Council to Consider Landmark Designation For Home With Ties to Area’s Past

A Glendora home with connections to the family of the founder of Azusa may be designated as a historic landmark during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

The midcentury modern style home is located at 1326 W. Sierra Madre Ave., perched on a secluded hilltop north of the historic of Fairmount Cemetery.

The home was built in 1951 by Hugh Macneil II, the great grandson of banker and developer Jonathan Sayre Slauson, the founder of the then town of Azusa. Slauson was dubbed the “father of citrus fruit culture in the foothill region” by the Los Angeles Times. According to city documents, in the 1880s, Slauson also founded the Azusa Land and Water Company, and he and his children went on to found the Azusa-Foothill Citrus Company.

When the Macneil house was built in 1951, Slauson’s descendents owned about 1,000 acres of citrus land in Glendora and Azusa. According to city documents, the family eventually sold most of its land to the Monrovia Nursery.  The property is now owned by Lu Ann Berthell, who purchased the home directly from Hugh Macneil.

The midcentury modern residential house was designed by Theodore Criley, Jr. with influences from Spanish and California ranch house styles.

The home is one of the few remaining sites connected to Slauson and his family’s legacy to the foothill communities and the early citrus industry.

Granting landmark designation to the home would ensure that the home would be preserved to maintain its historical significance, according to city documents. Any work on the home that could alter its “historical integrity” must be approved by the city’s Planning Commission. The designation would also make the applicants eligible for a property tax reduction to help offset the costs to maintain the property. If the designation is approved, the home would join more than 30 other buildings in Glendora designated as landmarks.

The Glendora City Council meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22 in the city’s council chambers, 116 E. Foothill Blvd.