Los Angeles County
Biographies
PAUL BATTELLE FLETCHER
FLETCHER, PAUL BATTELLE, Real Estate and Building, Los Angeles, California, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, June 13, 1887, the son of William Scott Fletcher and Elizabeth D. (Battelle) Fletcher. He married Ruth Elma Whiffen at Los Angeles, January 22, 1910.
Mr. Fletcher began his education in the grammar schools of Kansas City, but his studies were interrupted by the removal of his family to San Diego, in 1894. He attended school there for a short time, but he was halted again when the family, in 1896, changed residence to Los Angeles. Mr. Fletcher there made his third start in school for an education and finished in the High School, being graduated in the summer of 1906. While attending school he was in the employ of the Los Angeles Record in various capacities from carrier to reporter and when he was graduated from High School had had considerable experience in the newspaper business. Following his graduation, Mr. Fletcher attended the University of Southern California for a year, going north in 1907 with the intention of entering the University of California at Berkeley for the purpose of studying law, but the death of his father compelled him to return home and seek employment. Early in 1909 he became a salesman for Robert Marsh & Company, realty operators in Los Angeles. He remained there for several months, then entered the employ of O. A. Vickrey, in the same line of business. After a year with Mr. Vickrey, Mr. Fletcher determined to go into business for himself and opened offices in the Douglas Building, Los Angeles.
He had gratifying success from the start and within a short time decided to go into the business on a larger scale. The result was the incorporation in February, 1911, of the Suburban Development Company of Southern California, with Mr. Fletcher as Secretary and Treasurer of the company.
Mr. Fletcher’s company had made a specialty of subdivisions and has taken an active part in the suburban development around Los Angeles. The Southern California metropolis, for several years past, has been the magnet for thousands of home-seekers, and according to statistics has more home-owners than any other city of its size in the United States.
While he was alone Mr. Fletcher operated in various sections of Los Angeles, both as a broker and subdivider, also building a good many homes which sold readily. He specialized, however, in acreage, selling many large tracts from the old Glassell Estate in the Eagle Rock section, and in that way has taken a leading position among the subdividers and builders of the city. Altogether he has built or had to do with scores of modern homes in which to house the newcomers to that section of the country.
Glassell Park, the name given to this tract, is thirty-two acres in extent, and with the residences and improvements installed by Mr. Fletcher’s company in the summer of 1911, it was transformed into one of the attractive suburban districts of Los Angeles. The opening up of this subdivision gave an impetus to real estate values all around it and from a stubble field country it rapidly changed into a place of beautiful homes and parks, with wide, well-paved streets. When this section had been built up, Mr. Fletcher and his associates acquired another large tract, more than ninety-three acres in extent, immediately adjoining their original purchase, and followed the same system of improvement.
His position naturally makes of Mr. Fletcher an enthusiastic worker for the betterment of Los Angeles and vicinity and he is an ardent supporter of any movement having this for its object. He is Republican in his political belief, but has taken little active part in politics. On one occasion, when his father-in-law, Frederick J. Whiffen, was a candidate for the City Council of Los Angeles, Mr. Fletcher aligned himself with the Good Government forces and was able to aid materially in Mr. Whiffen’s election. That, however, was his only venture into the political field, and he has applied himself, for the most part, to the work of building homes for the newcomers to Los Angeles and to advertising the beauties and advantages of the city to the rest of the world.
Mr. Fletcher is a member of the alumni chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, the Sierra Madre Club and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
Transcribed 5-19-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
423, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES