Homer Valentine
Famous Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights Home Builder
RAISED ON A TENNESSEE FARM
Born in 1902, Homer Valentine and his 2 brothers and 3 sisters learned how to build and fix most anything on the family's Jackson, Tennessee farm – from the basement to the roof and from the main house to the outhouse.
A natural tinkerer, he became an expert telegrapher by his late teens and parlayed that skill into a job with the local railroad. When he had saved enough money he attended business school during the day and worked for the railroad at night.
Homer put his business education to use by opening a successful Tennessee general store, selling soap to saddles. The coming of World War II impacted everyone and made it difficult to stock a decent supply of many basic items.
THE WESTWARD MIGRATION
He took his family and left the war weary population of Jackson, Tennessee in 1944 for the West. He probably drove his 1941 Chevy fairly slowly, as there was a wartime rationing of gasoline.
The family rolled up to the Inglewood Motel and began their new life. They soon moved into Homer's sister-in-law's Inglewood house. Homer's eleven-year old son Lynn became a student at Audubon Junior High School, in Leimert Park.
It was a time when people gathered around their Philco table radios listening to the latest war reports and then finding relief hearing Bing Crosby crooning "I'll Be Seeing You", the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzerald singing "I'm Making Believe", and the Andrew Sisters and Bing Crosby harmonizing on "Don’t Fence Me In".
High on a hill, above Stocker Street at 4400 Mount Vernon Drive, is a beautiful running track with a solitary bronze plaque and a LA. County Parks Department sign, both with Ingold's name misspelled. There is no mention of Reuben Ingold and L.A. Investment Company's roles in the creation of View Park, Ladera Heights and other areas of Los Angeles.
Valentine started buying dirt lots from Ingold and constructed a large number of homes in View Park, beginning in 1946. "There was vacant land above Valley Ridge Avenue, and that is where we started building," Lynn recounted.
"L.A Investment Company would open a street a year and sell lots to builders," Lynn Valentine explained. "Dad bought many of his lots from them. He built on Olympiad Drive, Valley Ridge, a bunch on Fairway, on Kenway and on other View Park streets. He even built a home for Reuben Ingold, in View Park.
"When I was young, we planned to move in to one of the homes my dad built, but they always sold too fast." Lynn commented. "Dad finally got around to building a home just for us at Fairway Boulevard and Valley Ridge Avenue in View Park."
Cal Worthington lived two houses down from Valentine. Back then, the famous car dealer had a Slauson Avenue location in Huntington Park.
"Dad was building some two-story houses in View Park in the 1950s,"Lynn remembered. "We usually put in a 3-car garage, with the main entry on the lower level. On the other side was a recreation room, living room, and bedrooms. Upstairs is where people wanted a living room, dining room, master bedroom and family room."
"When Ladera Heights land was opened up to builders, dad started building just one-story homes, Lynn said. We tried to get all the corner lots in a new tract, as well as in other areas. We often put in four-car garages in those corner homes."
Springpark Avenue, in lower Ladera, was the last street opened up by L.A. Investment Company. " Reuben Ingold had sold us so many lots, he had to act as a referee with all the builders." Lynn recalled, "So, we were limited to buying lots on just one side of Springpark."
BRILLIANT MARKETING CONCEPT
Valentine always tried to be innovative, so his houses would stand out.
"Dad was kind of inventive in his own way. After the war when the building boom started, the developers and builders never landscaped the new houses," Lynn said. "He realized people wanted to move in to a completely finished home, both inside and out. He came up with a complete turnkey package. He was one of the first builders to sell homes with fully landscaped grounds. Potential buyers took one look and loved it."
He constantly looked for any new breakthrough that would give him an edge in selling his homes. "When dad saw his first remote garage door opener, around 1949, he flipped for it and started putting one in every house. Buyers really went for them. It was a big deal."
LADERA HEIGHTS
Valentine got so busy building homes, it got the attention of the Bank of America manager at the Crenshaw branch. The bank approached the builder to finance new homes in the upcoming new Ladera Heights development.
"Garth Avenue was one of the first streets in lower Ladera that the L.A. Investment Company opened up to builders. So dad, on a whim, bought two adjacent Garth lots at $7500 each in 1954 from Reuben Ingold," Lynn recalled.
