Researching Your Home’s History

Form a Game Plan

“Researching a home is a discovery. It’s like a treasure hunt, a mystery, and you are the detective looking for clues,” said Marguerite Duncan Abrams, president of Pasadena Heritage.

But before you dust off the magnifying glass, figure out which mysteries you’d like to solve. These questions can help you identify the aspects of research that may appeal to you:

* If you are restoring or renovating your house, do you wish to make sure that the project accurately reflects the building’s history? What part of the house should be preserved and which parts can be changed?

* How did the house evolve from its original construction to its present state? Do the alterations reflect changing fashions and lifestyles? For example, was a sun porch converted to a family room?

* How did the neighborhood evolve? How have factors such as changing demographics and transportation development affected the neighborhood?

* What (or who) influenced the design and/or specific architectural features of the house?

* Who was the architect, the builder, the developer? What other houses did he or she design or build?

* Who was the original owner? Is the owner’s personality or personal history reflected in the house?

* Who else lived in the house and how did their lives affect future changes?

* How does the history of the house fit in context with local, state or social history?

Your interests will determine the initial direction of your research. But as any good detective will tell you, clues uncovered along the way may change your focus.

Contact the Local Historical Society

The local historical or preservation society, if available in your community, can help you:

* Avoid duplication of efforts. If you suspect that your house is “historically significant,” the historical society can tell you (or tell you how to find out) if research is already available.

* Get started. Even if your house is not historically significant, the historical society can often provide enough information to get sleuths started. In Maria Kennedy’s case, the Covina Historical Society provided two pieces of information: the name E. P. Bomer (the builder, designer and owner) and the year 1922.

* Learn about resources. Many cities, such as Pasadena and Redondo Beach, have access to unique storehouses of historical information. The historical society can tell you what these resources are and how you can gain access to them.

* Hire a professional. If the process seems overwhelming, ask the historical society to recommend a professional historian.

Head for the Courthouse

Deeds, those seemingly lifeless real estate records, are the beginning point in your search for clues. They reveal the house’s time line of ownership, purchase prices and property descriptions, information of interest to anyone tracing the evolution of the house. And the original deed might also make known the builder or developer and, if applicable, the architect.

In Los Angeles County, deeds can be found at the County Clerk’s Department Headquarters, (12400 E. Imperial Highway, Room 2207, Norwalk; [800] 201-8999).

Real estate records are maintained in alphabetical indexes by name and year the document was recorded. By starting with the current owner’s name and date of sale, you can “chain” a title (go through deeds to find out previous owners) back to the original owner.

Building permits are another source for following the development of your house. Contact City Hall or, if your house is in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County (or was when it was built), head for the Los Angeles County Public Works, Building & Safety Division, 125 South Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. County records are available for houses built after 1932.

Be a Nosy Neighbor

Find out if any longtime residents in the neighborhood know about the history of the area or your house. Historian Tim Gregory, however, cautions sleuths to “take what you hear with a grain of salt unless you can find written documentation to back it up.”

By tracking down Stan Smith, the 82-year-old Covina resident who was a boy when he knew Eben Putnam Bomer, Kennedy was able to add a personality to the name on the deed. Bomer emerged as a kind, cheerful man who “fixed broken wagons for the neighborhood kids.”

Spend the Day at the Library

Local libraries and the Los Angeles Central Library are stocked with more than books. Directories, indexes, newspapers and maps can be invaluable research tools.

* City directories, available in many local libraries, list the address, the residents’ names and their professions or places of business. The profession or place of business will be of special interest. “Unusual architectural features can sometimes be very revealing clues to the personality or profession of the original owner if the house was custom built,” according to Gregory.

* Death index. The history department of the Los Angeles Central Library maintains a microfiche index of deaths in California after 1930. To check deaths before 1930, plan a trip to the Archives of the Los Angeles County Recorder (12400 E. Imperial Highway, Norwalk). Death certificates are filed by name.

* Obituaries. Once you know the date of death, check local newspapers for an obituary, a rich source of biographical information.

Obituaries also provide many leads, such as names of children, business names and club affiliations that can be pursued.

* Maps. The history department of the Los Angeles Library, and some local libraries, have maps from the Sanborn Map Co. These maps, dating to 1867, are available for more than 12,000 cities in the United States.

Originally for use by fire insurance companies, they give a bird’s-eye view of the town and show an outline of each building, along with its number of stories and a description of building materials. Researchers can trace the development of an area by determining when buildings appeared and disappeared over the years.

Helpful Archives

If you are interested in pursuing genealogical information, Southern California has a wealth of resources. Although Kennedy was able to dig up volumes of information on the prominent Putnam family, she cautions, “If the person or family you’re researching isn’t prominent, there’s a possibility you’ll come up with nothing.”

* Southern California Genealogical Society, (417 Irving Drive, Burbank; [818] 843-7247): books, cemetery records, family histories, some census records.

* Family History Centers of the Mormon Church, (Westwood, [310] 474-9990): census reports (1790-1920), birth and death records on microfilm, ancestral files, Social Security files (1930-1994).

* National Archives, (24000 Avila Road, First Floor, P.O. Box 6719, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677; [714] 360-2641. Serves Arizona, Southern California counties and Clark County, Nev.): census records (1790-1920).

Surf the Web

Gregory often uses Internet searchers such as Yahoo as a resource for investigating people. Gregory’s records indicated that the original owner of a house in San Marino was a “circ manager.” Gregory assumed this meant “circulation manager,” until a Yahoo search revealed that the homeowner was the manager of Billy Bob Circus.

Kennedy also used Yahoo to track down the great-granddaughter of Bomer. Her genealogical work provided the surnames of Bomer’s descendants and Yahoo supplied the address and phone number.

Pull it All Together

After your initial information gathering, sit down with all of the pieces and see how they fit together. You may need to head back to the library or local historical society for further research on architecture, local or state history.

As Kennedy and others have discovered, much of the information is meaningless until put into some sort of context.

In the case of Bomer, a little knowledge of American history (the westward migration in the mid-19th century), California history (the development of the Southern California orange groves) and architecture (the Greek revival influences) helped bring Bomer’s story to life.