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Building History

A Missouri native, Leslie Coombs Brand (1859-1925) founded the Los Angeles-based Title Guarantee and Trust Company in 1895, and later went on to become a large-scale developer in the city of Glendale, CA. According to Keith Biever, a family member of Dryden's and researcher on his work, Brand owned about 1,000 acres of the original 36,000 acres included in the Mexican Rancho San Rafael. (See email from Keith J. Biever to the author, 03/27/2013.)

He worked with his friend and business associate Henry Huntington (1850-1927) to bring the Pacific Electric Railway to Glendale in 1904, enhancing the value of his land here. Brand and his wife, Mary Louise Brand (1871-1945) had no children, and they elected to will their house and estate to the City of Glendale. In 1945, after Mary Louise's death, the residence became a public library named for them, and the surrounding land, a city park.

Leslie Brand's brother-in-law, Nathaniel Dryden (1849-1924)

Building Notes

Leslie Brand's exotic house, known locally as "Brand's Castle," was patterned on the Mughal Styled Indian Pavilion built for the 1893 Columbian World Exposition in Chicago, IL. Tel: 818.548.2051 (2013).