A look back -- Jerry Person

The National Register of Historic Places is a list of sites the

federal government recognizes as being historically special, and

Huntington Beach is lucky to have three on the prestigious list.

One of them is the home of William and Mary Newland on Beach Boulevard

at Adams Avenue. Another is the city gym and pool on Palm Avenue, and the

third is the Helm-Worthy house and commercial building at Walnut Avenue

and 6th Street.

Nestled between these two structures is a simple, single-story,

stone-facade structure that belonged to one of two pioneering brothers.

Lawrence E. Worthy, who was born in Ozark, Ark., in 1894, operated his

plumbing business in the wood and stone building at 419 Walnut Ave. for

nearly half a century.

His family moved to California in 1897, when Worthy was 3, and

purchased farm land in the Ocean View area of what would become part of

Huntington Beach.

“Boots” as he was affectionately known to his friends, opened a

plumbing shop on Walnut Avenue that he ran from 1925 to 1965.

Boots lived next to his plumbing shop in the family home at 128 6th

St. with his wife, Amy, and sons, Jerry and Norman.

Norman would go on and make a name for himself in our city years

later, including having a park named for him.

Amy’s father, Matthew Helm, originally built the two-story commercial

building on Walnut Avenue to house his furniture store.

When Any died in 1951, Boots was remarried to a woman named Margaret,

who died in May 1971.

Boots was an elder in the First Christian Church for 35 years and led

its choir for 30 years. He belonged to the Lions and Rotary clubs.

Lawrence Worthy’s brother, Conrad, was born in Orange County in 1897.

He grew up in the Ocean View area of Huntington Beach, where he farmed

the area for some 50 years with the help of his wife, Pearl, and sons,

Bruce and Roland.

These two brothers shared a goal of making Huntington Beach a better

place.

“Boots” Worthy died at noon Dec. 22, 1971, in Garden Grove. five hours

later, his brother, Conrad, died in Santa Ana.

Today, Boots’ granddaughter, Susie, and her husband, Guy, live in

Lawrence’s home and are restoring the apartments above Matthew Helm’s old

furniture store and treasuring those golden memories of a time when the

horse and buggy was the means of transportation and these two special

brothers contributed to the city’s history.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write to him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.