Los Angeles County
Biographies
E. L. POTTER
POTTER, E. L., Proprietor, Van Nuys Hotel, Los Angeles, California, was born September 11, 1866, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, his father being David Hale Potter and his mother Rebecca J. (Sutton) Potter. He married Jessie Buell, September 29, 1902, at Evanston, Illinois. There is one child, Helen Buell Potter. Mr. Potter was educated in the public schools of Delaware and Columbus, Ohio, the family having removed to the latter city when he was a child.
He first embarked on a railroad career with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Columbus, where he started in an unimportant capacity. He was employed in a number of positions by that corporation, his advancement being rapid.
In 1902 Mr. Potter quit railroading to start in an entirely new field, that of hotel management and ownership.
He built a large hotel at Seabreeze, Florida, one of the garden spots for tourists from all parts of the American continent. In time it became one of the best known all-season hotels in the country. He had the entire management in his hands, superintended and controlled the business end of the establishment, and made of the hotel a center of social life. In seven years he enlarged the hotel from fifty rooms to four hundred.
On February 14, 1909, a fire broke out in the hotel in some unknown manner, and in a few short hours the great Seabreeze Hotel was in ruins.
Such a disaster would have completely upset the ordinary man, but Mr. Potter decided that he would rebuild the hotel and move West to Los Angeles.
With the plans for the new house, known today as the Clarendon well under way, he settled at Los Angeles in June, 1909. The 27th of the next month he purchased the Van Nuys Hotel from Milo M. Potter, leasing the building from I. N. Van Nuys for twelve and one-half years.
At the same time he looks after the Clarendon, at Seabreeze, Florida, and after his hotel and landed interests at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
He has scattered hotel interests in several parts of the country, but finds his time well occupied in Los Angeles, where the tourist rush, during the regular tourist season, is equal to that of any city in the United States.
The new Clarendon is the only absolutely fireproof hotel in Florida, the only fireproof strictly resort hotel. There are many fireproof hotels in the large cities which are kept open during the entire year, but the Clarendon Hotel is the only one of such construction that keeps open during the Florida season of four months only. It is, at the same time, one of the most beautiful hotels in the United States. The building sets (sic) in a park of beautiful palms and faces the Atlantic ocean.
Mr. Potter has business affiliations with the Mt. Washington Hotel, at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, a magnificent structure that cost the sum of five million dollars, and also with the Mt. Pleasant Hotel at Bretton Woods, another splendid property.
These four fine hotels, located in three of the greatest tourist and pleasure resort centers of America, are operated so that they work together perfectly, and they are considered second to none in the quality of the service they give.
Mr. Potter is President of the Van Nuys, the Clarendon Hotel, Seabreeze, Florida, and of his interests in New Hampshire.
He is prominent in club circles of Los Angeles and other cities where his business interests are located. He holds memberships in several social and business organizations of Los Angeles. They are the Elks, California and Columbus clubs, Chamber of Commerce, Merchants and Manufacturers’ Assn., So. Cal. Hotel Mens’ Assn. He is fond of golfing and motoring, spending many days in pursuit of both these recreative sports in the country.
Transcribed 2-10-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
375, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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