Los Angeles County
Biographies
PAUL BECK DAVIDSON
DAVIDSON, PAUL BECK, Contracting, Los Angeles, California, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, August 5, 1887, the son of Arthur Nicholas Davidson and Addie (Pirnie) Davidson. He married Grace Louise Ramsay at Piru, California, May 30, 1911.
His family having moved to Los Angeles when he was a child five years of age, Mr. Davidson received his education there and may rightly be classed as a Californian. He received his preliminary training in the public schools of Los Angeles and upon the opening of the Harvard military School in the same city, enrolled there and remained until 1905. He then went to Leland Stanford University. At a subsequent date he took a course in Structural Engineering with the International Correspondence Schools and received a certificate.
For a brief period after qualifying as a Structural Engineer, Mr. Davidson was in the real estate business, as agent for his father. He gave this up to go into the Alta Planing Mill, where he studied the mill and drafting end of his profession in all departments, making special experiments in concrete and concrete construction after his regular hours.
About six months after the San Francisco disaster of 1906, Mr. Davidson made a trip to that city for the purpose of investigating the effect of the earthquake on building in general, and on concrete and brick in particular. Upon his return to Los Angeles he entered the employ of F. O. Engstrum, to familiarize himself further with concrete construction.
Following his resignation from this position Mr. Davidson was connected with the test of the Pacific Light & Power Company’s plant at Redondo Beach, and from there he went to Piru, California, to aid in the erection of the Piru Oil and Land Company’s fruit drying sheds.
In the latter part of August, 1908, Mr. Davidson and his brother, John P. Davidson, determined to go into the contracting business for themselves and opened offices in their father’s barn. They began building homes to sell and within two months their business had grown to such an extent they had to seek larger offices and even these soon proved too small for their purposes and they had to expand their headquarters a second time. The brothers made a specialty of modern houses, employing only the best labor and the highest grade material and their success grew apace of their reputation.
In June, 1909, the Davidson Construction Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of California, with Mr. Davidson as Secretary and Treasurer. Although a comparatively young man, he made such a thorough study of his business that he is recognized as a progressive, enterprising contractor and endeavors to keep abreast of all improvements which may come to his line of work. He is an indefatigable worker and his ambition is to make his firm one of the best known in the country. He was also the originator of his company’s field system, an innovation that has proved of inestimable value.
The Designing Department of the company’s business, organized by Mr. Davidson, is one of its important features, and is on a par with the best architectural offices in Los Angeles, both in efficiency and originality of work.
Mr. Davidson is a member of the University Club of Los Angeles; Southern California Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Consistory No. 3, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masons; Al Malaikah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Architectural Club. He also belongs to the Master Builders’ Association of Los Angeles and the American Institute of Technology.
Transcribed 5-23-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
414, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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