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Historic Name

Charles E. Harwood House

Address

1509 N Euclid Avenue
Upland, CA 91786

Evaluation

Building
5/8/2007

Current Owner

Randall P. & Kris Harrison

Current Owner Address

1509 n Euclid ave
Upland, CA 91786

Description

Located at the northwest corner of Euclid and 15th, this twostory house falls within the Shingle Style tradition. A side gable roof caps the structure, which is sheathed in shingles on the upper story and clad in stone and clapboard on the lower story. A two-story, rounded bay culminates in a turret near the north end of the facade. Next to it, a hip-roofed dormer surmounts the south half and contains three windows. Recessed below the dormer, the porch is defined by a stone wall and stone pedestals carrying clusters of tapered columns. The paneled and glazed entry is at the head of five stairs. Most windows are double-hung sash. Piercing the stone of the lower story of the bay, a tripartite opening has colonette mullions, a concrete sill, and a leaded glass transom. The pair of windows above it on the upper level has a similar mullion.

Charles Edward Harwood, the "father of Upland," erected this house in 1891. According to a notice filed in Ontario, Harwood applied to build a house and stable with an estimated cost of $11,000, a very substantial amount for the time. H.L Will was named contractor and Arthur Lincoln was his foreman. A grove was planted on the property. Lot 436 of the Ontario Colony, on which the house is located, was not the only property Harwood owned. With his brother Alfred, Harwood was the "Magnolia Land and Water Company," the entity which ended up owning most of the Magnolia townsite after the Ontario Land Company foreclosed on the Bedford Brothers. Not only did Harwood play a crucial role in the growth of the young community, he was instrumental to the founding of several of its most important institutions.

8000 square feet and has six fireplaces in its 20 rooms. When he was 74 Harwood decided to retire, turning over the management of his groves to son Edward. Directories indicate that Edward and his wife Alice Paul had a home south of 16th, on the north half of lot 436. "Retirementw for Charles Harwood, however, did not preclude continuing his duties with the Upland Lemon Growers Association. While in his seventies he met Edward L. Doheny, the oil development pioneer. The Harwood Brothers had acquired 500,000 acres in Mexico on which they raised livestock and which included oil fields. Through his association with Doheny, Harwood became the president of the Mexican Asphalt Paving Company and vice-president of the Mexican Petroleum Company. Later he was asked to be a character witness for Doheny during the Teapot Dome scandal, which he did at the age of 98. Charles Edward Harwood died in 1933, just short of his 103rd birthday. The Harwood House is one the most important historic sites in Upland. Already a designated California Point of Interest, it is clearly eligible for listing on the National Register of ~istoric Places, both for its association with Harwood, Upland pioneer and shaper of the community, and for its architectural quality and remarkable integrity. It is equally notable as an example of a grove house and for its part in the development of Euclid Avenue, the focal point of the region.

Other notable details include courses of contrasting stone which band the bay, a sawtooth molding edging the shingling, and Palladian windows in the gable end. Substantially unaltered and in good condition, the house occupies a 1.25 acre parcel landscaped with lawns, shrubbery, and orange trees.