1981 HERITAGE AWARD RECIPIENT
The Redlands Area Historical Society, Inc.
Heritage Award 1981
H. H. Daniels/L.B. Avery Home
424 La Verne Street
Circa 1895
Located at 424 La Verne, this “Victorian farmhouse” was built circa 1895 by H. H. Daniels, an early Redlands real estate developer and builder. In February 1892 Daniels subdivided and mapped the Altadena Tract in which the home was subsequently built. According to the Citrograph advertisements, he built “cottages to order in Altadena Tract.”
On Mary 21, 1896, Daniels and his wife, Margaret, sold three adjoining lots and a portion of a fourth to L.B. Avery for “$10 gold coin”. The Citrograph noted on March 28, 1896:
“Professor Avery, principal of the Union High School has more permanently identified himself with Redlands by purchasing a home here on Thursday. He secured title to the home place of HH. Daniels on La Verne Street paying $2,500 therefor.” Avery, a Wisconsin native, arrived in September 1895 with his family.
One October 17, 1907, Avery sold the home to Joshua and Celia Hartzell who moved to Redlands because of Mr. Hartzell’s ill health. Mrs. Hartzell and children, Ruth and Walter J., continued to live in the home after Hartzell’s death in 1912. Daughter Ruth (Mrs. Howard W. Hayes) lives in Redlands still. E. L. Truesdail, owner of the Citrograph in the teen years of this century and after whom the speech center at the University of Redlands was named, purchased the home in 1918. It remained in this family until sold to the present owners, Ken and Roberta Morrill, in January 1979.
Originally one and one-half stories and remodeled into two stories with upstairs bathroom in 1908, the home is constructed entirely of redwood. It is representative of the classic box style with hip roof possessing a single dormer, with symmetrical alignment of the windows under protecting eaves, and with a bay window on the north wall and a window box seat on the south. A covered porch with “open stickwork” ornamentation extends the full width of the front of the home.
