Los Angeles County
Biographies
LAWRENCE WILLIAM COFFEE
COFFEE, LAWRENCE WILLIAM,
Real Estate, Los Angeles, California, was born in Runnia,
Denmark, March 5, 1876, the son of Peter L. Coffee and Maggie (Larsen)
Coffee. He married Clara Ellen De Voll at
Stockton, California, May 12, 1897, and to them there has been born a son,
Lawrence William Coffee, Jr. Mr. Coffee’s family is an extremely old one
in Denmark and several centuries ago was among the ruling families of the
country.
Mr. Coffee was brought to the United States in early
childhood and has spent the greater part of his life in California. The family
first settled in Stanislaus County, California, where he attended the schools
of the district. He left school, however, and went to work, first on a farm and
later in the employ of a California horse breeder. It was while in this
position that Mr. Coffee learned the business of horse-raising, and before
he had attained his majority he was regarded as an expert judge of horse-flesh.
In 1891 Mr. Coffee went to San Francisco and engaged in
the shoe business, devoting his evenings to study at a business college of the
city. At the end of a year, however, he entered the real estate business in San
Francisco as an employe of the G. H. Umbsen Company, one of the largest firms in the city at that
time, and he has devoted practically all of his time since then to this line of
operation.
For a large part of the time that he was associated with
this company, Mr. Coffee was Manager of its County Lands Department, and in 1896 went to Europe to study European
colonization methods and also to bring back to the United States a party of
colonists. This was not his first trip to Europe, he having gone there several
years previously to settle up the estate of his grandmother.
Returning to the United States in 1897, Mr. Coffee
continued with his firm for several years longer, and in 1905 purchased an
interest in the J. W. Wright Company, real estate operators. He took
the position of Manager of the company’s affairs and was in charge when San
Francisco was destroyed by fire in April, 1906. His company lost heavily in the
disaster, but before the flames were quite extinguished, Mr. Coffee, with
characteristic energy, had erected a temporary office at his home in the
Richmond District and resumed business. He had been operating thus for a week
before his partner put in an appearance, and it is believed that
Mr. Coffee was the first business man in San Francisco to resume
operations after being wiped out by the fire.
The years 1907 and 1908 Mr. Coffee devoted almost
entirely to the development of Point Richmond, California, an industrial town
across the bay from San Francisco. At first the town only had a few hundred
inhabitants, but with the establishment there of large refineries by the
Standard Oil Company, the place began to grow, and Mr. Coffee was one of
the real estate men who operated there during the attendant boom. He sold the
greater part of the business and residential property taken up by the new settlers
of Point Richmond, and in the improvement of his firm’s holdings built twelve
miles of concrete walks. He also was instrumental in raising a bonus among the
people of Point Richmond to bring the Pullman Palace Car Company shops to that
place, and conducted his campaign with such success that the shops were located
there, thus giving to Point Richmond another important industry.
Mr. Coffee, prior to taking up the Point Richmond work,
had, in 1907, conducted another large operation at Glen Arbor, California. He
laid out the town, installed an electric light system and water works, and sold
seven hundred residence lots. This town is located on the San Lorenzo River,
and Mr. Coffee, who retains large interests there, has a handsome country
place, which is one of the town’s features.
Mr. Coffee, in 1907, acquired large holdings in lime
quarries in Santa Cruz County, Cal., and has devoted considerable time to their
handling.
In 1912, Mr. Coffee became Manager of the Balboa Realty
Co., of Los Angeles. This company is actively engaged in the development of a
large beach project (Balboa Island). He is also promoting 300,000 acres in
Mexico which it is planned to improve and colonize with American farmers.
Other interests with which Mr. Coffee is associated are
the San Francisco-Portland Cement Co., in which he is a heavy stockholder, and the People’s Land Co., San Francisco, of
which he is President.
Mr. Coffee is a Mason and a member of the Republican Club
of San Francisco.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
31 August 2010.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 494, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marie Hassard .
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES