3731 MONTEITH DRIVE

VIEW PARK
(Unincorporated Los Angeles County)

Former Address: 3729 Monteith Drive (at the time of construction)

Style: Colonial Revival

Year of Completion: 1937

Original Building Permit: #36,777issued by the County of Los Angeles on November 20,
1936 for a dwelling and garage. The house was to measure approximately 36 by 48 feet.

A copy of this permit is no longer available. However, the Southwest Builder and Contactor, a
weekly journal of the construction trade, published a summary in its issue of December 4, 1936.
A copy is attached on page 9.

Cost to Build: $6,500a typical cost for a house of this size during the Great Depression.

Builder: E. F. Kernan, Jr., Beverly Hills.

Architect: Unfortunately, the designer of this house remains unknown. The building permit,
which is usually the source of this information, does not identify him. The major secondary
resource for this data is the Southwest Builder and Contractor that reported most of the building
projects associated with the major designers and builders of Southern California. However, a
scan of the ANews-Notes,@ AContracts Recorded,@ and other relevant sections of all issues of the
Southwest Builder between October 2 and December 4, 1936 did not turn up any information
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except for the building permit summary. There may be several reasons for this: the designer was
not very skilled at self-promotion and did not see the advantage of announcing his projects to the
public; the owner was represented by another person so that his name did not appear in any
announcements; or the owner preferred to remain anonymous, in which case a number of Ablind
entries@ that identify an architect but not the client or the specific location could apply to this
property.

In some cases, the builder or owner would purchase or Aborrow@ the plans and specifications
from a publication. A number of residences appear to have been influenced by designs published
in house pattern-books and in popular magazines including Good Housekeeping, The Ladies=
Home Journal, and House and Garden. Once the plans were purchased, the builder might then
embellish them according to his own or his clients tastes. Some owners would even ask their
builder to replicate a house they had seen somewhere else, perhaps while traveling abroad or in
another state.

Some builders were known to consult with established architects who, for a set fee, might
quickly sketch out a few ideas for the builder to enlarge upon, without taking credit for the actual
design. In other instances, the builder might engage the services of a non-professional designer
or perhaps an un-licensed architect who, for one reason or another, wished to remain anonymous.
(By the mid-1920s, state licensing laws prevented un-certificated designers from putting their
names on building permits.) Some very successful builders employed architects on their staffs,
but unfortunately their names were rarely included on the plans or building permits. Often these
were designers just starting their careers, many of whom would later set up their own private
practices. A number of important Southern California architects, such as Wallace Neff and Paul
Williams, began their professional lives working anonymously for builders and real estate
developers.

However, it must be emphasized that many experienced and talented builders did not engage
architects but did their own design work. A builder who had worked with a number of well-
known architects might Aborrow@ stylistic elements that he fancied or felt were marketable and
incorporate them into his own buildings.

First Owners: James N. Taggard and his wife Coila M. Taggard. In September 1935, they had
purchased the vacant parcel from the Los Angeles Investment Company which was developing
most of the tract. The firm had bought the land from Jane ONeil Linsenmeyer in 1934.

James Norman Taggard was born on March 21, 1902 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents were
Campbellite missionaries and teachers who had moved to Hawaii in 1896 from Waitsburg,
Washington. His father James Nelson Taggard and mother Alta Gail Taggard both taught at the
Kalihi-waena School of which the senior Mr. Taggard later became the principal. In 1910, the
family moved back to Waitsburg where James Nelson Taggard became a fruit farmer. They
briefly returned to Hawaii before moving to Berkeley, California where the senior Mr. Taggard
again took up teaching and Mrs. Taggard ran a family boardinghouse.

After graduating from the public schools in Berkeley, James Norman Taggard attended the
University of California at Berkeley from which he earned a B.A. degree in commerce in 1924.
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While living for a time in Santa Ana, he entered the insurance business as a sales agent and
underwriter. He continued in that profession after moving to Los Angeles.

Mr. Taggard married his wife in 1933 in Yuma, Arizona. She was born Coila Irene Manly on
October 17, 1897 in Dawson, Minnesota. She lived part of her childhood in San Francisco. Her
first marriage to Wallace D. Pope in 1924 was a short onehe died in 1929 at the age of 34.
The 1930 census shows Mrs. Pope as a young widow teaching public high school in Los
Angeles. She continued teaching after she married Mr. Taggard. They appear to have had no
surviving children.

