The home’s origin story is somewhat unique. Most nearby homes of this era of this quality and size were designed by architects they chose, built to custom specifications. This home is different, in that it was built speculatively by a builder at scale, on the theory that the desirable, affluent neighborhood growing up around them would surely attract a buyer eager to make a purchase and move in quickly.

This “speculative build” process was a precursor to today’s common practice of single-family housing developments, where many homes of a shared design standard are built into a neighborhood. In Western Heights and nearby HPOZs of Harvard Heights and Jefferson Park, several other homes by the Company of Tyler’s design can be observed standing side-by side with the custom-built homes of the era. Indeed, by 1920, the California Bungalow Company was described as a maker and seller of “readycut and factory built houses.” Initial research has led the owners to believe that not only is the home one of the City’s earliest examples of this innovation, it is also likely one of its best-preserved.  

Its first owner, John Ordway, an attorney by trade and President of the Pacific Acreage Company, bought the finished property for $8500.00; his wife Nellie and two children, William Floyd and Grace, arrived in Los Angeles to settle into their new home early in 1910. Its current owners have elected to uphold the traditional practice of naming these grand old homes after their original first owners, hence its name.