MacBride Residence
Significance Statement
The MacBride Residence was built in 1923 for Ruth Kirker MacBride by contractor Henry Nash, in the Verdugo Woodlands area of Glendale, on a portion of Lot 5 of Tract No. 4873, at a cost of $8,000.00. The architect is not known as Glendale permits did not list architects at the time of construction.
The resource is located in the Verdugo Woodlands community of Glendale.
Verdugo Woodlands has a rich history that reaches back to 1784, when Jose Maria Verdugo received a land grant of 36,403 acres, known as Rancho San Rafael . The rancho includes the present day cities of Glendale (including the communities of, La Crescenta, Montrose and Verdugo City), Burbank, La Cañada-Flintridge, and the city of Los Angel es communities of Atwater Village, Cypress Park , Eagle Rock, Garvanza, Glassell Park, Highland Park, and Mount Washington.
Tract No. 4873 is a subdivision of a portion of Lot 7 of the Verdugo Estate, a portion of the 2,629 Acre Tract of the Rancho San Rafael allotted to Teodoro and Catalina Verdugo after court action forced the dividing of the rancho in 1869. The tract was filed on May 18, 1922 and was listed under the ownership of Harry and Josephine B. Graul and Thomas B. and Edith N. Nichols. On November 1, 1923, a portion of Lot 5 was deeded to Ruth MacBride who took out a building permit to construct the Tudor Revival house was on December 8, 1923. For some reason, the grant deed to MacBride was not recorded until April 8, 1924.
MacBride was born on April 11, 1880 in Jersey City, New Jersey as the second of four daughters and finally a son born to Irish-born Nathaniel and New York-born Jessie (Kirker) MacBride. Not much else has been found on Ruth MacBride other than four different spellings of her last name (MacBride, McBride, MacBryde and McBryde). The building permits were under “McBr ide”, city directory was under “MacBride”, voter registration was “MacBride”, a s is her headstone at Valhalla Memorial Park in Burbank. In 1922 she was issued a United States passport for a three month trip to China, Korea and Japan. It was upon her return from that trip that she took out the permit to build her house in Glendale.
As noted, Tract No. 4873 was a subdivision on a portion of the 54.55 acre Lot 7 of the Verdugo Estate within the Rancho San Rafael. It was subdivided in 1922 by real estate broker Thomas B. Nichols and Harry Silas Graul, a paving contractor. Lot 5 of the tract was an irregular shaped one, resembling the shape of a long pennant.
The first sale that effected lot 5 was that of the Northwest triangular portion of the lot to a Thomas Minford on April 11, 1923 by Nichols and Graul and their respective wives, Edith N, Nichols and Josephine Bont Graul. A deed recorded on May 23, 1923 shows the remaining portion of the lot being transferred to a widow named I. D. Cook. The only possibility found in local city directories was an Isabelle D. Cook, a widow, who appears in the 1923 Los Angeles City Directory. A search in Ancestry.com found no other information on her.
That sale must have fallen through as a deed recorded on May 26, 1923 has Mrs.
Cook transferring the property back to Nichols and Graul, along with Lot 9 of the same Tract. A subsequent deed, recorded on November 1n 1923, shows the Grauls transferring the Westerly 165 Feet of Lot 5 to Ruth K. MacBride, excepting the Northwesterly portion previously deeded to Thomas Minford. The lot was later split to its current size of 9,680± square feet parcel. The deed noted covenants that the property was to be used for residential purposes only and that any house built on the land must cost at not less than $5,000.00. The deed went on to state that any violation of said covenants would cause the property to immediately revert to the grantor, their heirs or assigns. This covenant remained in effect until January 1, 1945. According to the original building permit, issued on December 8, 1923, the house cost $8,000.00 to construct.
The contractor, Henry Edward Nash, Sr., was born in Middlesex, England, on June 18, 1878 as the fourth son of nine children born to William and Sarah Gale Nash.
He arrived in the United States with his family. By 1900, he was living in Philadelphia with his widowed mother. He married Elizabeth Medley in Philadelphia in 1904 and their son, Henry Edward Nash, Jr., was born there on January 21, 1906. By 1910, the family was living in the then city of Eagle Rock, with Henry working as a movie studio carpenter. He eventually established his contracting business, but continued working in the film industry. While it is presently unknown if he actually designed the MacBride Residence, the unusual design of the house, especially the windows, would lend credence to that possibility. Henry Nash passed away at his Eagle Rock home on December 30, 1951, at the age of 73.
Ruth MacBride took out a loan with Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) on September 12, 1928. In 1932, after the Great Depression had kicked in, Ruth MacBride went into delinquency on that mortgage and subsequently lost the house by foreclosure the following month. Bank of America subsequently deeded the property to Ernest LeRoy and Mae S. Wallace on June 2, 1932. Ernest Wallace, who was a patent attorney, passed away at the age of 55 on April 18, 1934.
Mae Wallace sold the house to Carroll Collins, Jr. and his wife Nancy Crank Collins on January 29, 1936. An insurance adjuster by profession, Carroll was a native of Darlington, Wisconsin, where he was born on June 23, 1893. His wife, the former Nancy Crank, hailed from Missouri, where she was born around 1891. The Collins’ 20 year old son, James Wellington Collins, died on October 18, 1947. The following year, his parents sold their home to Vincent A. and Annette M. Murphy on June 16, 1948. It appears that the Collins owed for delinquent property taxes at the time of the sale. On March 4, 1949, there was a subsequent deed from the Los Angeles County Tax Collector to the Murphys.
