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Lanterman House: The Enduring Legacy and Forgotten Scandals of La Cañada's First Family

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The Lanterman House sits on an elegant, leafy street in lovely La Cañada. I missed it the first time I drove by. The concrete Arts and Crafts home looked too understated, too quietly modern to be the grand historic landmark I was looking for. At first, everything at the Lanterman House, or as the family called it, "El Refugio," appeared almost eerily perfect -- the manicured grounds, the prim docent who led the tour, and the formal front rooms, heavily accented with dark woods and lush painting. But as I walked through the house, more and more personality appeared -- Emily Lanterman's apron hung on a hook in the bright, cluttered kitchen, and her husband Roy's fishing equipment sat in the mural-accented sunroom. There were musical instruments everywhere -- a testament to their son Frank's love of music. Upstairs was the ballroom, where Emily held court, presiding over La Cañada teas and poetry readings for decades. In one room there was memorabilia from Frank's colorful political career, and throughout the house were volumes of stuff belonging to his tinkering, packrat brother Lloyd.

It is fitting that the eccentric Lantermans' home is so loaded, so full of knick-knacks and treasures and appliances. Though usually whitewashed in official histories, this tight-knit family's story reads like a California soap opera -- chock full of intrigue and triumph, tragedy and mystery.

By Everyone Envied

Dr. Lanterman was recently hurt in an accident, and made rather an appealing figure getting about on a cane. He could not get upstairs where his wife sat in a [theater] box. She is a pretty little woman with a wholesome beauty. Over the box, she leaned as though her heart was being torn out by inches. Dr. Lanterman would look up and smile encouragement, and wave with the hand that wasn't working the cane.- L.A. Times, August 23, 1906

Roy Lanterman was born into a world of privilege and progress. His parents, Dr. Jacob and Amoretta Lanterman, were Southern California pioneers. Originally from East Lansing, Michigan, the family had moved out to California in the mid-1870s, searching for a more healthful climate. Jacob partnered with another Midwesterner to buy 5,835 acres of what was once Rancho La Cañada. The men paid a paltry $10,000 for the land. The land's lack of water is probably why it was so cheap. Undaunted, they laid out a town called La Cañada, which the Los Angeles Times described as:

...an out-of-the-way place in the mountains, which has the climactic qualities for a health resort-grand views, fine arts and rich soil.- L.A. Times, August 5, 1882

Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation
Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation

The Lantermans built an estate called "Homewood" on Verdugo Road, which became the center of social life in the rural Crescenta Valley. Legend has it that Amoretta, a formidable, highly intelligent woman, secured water rights for the parched town in a most unusual way. She had become tired of endless negotiations with Theodor Pickens, who controlled the precious stream at Pickens Canyon. So she rode out to Pickens' homestead with a shotgun, and made it clear she and her gun would not be leaving until Pickens agreed to her terms.

Roy went back east, studying at the University of Maryland and John Hopkins University. In 1893, he received his medical degree and moved back to Southern California. He set up an obstetrical practice in Los Angeles, and then moved to Santa Monica. Roy was a popular man-about-town, with a great love of fishing, hunting and boxing. In Santa Monica he met the beautiful Emily, a socially ambitious doctor's daughter so elegant and cultured that a friend said she was more like a "southern lady." The couple wed and soon welcomed two sons, Lloyd and Frank. According to one reporter, "Roy was a prosperous physician with a leaning towards sportiness." Emily was described as an "uncommonly handsome and refined woman, wrapped up in her home life and her husband and babies." Consequently, "Every one envied [Roy's]home life."

Roy and Emily Lanterman with sons Lloyd and Frank. Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation

In 1906, Roy was sworn in as coroner, and immediately began pushing for reforms. He established the first county morgue in Los Angeles and worked hard to increase his staff. But from his very first days in office, it is clear his own party was conspiring to remove him. Why exactly they disliked him so much remains unclear. In January 1907, he was involved in an unsuccessful suit to get him kicked out due to election fraud. A month later, a bill was introduced in Sacramento as a "practical joke," calling for the abolition of the county coroner. Those in the know claimed that this was a ploy by the Republicans to "push" the coroner into "being good" and "taking orders." But much worse was to come. On Dec. 18, 1907, the Los Angeles Times breathlessly reported:

