OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Overview

The extremely influential Los Angeles lawyer, Henry W. O'Melveny, partner in the law firm of Graves, O'Melveny and Shankland, erected this summer house in the Angeles National Forest.

Building History

Lawyer and outdoorsman Henry William O'Melveny (1859-1941) and his wife, Marie Antoinette Schilling (1861-1962), used this San Gabriel Valley house as a weekend getaway spot from about 1900 until 1933. Located in what would become the Angeles National Forest, O'Melveny purchased 350 acres of wooded and mountainous land in 1897. He commissioned the architectural firm of Hunt and Eager to design a rustic retreat where he could entertain family and legal colleagues with fishing and hiking for about 36 years. The O'Melvenys utilized the summer camp until the area was submerged by the construction of the Morris Dam northwest of Azusa, CA, completed in 1935. O'Melveny was an avid gardener, and planted many flowers, trees and crops in and around his retreat. (See Cecilia Rasmussen, "A Man Who Found Peace in the Hills," Los Angeles Times, written 10/02/1995, accessed 02/17/2017.)

The magazine Land of Sunshine published a short notice and photograph of the O'Melveny House in its 07/1898 issue. It wrote of the dwelling: ""For a permanent summer home H.W. O'Melveny of Los Angeles is building a neat cottage on his 140-acre ranch, ten acres of which are devoted to horticulture. He will no doubt be followed by other kindred minds who prefer quiet amidst natural beauty to the noise and obtrusion of articial surroundings." (See "San Gabriel Cañon Resort," Land of Sunshine, vol. 9, no. 2, 07/1898, pp. 106.)

The O'Melveny House was designed at the end of the Eisen and Hunt firm and just before the beginning of the Hunt and Eager firm. A presentation drawing by Abraham Wesley Eager (1864-1930) was illustrated in the above Land of Sunshine article.

PCAD id: 20909