William H. Monroe House, ‘The Oaks’ (Solon I. Haas) – 1887
Address: 250 N. Primrose Avenue, Monrovia, California
The Oaks, also known as William N. Monroe House, is a Stick/Eastlake Queen Anne Style house built for William N. Monroe, for whom the city of Monrovia was named. Monroe first brought his family to the Los Angeles area in 1875; serving on the Los Angeles City Council from 1879 until 1882, moved to Texas, and then returned in 1884. That year he purchased 240 acres for $30,000 from E.J. ‘Lucky’ Baldwin, land which was part of the Azusa de Duarte and Santa Anita ranchos. Together with Edward F. Spence, John D. Bicknell, J. F. Falvey, and James F. Crank, who had also purchased land from Baldwin, they decided to form a 60-acre town site from their combined holdings.
The town of Monrovia was founded in 1886 and incorporated a year later in 1887, becoming the fourth oldest general law city in Los Angeles. Lots from the new town site were placed on the market on May 17, 1886, and since then that day has been celebrated as Monrovia Day.
‘The Oaks’, so named because of the numerous oak trees on the property, was constructed entirely of redwood. This Queen Anne style house with Eastlake detailing boasts 16 rooms and five fireplaces (originally, there were eleven rooms with a fireplace in every room) in its almost 4,400 square feet of living space, with 12-foot ceilings in many of the rooms. A large lawn, complete with a granite fountain and pool, graced the home’s front entrance.
The Monroes had a reputation for being gracious hosts, and guests stayed for weeks at a time in their spacious home. One oddity of the house today is that the front door does not face the street; rather, it faces south even though the house is located on Primrose, a street that runs north and south.
The house suffered significant damage in the Whittier earthquake that struck on October 1, 1987. In addition to the large, ornate brick chimney toppling to the ground, there was such extensive damage to the lath and plaster walls that much of it had to be removed. The Monrovia Historic Preservation Group (then known by its former name, the Monrovia Old House Preservation Group) came to the rescue, helping the owners remove much of the cracked and loosened lath and plaster, thereby reducing the overall cost of repair.
Today, ‘The Oaks’ remains one of only a handful of large, multi-story Victorian homes that survives in Monrovia. Its association with Monroe marks it as one of the more notable homes in town. It is one of almost 86,000 properties nationwide listed on the National Register of Historic Places (it was listed in 1978), and it was the fourth home landmarked in the city of Monrovia.