Coroner R.S. Lanterman was arrested about 1 o'clock this morning on the charge of drunkenness, after creating a disturbance in Ida Hastings House of Ill Shame... Ida Hasting's appeared at the police station early in the evening and asked for protection. She declared that Dr. Lanterman had attacked her and that she was afraid of him. After [attending] the prize fight, Dr. Lanterman returned to the woman's house and began throwing things about the room. He secured two photographs of himself which, it is stated, the Hastings woman had in her room. He also secured a letter which resulted in a fight. The woman's breast and neck were scratched and bleeding when she rushed out of the room and called for assistance. When the police arrived Dr. Lanterman was found in the bathroom and refused to come out. He was taken out by Patrolman Gifford and searched. Two revolvers were found in his possession. Dr. Lanterman asked that bail be fixed in his case when he was searched at the desk. This was refused him, however, because he was intoxicated, and he was placed in the tanks.- L.A. Times, December 18, 1907

Calls for Lanterman's resignation began to fill the local papers. Lanterman claimed it was a set up and hired his friend Earl Rogers to defend him. Charges against him were dropped and Lanterman resigned on Jan. 27, 1908. However, his enemies were not done with him. The day he resigned, a secret grand jury issued a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with "having sworn to false statements" regarding his election expenses. Since his father Jacob was very ill, it was arranged that he would turn himself in after he had left his father's bedside:

Lanterman looked as though he had been under a terrible strain. He stated that the whole proceedings of the grand jury looked to him like a farce and he added that he is "glad to be out of politics." Politicians smile knowingly at the mention of prosecuting Lanterman. The info on the "inside" is that a compromise has been arranged whereby he is to be allowed to escape as soon as the present stir blows over.

But the stir did not blow over. Lanterman was put on trial and subsequently convicted of defrauding the county. Emily, who had until then privately supported him, now became his most public advocate. She pushed hard for her husband to receive a new trial. Barring that, she haunted the offices of anyone who would listen to her, pleading for her husband to only be placed on probation:

It was then that his wife braved the notoriety and went to his aid. During the argument for a new trial, she and her children sat by Lanterman in the courtroom. Since then she has been a frequent and pathetic figure about the courthouse. She has repeatedly been to see the District Attorney, waiting for him for long hours in the lobby- a perfect picture of sorrow and despair.- L.A. Times, April 17, 1908

Her efforts were for naught. In April 1908, the now disgraced Roy was sentenced to a year in San Quinten. Emily "sobbed aloud as the words making a felon of her husband were pronounced." But Frank's team of lawyers vowed to appeal the decision and it seems his conviction was eventually overturned or he was granted probation. But the courts had not seen the last of Dr. Roy Lanterman.

The Country Doctor

We used to go up the valley just to look out to San Pedro and see the Catalina steamer coming around the breakwater thirty miles away." - Frank Lanterman

Oddly enough, it appears the Lantermans bounced back relatively quickly. Roy went back to a thriving private practice, and Emily retained her social popularity. In 1915, Roy decided it was time to move back home to pastoral La Cañada, much to Emily's chagrin. They hired the architect Arthur Haley to design a concrete Arts and Crafts "mansion in the foothills" on 35 acres of the Lanterman family land. Roy hoped that constructing the home with concrete would make it virtually quake-proof. Each room sported a different motif, and crafts people were hired to create friezes, wall coverings and stenciled designs in each room. A plethora of French doors, a sunroom, a patio and large porches singled the Lantermans' commitment to a healthy California lifestyle.

Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation
Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation

While Roy spent time roaming his large country property, the boys spent most nights sleeping on the giant porch outside the ballroom. Emily set about making the best out of quiet La Cañada. She became very involved in the local PTA and church and founded social groups like the Thursday Club. The boys were growing up, and it seemed that "El Refugio" had indeed become a kind of refuge for the family.

But only a year after they moved, Deputy Sheriffs arrived at El Refugio with a warrant for Roy's arrest. He was charged with performing an "illegal operation"(abortion) on 17-year-old Elizabeth Johnson. "Someone will be punished for this outrageous arrest!" he exclaimed from the county jail, where he was held until nearly midnight. He claimed his arrest was part of a conspiracy to ruin his practice. However, he seems to have been caught up in a larger crusade on the part of the state medical board to stop "illegal operations."

Although he was let go on a technicality, he temporarily lost his license to practice medicine. He was arrested again in 1917. This time he was indicted for the murder of Mrs. Reggie Evans, who had died following a botched abortion. Lanterman was again found not guilty, due in large part to the fact that Mrs. Evans had admitted to several people that she had performed the abortion on herself. Lanterman found himself back in court in 1918, this time accused of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Marjorie Woodbury, described as "an attractive girl of 19," claimed she had an affair with Lanterman when she worked as a stenographer in the family home. Lanterman denied the charges and the outcome of the case seems to have been lost to time.

Through all these trials, Emily stuck by her husband. His final trial occurred in 1929, when he and another doctor were charged with the murder of a dancer named Delphine Walsh. Roy (this time represented by high-powered lawyer Jerry Geisler) was again acquitted, when many corroborated his story that he had only helped the woman after she had attempted to perform an abortion on herself with horrific results.

