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Overview

Charles Royal Butler (born c. 1887 in PA) , in 1924, the Superintendent of the Sandburg Petroleum Company (and by 1927, the President) and President of the Signal Petroleum Company of California (by 1928) resided in this modest Spanish Colonial Revival bungalow in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach, CA. He lived here with his wife, Emma Marie (born c. 1890 in IN), from at least 1924 until 1938.

Building History

The owner of this residence, Charles R. Butler, moved to the locations of major oil strikes in Southern CA from at least 1910-1923. He was born in the oil-rich state of PA, and was working as an oil driller in CA by 1910. In that year, he lived with his 19-year-old wife, Emma Marie, in the Cat Canyon oil field of central Santa Barbara County. In 1908, the Palmer Oil Company struck oil in this area of the Solomon Hills, setting off an oil rush in the canyon. (In 1912, Palmer Oil was bought by the Cunard Steamship Company for $10 million.) By 1920, he and his wife lived in Rowland Heights, CA, an unincorporated community in the San Gabriel Valley, where he worked as the superintendent of an oil company, perhaps the Puente Oil Company, which operated here from 1884 until the 1920s. By 1923, he resided in Long Beach, where the huge Signal Hill oil strike occurred in 1921. He became President of the Sandburg Petroleum Company by the mid-1920s, and the President of the Signal Petroleum Company by 1928.

Alterations

According to the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office, the house underwent alterations in 1938.