By the time he moved into his new Monteith Drive home, Mr. Taggard was manager of the Los
Angeles office of Hartford Indemnity. Mr. and Mrs. Taggard would later reside in Pasadena
where Mrs. Taggard was active in the San Marino Womens Club. James Taggard died in
Beverly Hills on January 5, 1986 at the age of 83. Mrs. Taggard passed away on April 16, 1993
having reached the age of 95. No obituaries could be found for Mr. and Mrs. Taggard in the Los
Angeles Times. A 1959 passport photograph of Mr. Taggard is attached on page 6.

Mr. Taggards sister Genevieve Irene Taggard (1894-1948) was an internationally renowned
poet who had written a breathtaking book on the life of Emily Dickinson in 1931. Her papers
are in the archives of the New York Public Library.

Other Building Permits: This house has remained virtually unchanged since it was first built.
According to Los Angeles County Assessors records no major permits have been issued for it
since 1936.

(Note: Permits for very minor alterations, such as water heater replacement, are not included.
Also not included are permits missing from the file or whose microfilmed or digital copies are
indecipherable and not otherwise recorded or described in Assessors records.)

Assessors Records: The Los Angeles County Assessor first visited the property on August 23,
1937 and recorded a newly-constructed single two-story residence. The house had a concrete
foundation, walls covered in stucco and wood siding, and a gabled shingled roof. Heat was
provided by a fireplace and a gas furnace with seven registers. There were ten plumbing
fixtures. Interior stucco and knotty-pine paneling were the primary interior finishes. A buffet
was built-in. The house had a total of six hardwood floors. Overall construction quality of the
house was rated specialthe highest category available on the Assessors form.

The Assessor estimated the square footage at 2,112. On the first floor were two living rooms
(one was probably a dining room), a bathroom, a kitchen with tile counters and partially tiled
walls, and a breakfast room. The second floor contained two bedrooms and one tiled bathroom.
There was also a basement that measured approximately ten by twelve feet and was four feet
deep. A six-by-eight-foot brick porch was located outside the main entrance to the house. The
attached garage measured approximately eighteen by twenty feet.

In 1973, the Assessor noted a 360-square-foot sun porch on the roof of the garage that he said
had been built at some unknown point in the past. It had walls of wood siding and fixed-glass
windows.
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The Los Angeles County Assessor currently estimates the square footage of the house at 2,088
with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Copies of the Assessors building records are attached on pages 10 through 13.

Other Owners and Residents: After over twenty years of ownership, Mr. and Mrs. Taggard
family sold their home in March 1957 to Roland W. and Lucille M. Bultken. Mr. Bultken
worked as an electrician at a motion-picture studio.

Joe R. Noblia became the owner in October 1959. Mr. Noblia was a salesman with the Gyver
Freeman Company of Los Angeles.

In November 1970, title passed to Moses Eugene Hillary. Mr. Hillary was active in the
administration of the YMCA. Donald E. Johnson became the administrative owner in October
1973.

Ernie and Stanlee J. Mills took possession in January 1975. Mrs. Mills was recorded as the sole
owner in September 1986.

Title transferred to Kevin Frazier, a sports anchor and actor, and Andrea M. Frazier in February
1998.

William K. and Jeanne C. Collins have been the owners since July 2002.

Notes: On June 6, 1937 the Los Angeles Times published several photographs of the exterior and
interior of the Taggard house. It was described as a New England Colonial-type residence with
many charming features and a superb panorama of a large portion of Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, the architect is not identified. A copy of this article can be found on page 7.

The property was advertised for sale in the November 11, 1956 issue of the Times. It was
described as a beautiful two bedroom plus paneled den. Elegantly carpeted and draped.
Beautiful yard. A copy of the ad is attached on page 8.

Significance: The Taggard House is a contributor to the View Park Historic District listed on
the National Register of Historic Places in September 2016.
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Sources:
Los Angeles County Assessor (Culver City district office and Los Angeles archives)
Los Angeles County, Building Division
Los Angeles Public Library
University of Southern California, Architecture and Fine Arts Library

Gebhard, David and Robert Winter. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles.

Salt Lake City, Gibbs-Smith, 2003.
McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses. 2nd ed.
New York, Knopf, 2013.

City Directories: 1937-

Los Angeles Times: June 6, 1937; November 11, 1956

Internet Resources, including California Index, California Death Index,

Gale Biography Master Index, Ancestry.com, and Historic Los Angeles Times
Database.

Tim Gregory
The Building Biographer
400 East California Blvd., #3
Pasadena, CA 91106-3763
626-792-7465
timgregory@sbcglobal.net
www.buildingbiographer.com
Copyright August 2017
by Tim Gregory
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JAMES N. TAGGARD
Passport photo 1959
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Los Angeles Times

November 11, 1956; p. O29
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Southwest Builder and Contractor

December 4, 1936; p. 60
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