NEW HOUSE EVERY TWO WEEKS
"Demand for new homes kept increasing. "We tried to start a house every two weeks in Ladera," Lynn said. "We had an ideal situation. Never took bids from subcontractors. We used same subs for each and every facet of the construction over and over. We had a crew of carpenters and a crew of painters, electricians, plumbers, and one laborer. They always treated us fairly. I made the rounds of our homes being built every day. I'd roll out of bed, get in the truck, go to a job two minutes away and then go to next one and the next. Picked up lumber or whatever else was needed."
"The biggest challenge was getting permits to start houses. Dad was able to talk the L.A. County permit department into getting permits ready when we needed them. He had a fine reputation."
A LESSON LEARNED FAST
Costs were a major factor to Homer, but he wanted to give buyers a premium product. "We were putting in beautiful three-quarter inch hardwood floors," Lynn said, "Yet, people were putting carpeting down over those lovely floors."
A light went on in Homer's head. "We started putting in plain plywood floors, knowing the buyers were going to put down carpeting. This saved us a lot of money by not adding the finished wooden floors," Lynn explained.
"But when the weekend open house came," Lynn recounted, "It didn't matter how much I smiled at the buyers or offered a good price, they would take one look at the plywood floors and they would walk out. I had to break the news to dad that the unfinished plywood floors were discouraging buyers."
ROLL OUT THE CARPET
Homer was a can-do kind of guy, so he immediately started a long-term relationship with Crenshaw Carpets. "We got that house carpeted during the week, and it sold at the next weekend's open house."
Things were rolling along so fast that Homer started worrying about keeping his new homes from looking to similar.
"To be honest with you, it was kind of difficult to keep the houses looking different from each other." Lynn remembered.
"I credit Homer Valentine for the expansion of my career, when I was starting out. People would admire the style and design of Homer's new houses and call me to draw up plans for their homes," Earl said. "I still love the Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights areas. The homes and grounds are so well kept up. I grew up in Windsor Hills myself."
"Homer liked to build homes close to where he lived. When he lived in View Park, he built there. When he lived in Ladera Heights, he had his crews there. I often ended up traveling a lot further," the architect said with a smile.
Earl acquired his A.I.A. credentials and went on to build elegant estate homes all over Southern California, Hawaii and across the country, as well as in China, Brunei and elsewhere. His clients have included professional sports figures, Madonna, Nancy Sinatra, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Kardashian, Barron Hilton, and Warren Beatty, among dozens of others. He also designed Reuben Ingold's home and that of Ingold's son-in-law and daughter.
HOMER VALENTINE'S UPSCALE BRAINSTORM
"We had been selling $60,000 to $70,000 homes," Lynn remembered. "That was a solid price in those times. Dad wanted to test the waters on a higher priced model. He sought out a respected architect with a great design esthetic, Charles W. Wong."
"Dad had Wong draw up a house at 61st on a corner in Ladera Heights. The design was totally different in architecture than anything we had ever done. It was expensive to build. The flat roof was raised in the middle, above the family and living room. We put the new design on the market on a Sunday. It was $97,500, which was a lot of money then. It had a four-car garage and a pool. This was the first house in Ladera Heights sold with a pool."
"I held the Sunday open house and opened the front door at 1pm. I'll never forget it. Dad came by, anxious to see what was happening. People were pouring in – we were swamped."
"Dad was flabbergasted by the size of the crowd. He said, 'You can't have all these people in the house. You're going to close the front door.' At 4pm Dad and I told all the people the home was sold. He manned the entrance so no one else could get in. All this happened in the first 3 hours on the market. I had a list of potential buyers."
"When Homer got busier and busier buying lots and building all over View Park and Ladera Heights, I think part of him was afraid he'd wake up one day to a cooling housing market. That didn't happen to him. Valentine homes were always in demand." Earl remembered.
The 1950's and '60s years were a modern version of the old west. Men like Homer Valentine rode into town and made themselves known. They staked their claims to the bare dirt in View Park and Ladera Heights. They chose professionals with artistic vision, like Robert Earl and Charles Wong and created lush neighborhoods imbued with timeless beauty for countless generations to enjoy.
Thanks to Lynn Valentine, the son of Homer Valentine, for his invaluable input about his father and to architect Robert L. Earl for his oral history.
- Dan Steinbrocker
