Los Angeles County
Biographies
ELDEN P. BRYAN
BRYAN, ELDEN P., Real Estate Operator, Los Angeles, California, was born at Jefferson, Texas, March 28, 1857. His father was E. P. Bryan and his mother, Mary (Jurman) Bryan. He married Georgie Hendricks on May 13, 1876, at Dallas, Texas. There are two children, Bessie Bryan, now Mrs. L. T. Bradford, and Minnie Bryan.
His education was mostly in a private country school in Texas, and his boyhood days were spent in the country. He remained on his father’s farm, which was typical of the boys of that day, until he was 19 years of age, when he left the country and moved to the city of Dallas. Here he engaged in the mercantile line, and for fully ten years put in his time establishing and developing his business.
In 1886 he heard reports of the wonderful opportunities offered in California, and he made up his mind to go still farther west, and with that end in view he disposed of his interests in Texas and moved to Los Angeles, where he arrived on December 11 of that year, and where he has been located up to the present time.
For one year he put in his time in resting and looking over properties in and about Los Angeles, and at the end of that time was prepared to invest in the realty business. He has now been in that business over twenty-five years in Los Angeles, and numbers among the pioneer realty dealers of the city.
He first entered business alone, but later associated himself with the firm known as Bryan & Clark. They handled principally downtown business properties, but invested to some extent in outlying districts.
The firm name changed to that of Bryan & Bradford with offices situated at the present time in the new Trust and Savings Building, Los Angeles. The present firm owns large tracts of lands in the suburban and outlying districts.
When H. E. Huntington first invested in Southern California, some twenty years ago, his first property purchased in Southern California, amounting to something over $100,000, was bought from Mr. Bryan, who was at that time very prominent in realty circles in Los Angeles. Since then he has handled many deals in excess of that, but at that period it was a record-breaking purchase. At the present day Mr. Bryan has large holdings in the western and southwestern portions of Los Angeles. Such desirable tracts as that of Westmoreland and others in that vicinity are among the best examples of land placed on the market by Mr. Bryan and his firm. Numerous other tracts in the residence districts have been purchased, subdivided and improved and placed on the market by Mr. Bryan and his partner.
Mr. Bryan is now heavily interested in the downtown business center of Los Angeles, where he owns a number of very valuable properties. He was one of the earliest real estate dealers to foresee the future growth of Los Angeles toward the southwest portion of the city, and accordingly invested in property in that direction. His firm is at present one of the prominent realty companies of that city, where it does a large and solid business.
Mr. Bryan shares to a great extent in the meteoric development of Los Angeles and immediate vicinity, and is one of the many factors working for the future of the city.
Mr. Bryan is most favorably known throughout the vicinity of Los Angeles in a business and social way. He is a member of the California Club of that city and of the Country Club.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 765,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Joyce
Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES