Los Angeles County
Biographies
PHILIP
DODDRIDGE ROWAN
ROWAN, PHILIP
DODDRIDGE, Secretary-Treasurer of R. A. Rowan & Company, Real Estate and
Investments, Los Angeles, California,
was born in that city, September 11, 1885, the son of George Doddridge Rowan
and Fannie F. (Arnold)
Rowan.
The Rowan
family, long prominent in commercial circles of the middle
West, has been one of the leading families of Southern California since 1877,
and its members have had an important part in the upbuilding
of Los Angeles.
George D. Rowan, the father of Mr. Rowan, was a man of the highest integrity.
He was possessed of a character that inspired in all who knew him, confidence
to a degree, that but few people in this world are able to inspire in others.
No man ever questioned his word, but on the contrary, everyone knew that his
advice on matters of investment was the best he could give and the same as he
would act upon himself. He was a wholesale grocer in the middle
West and on the Pacific Cost during the greater part of his life, but later he
became a conspicuous figure in real estate in and around Los Angeles, being associated in business
with several of the most influential men of his day. He began his career in the
grocery business in Lansing, Michigan,
and subsequently moved to Chicago,
Illinois, where he and his
brother-in-law established one of the largest wholesale tea, coffee, and spice
houses in the city. After his removal to Los
Angeles in 1877 he became one of the leading business
men of that city and for many years prior to his death was one of the most
zealous workers in behalf of the city.
P. D. Rowan
received his early education in public and private schools of Los
Angeles and Pasadena, California, being a student at different times in the Franklin Public School
and Throop Polytechnic Institute, the latter a famous institution of Pasadena.
Giving up his
studies in 1900, Mr. Rowan, who has since become one of the most enterprising
young business men of Los Angeles,
began his career as a messenger for the Farmers & Merchants’ Bank, one of
the strongest monetary institutions of the West. He remained in this position
for about eighteen months, giving it up in 1901 to go into the real estate
business with his brothers, of whom R. A. Rowan, now regarded as the leading
factor in large building operations of Los
Angeles, was the leader. When the firm of R. A. Rowan
& Company was incorporated in 1905, Mr. Rowan, who was one of the
incorporators, was elected Treasurer of the company. He served in this office
for several years and in 1912 was elected Secretary, since which time he has
filled both offices.
R. A. Rowan
& Co., in the operations of which Mr. Rowan has been an important factor,
have, during the few years of the firm’s existence, been instrumental in the
erection of several modern skyscrapers in Los Angeles. Their operations have
been continuous for nearly seven years, one building being started before the
other was completed and at other times they have had two or three in course of
construction simultaneously. Their investments total many millions of dollars
and the buildings erected under their auspices, all located in the center of
the Los Angeles
business district, are among the finest in the country. Some of the more
important structures are the Alexandria Hotel, Security
Building, Title
Insurance Building,
Title Guarantee Building,
Merchants’ National Bank Building, and numerous others of great importance.
The Rowan
Company is generally credited with being one of the great contributing factors
in the development of Los Angeles,
its activities aside from the erection of large structures including the
subdivision of numerous high-class tracts which have been transformed into
beautiful residence districts, thus adding largely to the civic beauty. One of
the most notable is Windsor Square.
The success of
R. A. Rowan & Company in all of their undertakings is one of the most
remarkable records in Los Angeles
business annals and P. D. Rowan is credited by his associates with being one of
the important factors in its making. In addition to his position as
Secretary-Treasurer of this company, Mr. Rowan holds office in various
affiliated corporations, being a Director of the following: Commercial
Fireproof Building Co., Merchants’ Fireproof Building Co., Bilicke-Rowan
Building Co., Barker Block Co., and the Broadway Co. In addition, he serves as
Secretary and Treasurer of the two last named.
His clubs
include the California,
Jonathan, and Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Transcribed 9-23-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 790, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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