Résumé

Merchant seaman, East Coast of US, 1924. His application for a seaman's protection certificate of 10/08/1924 indicated that he had taken one sea voyage by this date. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Washington, D.C.; The National Archives and Records Administration; Application for Seaman´s Protection Certificates; NAI: 2788575; Record Group Title: Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation; Record Group Number: 41; Box Number: 434 - New York, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Principal, Maynard Parker, Architectural Photographer, Los Angeles, CA, 1930-c. 1972. Parker had an active practice photographing throughout the Pacific Coast, often on assignment from popular homes magazines such as House Beautiful. He maintained a close relationship with House Beautiful's high-profile editor, Elizabeth Gordon (1906-2000) (Julie V. Iovine, "Elizabeth Gordon, 94, Dies; Was House Beautiful Editor," New York Times, 09/17/2000, accessed 02/10/2015.). His works regularly appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. He retired from practice in the early 1970s, according to the Huntington Library. This web site also characterized Parker's photographic methods: "Parker’s work is often characterized by dramatic camera angles and lighting which he achieved using an antiquated four-by-five-inch camera and a complicated, jerry-rigged light system. He used a wide-angle lens to heighten a location's salient features, and he fearlessly scaled rooftops to achieve the optimum vantage point." (See The Hunitington Library, "The Maynard L. Parker Negative, Photographs and Other Materials," accessed 02/10/2015.)

Archives

Maynard Parker's photographic oeuvre has been maintained by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. According to the Huntington's web site, "The Maynard L. Parker collection consists of approximately 58,000 negatives, transparencies, and photographs as well as office records and business correspondence related to a wide range of American architects, publishers, and designers of the postwar era." (Accessed 02/10/2015.)

High School

According to the 1940 US Census, Parker completed four years of high school. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: m-t0627-00397; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 60-1070, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Relocation

Born in Cavendish, VT, Maynard L. Parker lived in Winchester, NH, when the 1910 US Census was taken on 05/17/1910. He resided in a dwelling with his parents, Luna and Ernest, his sister Daisy, and brother L.A. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Winchester, Cheshire, New Hampshire; Roll: T624_861; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0050; FHL microfilm: 1374874, accessed 08/27/2021.)

The Andover, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1920, (p. 143), indicated that Maynard had lived with his parents in North Andover, MA, c. 1919, but moved to Worcester, MA, c. 1920. The 1920 US Census noted that Parker lived in a rental apartment at 90 Prospect Street in Worcester. This three-story, wood-frame apartment building still stood in 2007. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Worcester Ward 3, Worcester, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_751; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 232, accessed 08/27/2021.)

Parker first visited CA in 1923, and decided to settle there six years later. He traveled extensively throughout the West on photographic assignments.

As newlyweds, Maynard and Annie May Parker resided in a Bunker Hill apartment building at 750 4th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0414; FHL microfilm: 2339883, accessed 08/30/2021.) A 1930 Los Angeles County voter registration record indicated that Maynard was already working as a photographer by this time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Voter records between 1932 and 1940 listed Maynard Parker as living at 1637 Delta Street in Los Angeles. This was in the hilly Victor Heights neighboorhood just west of Elysian Park and the later location of Dodger Stadium. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Maynard and Annie May Parker moved to a new address in 1940 about 1 mile southwest of the 1637 Delta Street location, where they would remain for the rest of their lives. The US Census of 1940 located them residing at 2230 Lemoyne Street in Los Angeles's Elysian Heights neighborhood. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: m-t0627-00397; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 60-1070, accessed 08/30/2021.)

The Parkers continued to live at 2230 Lemoyne up until Annie May's death in 1993. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: City: Los Angeles; State: California; Year(s): 1993-1994 Source Information: U.S., Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005, accessed 08/30/2021.) At some point, the 2230 address was renumbered to 2226 Lemoyne.

He died in Los Angeles County, CA, at the age of 75.

Parents

His father was Ernest Wesley Parker (born 11/12/1868 in Canada-d. 05/04/1937 in Westmoreland, NH), who, in 1910, worked as a spinner in a woolen mill in or near Winchester, NH, a town in the southwestern corner of the state nearby to VT and MA. This factory may have been the Thayer and Turner Woolen Mill located on the Lower Ashuelot River near Winchester. According to the 1910 Census, Ernest arrived in the US in 1869 from Canada. The census of 1920, listed his date of arrival as 1870. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Worcester Ward 3, Worcester, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_751; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 232, accessed 08/27/2021.) Ernest died of heart disease at the age of 70 in Keene, NH. His death certificate indicated that he worked as a salesman during his life.

In 1910, Parker's mother, Luna Vine Graves (born 04/23/1873 in Weston, VT-d. 04/29/1920 in Brattleboro, VT), worked as a weaver perhaps in the same Thayer and Turner Woolen Mill as Ernest. (Their daughter Daisy also worked in a woolen mill in Winchester as a warper in 1910.) (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Winchester, Cheshire, New Hampshire; Roll: T624_861; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0050; FHL microfilm: 1374874, accessed 08/27/2021.)

Luna also maintained the household and had four children, three of whom survived in 1910.

