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Historic Name

Colonol James L. Paul House

Address

2222 N Euclid Avenue
Upland, CA 91786

Architect

J.J. Blick

Evaluation

Building
5/9/2007

Construction Date

1908

Current Owner

Felice & Denise Loverso

Current Owner Address

2222 n Euclid ave
Upland, CA 91786

Description

Pictured on old postcards, this historic two-story Euclid Avenue home appears virtually unchanged. Finished with stucco and capped by a tiled hip roof, the house is a Mission Revival variant of the American Foursquare genre. Rafters punctuate the roofline and also accent a central hip roofed dormer. The dormer contains a pair of small, round-headed attic windows. An arch motif dominates the projecting lower story facade. The porch is defined by a three bay arcade, with the entry located behind the southernmost arch. Tripartite windows overlook the porch from the two bays to the north. Another tripartite opening, very broad in proportion, shaded by a flat hood, its center window banded by small, square lights, occupies the south section of the first floor facade. Second floor windows define three bays and are 6/1 double-hung sash in type.

Built in 1908 for Colonel James L. Paul and Mary Frances Wheeler Paul, this home is one of the most historic in Upland. It is significant for its design and integrity, for its association with one of the most prominent families in Upland and for its identity as a Euclid Avenue grove house. The Paul family came to Southern California in 1887 from ~ennsylvania, in search of a climate to ease the threat of tuberculosis to Colonel Paul. A civil War veteran who had participated in the battles and siege of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Orchards, Seven Days Battle, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, and the pursuit and capture of the Confederate Army at Appomatox, Paul moved his family first to Los Angeles and then to Ontario, renting a home in an orange grove.

North of the house an extension of the arcade forms a porte cochere. A tile roofed garage, complementary to the house in design, is visible through its broad arch. The property is extensively landscaped. Also associated with it are a pair of cement benches in the Euclid median, immediately opposite the driveway. The property is in good condition.

He went into the banking business, and became the president of the commercial Bank of North Ontario and one of the chief stockholders in the Citizens Bank of Ontario. Earlier he had bought property on 23rd and Euclid, planted an orange grove and gone into the citrus industry as everyone else in the area seemed to be doing. In 1889 he built a house on that property, known as "Linda Vista." He owned other groves as well, including the property south of 23rd Street, and a large grove in Riverside from which he shipped fruit under the label of the Jas. L. Paul Fruit Association of Riverside. He served as president of the Ontario-Cucamonga Fruit Exchange, president of the Ontario Fruit Association, the pioneer association of the Colony, and president of the Upland Citrus Association. In 1908 the Pauls decided to build a modern house on their grove between 22nd and 23rd Streets. They engaged Pasadena architect Joseph J. Blick to prepare the plans. Blick had come to Pasadena around 1889 and he had a flourishing architectural practice in that city for over forty years, building hundreds of homes and public buildings. Another Pasadena firm, Crowell and Seward, were the contractors. The estimated cost of the house was $11,985. Colonel Paul passed away in 1911. His widow continued to live in the house. Active in the Presbyterian church, Mrs. Paul is gratefully remembered by Uplanders as the woman whose $75,000 donation made possible the construction of the new San Antonio community Hospital in 1924. She died in 1923 before it was completed, In 1925, her heir Alice Paul Harwood, sold the property to John and Mary Shepperson. The house continued to be a landmark in the community, and was pictured in the fiftieth anniversary issue of the Dailv Report. Also a local landmark, the benches in the Euclid Avenue median across from the house were said to have been built by Col. Paul for his wife to wait for the electric trolley that ran up and down Euclid Avenue. Apparently a tile roof originally covered the seats. They were rehabilitated in 1974 by the city.