ERNEST LA VERNE LEAVITT

Los Angeles County

Biographies

ERNEST LA VERNE LEAVITT

LEAVITT, ERNEST LA VERNE, Real Estate Broker, Los Angeles, California, was born in Chicago, Illinois, September 21, 1884, the son of Henry Steele Clark Leavitt and Emma F. (Marlette) Leavitt. He married Opal Leone Park at Santa Monica, California, April 23, 1905, and to them there have been born two children, Geraldine Leone and Ronald La Verne Leavitt.

Mr. Leavitt, who is one of the picturesque successes among the younger business men of Southern California, has spent a large part of his life in that section, his family having moved from Chicago when he was a boy. He attend the public schools of Los Angeles and later was graduated from the High School of Santa Monica, the beautiful seashore suburb of Los Angeles.

The first position held by him after he completed his studies was that of stenographer in the Santa Monica law office of George H. Hutton, later Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. In 1900, Mr. Leavitt gave up his position with Judge Hutton and entered the employ of the Title Insurance and Trust Company, in the Escrow Department. He remained in that capacity for about five years, resigning in 1905 to take over the Escrow Department of the Union Trust and Title Company, upon the organization of that corporation. He directed this department for about a year, then the company sold out to the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, he being retained to close out the business for them. It was about this time that Mr. Leavitt, who had come to be known as one of the experts in the escrow business in Los Angeles, was called upon by the Los Angeles Abstract Company to close out and straighten up the business of one of its escrow departments which had been sadly neglected during the illness of its clerk. This duty consumed about six months.

In 1907, Mr. Leavitt was chosen Auditory and Escrow Manager for the Dollar Savings Bank of Los Angeles and during his connection with that institution versed himself in general banking. He remained with this bank until January, 1911, when he was forced to resign his position on account of ill health.

This breakdown terminated, for the time being, Mr. Leavitt’s career in the banking business, and for several months he was inactive, spending the time solely in the effort to regain his strength.

For some years real estate in Los Angeles and vicinity has experienced tremendous activity, the city having been greatly enlarged and many suburbs opened up to settlement because of the steadily growing population. Hundreds of thousands of new residents were added to the city within a few years, and the number of homes built was so great as to place Los Angeles among the leading municipalities of the world in the matter of individual home-owners.

For this reason, the real estate field offers unusual promise to a young man and Mr. Leavitt, upon recovering his health, embarked in the real estate business with his father, one of the veteran realty operators of Southern California; and in this connection the younger man laid the foundation for one of the substantially successful careers in the business world of Los Angeles.

His faculty for quick mastery of knowledge had been demonstrated earlier in his life, as was shown by his selection as escrow man when he was less than seventeen years of age and his subsequent promotion in the banking business, when he had hardly passed his majority.

Leaving his father, Mr. Leavitt obtained the backing of W. H. Clune, a leading capitalist and amusement magnate of Southern California, and with him, organized the Leavitt Realty and Investment Company. This company was incorporated in January, 1912, with Mr. Leavitt as Vice President and Secretary. He was placed in virtual charge of the business and began at once a campaign of operation that has brought him to the attention of the realty men of the city, owing to the number and importance of his deals.

At first Mr. Leavitt confined his attention to business property within the city of Los Angeles, his first large deal being for a piece of ground on Broadway, in the center of the business district, involving, it is stated, $400,000. He followed this shortly afterwards with another transaction, stated to involve $95,000, and in quick succession consummated others, at figures from $50,000 to $150,000.

Mr. Leavitt operated so rapidly that before he had been in the field six months he is supposed to have handled more than a million dollars’ worth of real estate and was reckoned with the enterprising business men of the city. Starting as he did, with little capital of his own save his natural business talents, Mr. Leavitt, in less than seven months, became generally considered one of the successful real estate men of Southern California, where real estate has been the sensational commodity in recent years.

Owing to the large number of other interests which demanded his attention, Mr. Leavitt’s friend and partner, Mr. Clune, on August 1, 1912, decided to withdraw from the company, and Mr. Leavitt purchased his interest, thus becoming practically the sole owner of the business.

In addition to the deals already quoted, Mr. Leavitt has handled numerous others, including a large amount of property at Long Beach and other seaside cities adjacent to Los Angeles.

Mr. Leavitt, despite his youth and the success attending his operations, is possessed of coolness and foresight, and is making extensive plans for the future of his company. He finds his recreations chiefly in motoring with his family through the beautiful country of Southern California.

Transcribed By: Michele Y. Larsen on 28 November 2011.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 863, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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