25A - 920 N. TOWNER STREET - Laserfiche WebLink

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State of California - The Resources Agency DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION CONTINUATION SHEET Page ...L of~ 'Recorded by Leslie J. Heumann, SAIC Primary # HRI# Trinomial Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Towner-Rogers House 'Date May 29, 2003 00 Continuation 0 Update *B10. Significance (continued): 1943, when compared to current addresses on the street. suggest that the numbering may have been changed in the 1940s when Towner Street was subdivided north of Tenth Street. If so, it is possible that 920 Towner may have been 850 Towner and thus the home of the original properly owner on the street. During the 1940s, 920 Towner was one of several properties on Towner that was associated, either through building permit records or city directories, with Emmet C, Rogers, a building contractor. The patriarch of the Towner family was attomeyJames W. Towner, Bom in New York State in 1823, J. W. Towner was a teacher, studied for the ministry, and a lumberman before he settled on a career in law. He came to Santa Ana in 1882 and was appointed the first judge of the Superior Court when the County of Orange was created. Serving in that capacity until 1897, after which he resumed private practice from an office adjacent to his home on West Fourth Street, J. W. Towner died in 1913, His son, ArthurJ. Towner, arrived in Santa Ana in 1880, two years earlier than his father, and took up farming, the occupation of his father's father, Trained as a gunsmith, A. J, Towner also had a sporting goods business. He lived at 850 North Towner Street until his death in 1909 at the age of 58. H, Fred Towner, A. J. 's son, occupied a properly immediately to the west, at 833 North Baker Street, until 1921. A blacksmith, H, Fred Towner made his reputation in farming equipment, and was the holder of several patents, Santa Ana was founded by Wiffiam Spurgeon in 1869 as a speculative town site on part of the Spanish land grant known as Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, The civic and commercial core of the community was centered around the intersection of Main and Fourth Streets, Stimulated by the a"ival of the Santa Fe Railroad and incorporation as a city in 1886, and selection as the seat of the newly created County of Orange in 1889, the city grew outwards, with residential neighborhoods developing to the north, south, and east of the city center. Agricultural uses predominated in the outlying areas, with cultivated fields and orchards dotted with widely scattered farmhouses. The Towner-Rogers House is located in Washington Square, a neighborhood located northwest of the city center bounded by West Seventeenth Street on the north, West Civic Center Drive on the south, North Flower Street on the east, and North Bristol Street on the west, Most of this area was owned by the family of Jacob Ross, who had purchased portions of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana in 1868 and 1869, Walnuts and other crops were grown in the area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a few farmhouses, most notably the Ross-McNeal House at 1020 North Baker Street, dotting the landscape. By 1905, Baker and Towner were the only streets in the neighborhood, which extended from Hickey (now Civic Center) only as far as Washington and which contained only about a dozen homes. The status quo had not changed much by 1915, when a brick yard was located at the northern terminus of Olive Street at Hickey, In 1925, the beginning of the development that would convert this largely agricultural area into a middle class neighborhood of single- family homes over the next 25 years had begun, In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Tudor Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival homes were the standard, with American Colonial Revival saltboxes and ranch style homes favored in the years before and after World War fl. During the 1930s, many of the homes were built by local contractor Emmett Rogers, who sold lots and built homes according to standard plans, which individual properly owners could customize to their tastes (Washington Square: A Neighborhood of Pride," Washington Square Neighborhood Association), With the return of servicemen following the war and the accompanying demand for homes in southern California, the development of Washington Square was all but completed. The Towner-Rogers House qualifies for listing in the Santa Ana Register of Historical Properties under Criterion 1 as a representative example of the early Craftsman style that appeared in Santa Ana during the first few years of the twentieth century. Typical Craftsman features of the house include exposed structural elements, a capacious, gabled, front porch, tapered porch supports, and tripartite windows, These features are juxtaposed with the tall and narrow proportions of the double-hung windows and the use of leaded glass, elements more characteristic of the Victorian era and early twentieth century Colonial Revival styles. The house may also qualify under Criterion 4b, for association with an early landowner and developer, if the suspected connection with the Towner family can be proven. Additionally, the house has been categorized as "Contributive" because it "contributes to the overall character and history" of Washington Square through its age and style, and is a "good example" of the early Craftsman style that "has not been substantially altered." Character defining exterior features of the Towner-Rogers House that should be preserved include, but may not be limited to: materials (wood, brick) and finishes (clapboard); roof configuration and detailing; massing; porch; windows and doors; and architectural details such as porch supports and leaded glass windows, DPR 523L 25A~a5