Maynard's surviving siblings included sister Daisy May Parker Lamarche (born 11/25/1892 in Mount Holly, VT-d. 10/03/1979 in Los Angeles, CA) and brother L.Arden Parker (born 09/11/1905 in Mount Holly, VT-d. 1962.)

Daisy M. Parker married at age 19 on 06/12/1912 to Loria J. Lamarche (1887-1973), a printer. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation New Hampshire Department of Health; Concord, New Hampshire; New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1700-1969, accessed 08/27/2021.)

Spouse

He married Annie May Vail (born 11/18/1901 in Brockway, NB, Canada-d. 04/30/1993 in Los Angeles, CA). According to US immigration paperwork, she entered the US at Calais, ME, on 08/26/1929. Annie May worked as a school teacher in NB, and was already engaged to Maynard Parker when she entered the US. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Alphabetical Manifest Cards of Alien Arrivals at Calais, Maine, ca. 1906-1952; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: M2042; Roll Number: 005, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Annie May Vail was one of seven children had by James O'Brien Vail (born 11/23/1866 in Brockway, NB-d. 10/17/1949 in Brockway, NB), and Anna Mae (or "May,") Brockway(born 1867 in NB-d. 1902 in Brockway, NB). They wed on 03/30/1893 in York, NB. According to their marriage license, James worked as a farmer, and both lived in Brockway, NB. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Provincial Archives of New Brunswick; New Brunswick, Canada Source Information Ancestry.com. New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017, accessed 08/30/2021.) The Vails were Baptists, and their surname was quite common in the farming district near the NB towns of Manners Sutton, York and Brockway.

It is likely that Annie May Brockway’s ancestors were pioneering Euro-Canadian settlers in this region of New Brunswick. Brockway was renamed in about 1898, for Reuben and Rufus Brockway, who migrated to this agricultural area from New Hampshire in 1818. The town had previously been known as "Magaguadavic," (also the name of a local river), a Maliseet / Passamaquoddy Indian word that was thought to have meant "River of Eels".

The 1940 US Census noted that Anna May had completed three years of college and was still a Canadian citizen. She worked as the bookkeeper for Maynard's photographic studio. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: m-t0627-00397; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 60-1070, accessed 08/30/2021.)

Children

He and Annie May had a daughter, Ann Vail Parker Carawan (born 02/11/1932 in Los Angeles, CA). She married Henry Barnwell Carawan, (born 12/11/1930 in Los Angeles, CA, d. 09/11/1994 in CA), an insulation contractor. (See “Henry Barnwell Carawan, Insulation Contractor,” Santa Clarita Signal and Saugus Enterprise, 09/14/1994, p. A2.)

Ann Vail Carawan had a daughter named Anne Vail Carawan Briggs, making four generations of mothers and daughters with the first name Ann or Anne.

Notes

Prior to 08/27/2021, PCAD had an incorrect date of birth for Maynard L. Parker. It was previously noted as 12/04/1901, rather than the accurate date of 12/04/1900. This date of 12/04/1901 can be found in the Find a Grave.com listing for Parker and the California Death Index. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Place: Los Angeles; Date: 9 Jul 1976; Social Security: 562141410, accessed 08/27/2021.) Parker's World War II draft registration card, filled out in his presence, listed the date as 12/04/1900. The Social Security Death Index also recorded it as 12/04/1900. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, accessed 08/27/2021.) Additionally, the birthdate of 12/04/1900 was written in Parker's own hand on an application for a seaman's protection certificate, 10/08/1924.

According to his World War II draft registration card of 02/16/1942, Parker was Caucasian with a ruddy complexion, and had brown eyes and brown hair. He stood 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. Notable physical characteristics included a scar on the little finger of his right hand and a small tattoo on his right wrist. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for California, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1376, accessed 08/27/2021.) The tattoo may have been obtained while Parker worked in the merchant marine.

As noted in the Huntington Library's brief biography of Parker, the photographer occaisionally went by the name, "Mike." He maintained archery and building furniture as hobbies. (See Online Archive of California (OAC).org, "Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material: Finding Aid," accessed 08/27/2021.)

Maynard's middle name "Lucius," honored his mother Luna and maternal grandfther, Lucius D. Graves (born 06/12/1845 in VT-d. 06/01/1907 in VT).

Parker was a neighbor of the architect Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903-1990), whose Fellowship Park House was highly published in the mid-to-late 1930s.

Parker sailed alone aboard the Matson Lines' ship S.S. Matsonia between Honolulu, HI, and Los Angeles, CA, beginning on 02/28/1947. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Departing from Honolulu, Hawaii, compiled 06/1900 - 11/1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A3510; Roll: 152; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: RG 85, accessed 08/27/2021.)

Maynard Parker registered as a Republican in every election between 1930 and 1960, although he declined to state publicly his party affiliation in the heavily Democratic FDR years of 1936, 1938 and 1940. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 08/30/2021.)

SSN: 562-14-1410;

• Los Angeles, CA (Architect's Death)
  Los Angeles, CA

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  Los Angeles

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• Cavendish, VT (Architect's Birth)
  Cavendish, VT 05142

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