The Murphys transferred the property to Leonard H. and Helen F. Shelley on June 29, 1953. There appear to have been at least three Leonard Shelleys in the Los Angeles area and there were two marriage dates for Leonard and Nancy Shelley .
The first was in Inglewood on August 18, 1943 and the in an unlisted part of Los Angeles County on November 23, 1945. It’s possible that the first marriage license was not consummated due to his being deployed during World War II, with the ceremony actually taking place in 1945. The 1963 Glendale City Directory lists Leonard as the owner of “Shelley’s Appliances”. In 1969 the Shelleys sold the Western portion of their land. The new house built on that new lot retained the existing address of 1845 Verdugo Knolls. The existing house was assigned a new address of 1855 Verdugo Knolls Drive.
The Shelleys appear in city directories and voter registration records at the Verdugo Knolls address until they sold the property to Paul L. Effler, Jr and Hariann J. Effler on March 11, 1971. Other than Paul L. Effler, Jr. being born on January 26, 1942, not much has been found on him or his wife. They moved to Long Beach after they sold the house to Vincent L. and Yvonne Y. Longo on June 9, 1987.
Vincent L. Longo and Yvonne Y. (Pannici) Longo, who were married in Orange, California on July 15, 1978 at 31 and 25 years of age, respectively. They were to live in the subject house for the next 36 years, making them the longest term owners to be there. On October 18, 2023, the Longos deeded the property to the current owner. Incredibly, the house has remained virtually unaltered in spite of its many occupants over the last 102 years.
Architecturally, the MacBride Residence is a significant example of a custom Tudor house, utilizing many of the design attributes of the style, such as overall massing and unique window designs, while not being covered with the exterior half- timbering traditionally found in Tudor houses. The half timbering is found, however, on the interior walls. While the Tudor style is generally associated with exterior half-timbering, many examples do not have that design element. The actual massing of the building with its steep gable roofs is the main attribute of a Tudor style house.
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture in England and Wales, during the Tudor period (1485–1603) and even beyond, and also the tentative introduction of Renaissance architecture to Britain. It followed the Late Gothic Perpendicular style and, gradually, it evolved into an aesthetic more consistent with trends already in motion on the continent, evidenced by other nations already having the Northern Renaissance underway such as Italy, and especially in France, which was already well into its revolution in art, architecture, and thought.
The MacBride Residence is significant for its custom Tudor architecture as well as being one of the earliest homes in its residential neighborhood in the Verdugo Woodlands community of Glendale.
Building Permit History
1855 Verdugo Knolls Drive
Glendale
D
ecember 8, 1923: Building Permit No. 9994 to construct a 2-story frame and stucco dwelling and garage at 1845 (now 1855) Verdugo
Knolls Drive on a portion of Lot 5 of Tract No. 4873.
Owner: R. K. McBryde
Architect: Not Listed
Contractor: Henry Nash
Cost: $8,000.00
D
ecember 26, 1923: Plumbing Permit No. 14360 to install and connect plumbing.
Owner: R. K. McBryde
Architect: None
Contractor: Stice Company
Cost: $968.00
Feb
ruary 13, 1924: Plumbing Permit No. 15248 to install septic tank for new residence.
Owner: R. K. McBryde
Architect: None
Contractor: V. Swan
Cost: Not Shown
Feb
ruary 19, 1924: Electrical Permit No. 13658 to install electrical wiring in new residence.
Owner: R. K. McBryde
Architect: None
Contractor: Steve Moliner
Cost: Not Shown
May 5, 1924: Electrical Permit No. 14765 to install additional wiring in new residence.
Owner: R. K. McBryde
Architect: None
Contractor: J. A. Newton
Cost: Not Shown
May 26, 1933: Plumbing Permit No. 20101 to install sewer line and hook up existing house to city sewer.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: Earl O. Stice
Cost: Not Shown
October 5, 1934: Plumbing Permit No. 25221 to install bath tub and water closet.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: D. A. Fox
Cost: Not Shown
February 11, 1936: Electrical Permit No. 14109 to upgrade wiring.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: Public Service
Cost: Not Shown
July 14, 1938
: Building Permit No. 11972 to construct a retaining wall.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: H. L. Currier
Cost: $75.00
December 14, 1948: Heating Permit No. 85903 to install a floor furnace .
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: Payne Furnace
Cost: Not Shown
December 14, 1948: Electrical Permit No. 53995 to install wiring for floor furnace.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: Payne Furnace
Cost: Not Shown
December 17, 1948: E;ectrical Permit No. 54070 to install wiring for electric oven.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: Montrose Electric
Cost: Not Shown
January 25, 1949: Sewer Permit No. 86484 to fill in cesspool.
Owner: U. B. Murphy
Architect: None
Contractor: H. L. Moe
Cost: Not Shown
December 14, 1976: Electrical Permit No. 30046 to install a 150 amperage circuit panal.
Owner: Mr. Effler
Architect: None
Contractor: E. R. Prout Electric
Cost: Not Shown