Leave it to Lanaii to find an historic Stoutenburgh house on the west coast. But I’ll let her tell you about it.
John B. Stoutenburgh Home
255 South Marengo Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
John B. Stoutenburgh Home
Printed August 15, 2012
STFA Annual Newsletter
by Lanaii Kline
I lived in Los Angeles for many years. Some number of years after I graduated from UCLA, I returned to study environmental and interior design where I studied many architectural styles.
As I was mostly attracted to Victorian homes, I purchased large photographic prints of some of the most beautiful Victorian homes in Southern California. But Frank Lloyd Wright and craftsman homes also struck a chord with me.
From a historical architectural point of view, Pasadena was the enclave of the craftsman homes of which the Gamble house is the most renown. I hadn’t given much thought to any other historical architectural styles that might exist in Pasadena until recently. I came across a photo of the Stoutenburgh house in Pasadena.
There’s a Stoutenburgh house in Pasadena! It’s true. The house, built in 1893, was designed by Thomas Fellows and owned by John B. Stoutenburgh. It is built in the Queen Anne-Eastlake style.
John Stoutenburgh, born in Pennsylvania in 1836, was the son of William Isaac and Caroline Allen Stoutenburgh. His grandparents were James Luke and Sarah Morris Stoutenburgh.
In 1860, I found John in Jackson, Michigan to where he had moved in 1856. He married Mary Hewitt there. What prompted the family to move to California in 1887? I have no clue.
From what I can ascertain, John died somewhere between the 1900 Census in which he was living and the 1905 California State Census in which he was not living with his wife. His wife was described as a widow in 1910.
Mary Caroline Hewitt and John B. Stoutenburgh had only one child, a daughter born in 1859. Mary Ellen married about 1908 and had no offspring. Her husband Frederick Taylor died about 1921. Mary Ellen, known as Nellie, died shortly after 1930.
I did a Google search on the address. The satellite view shows that this house is surrounded by commercial and multi-use buildings. I feel like it’s Davy Crockett at the last stand of the Alamo. You can see from the photo … that this is a very beautiful house.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. I found a document at the National Park Service that included photos of the property in 1979 while it was in the midst of renovation.