Life went on. The boys become young men. Lloyd, a shy man who probably had a form of Asperger syndrome, graduated from USC with a degree in engineering. He continued to live at home and could usually be found in his workshop designing new contraptions. Frank, who shared his father's charisma -- and his fighting spirit -- left USC just shy of a degree, after a fight with a professor. He fell back on his great love -- music. He remembered, "My dad loved music. My mother couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle --neither could my brother. But music to me -- I just loved the organ, so I became seduced...." This seduction led him to his first career as an organist for silent motion picture houses.

Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation
Photo courtesy of the Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation, by klxadm

The last twenty or so years of Roy and Emily's lives seem to have been relatively uneventful. Roy ran a practice in the city and out of his house, where he tended to many poor patients for free during the depression. Emily continued to be a gracious society host, though she never got used to living so far away from city life. Frank eventually left the organist's life and took over the family business, which included managing their vast real estate holdings and a small water company. Apparently not scared by his father's experiences, he became very active in the local Republican Party. He also became famous for cheeky outbursts, such as "that was a damned good sermon," in the middle of church.

When Roy died in 1947, none of his scandals were mentioned in his obituary in the Los Angeles Times. Emily died the following year. The two had been married, for better or worse, for over 50 years.

The Lanterman Legacy

I never wanted to be a politician. And there are plenty who say I never was one. They call me other names you know. But when you see something going wrong, you've sometimes got to step in and say to hell with it and turn things around!

Frank and Lloyd, the two bachelor brothers, continued to live in their parent's large home. In 1951, Frank's anger at L.A.'s abuse of water rights, to the detriment of his beloved La Canada, prompted him to run for the California State Assembly. He explained his motivations years later:

I didn't come to the legislature for politics, I came for water... I did not come here as a method of climbing the political ladder for further office. I came here at full maturity, at age 50. I was not a young ambitious man; I was a mature middle-aged person and I came for the purpose of non-political reasons..."

Thus began the reign of feisty, scowling "Uncle Frank," perhaps the most colorful character in the history of the California State Assembly. Frank immediately accomplished his main goal when the Municipal Water District Act, which allowed small cities like La Canada the right to form their own water districts, passed in 1951. Sleepy La Canada boomed as a result. Frank became chair of the Social Welfare Committee in 1954. He was also placed on the Ways and Means Committee. He recalled that he initially wanted to slash all social programs, in classic conservative fashion. But at his very first hearing, he learned that "inmates" at state institutions were being fed a disgusting, inadequate diet. He was outraged.

From that day on, Frank would be the unlikely champion of California's mentally challenged population. Frank soon learned many other things about the state's abysmal treatment of the mentally handicapped. He learned that children with Down syndrome or autism were often locked away in institutions, their families having no other options. He learned that mental patients were confined for life after a five minute hearing. He recalled he roared at the assembly, "How the hell long has this been going on?" He "screamed bloody murder" upon learning that the state treated mental patients "like criminals just because they were ill," keeping 40-year-olds in diapers, and hosing down patients as a form of behavior control. This propensity for theatrics led one colleague to complain, "He just sits there and screams till he gets what he wants."

But the self-confessed "curmudgeon's" hysterics were backed by action. Over the next 28 years, the man who claimed to never have wanted to be in government would become a beloved master politician. The "workhorse of the senate," who claimed he was "married to the state assembly," would get over 400 bills passed. Some of these would transform the lives of Californians living with disabilities. The old-school Republican formed an uneasy bond with a group of powerful advocates from Northern California, many who were the parents of children with Down syndrome. Activist Viviane Walters remembered:

Frank Lanterman was a very interesting man. Among other things he lived at the Senator Hotel which was the big hotel in Sacramento...when we really wanted to see Frank we would hang around the lobby around five o'clock waiting for him to come home. And when he'd come home we would just hop in the elevator with him. And so we would ride up and we'd push the top button so it would give us longer to ride. And we knew him so we'd say "Mr. Lanterman, hello," and he'd say "Hello Margaret, hello Vivian or whatever." And so he was civil to us, but he really didn't want to talk to us -- but he had to because we had him trapped in the elevator.

When wheeling and dealing in Sacramento became too much, Frank would return to El Refugio and his retiring brother Lloyd. During the 1960s, he constructed a recital hall in the courtyard of the house, where he installed a large organ he had saved from San Francisco's old Fox Theater. He said he played the organ to forget about the stresses of his job. The two old bachelors lived in the house alone, with only a housekeeper there to help them during the day.

But Frank's heart lay in Sacramento. During the late 60s and 70s, he helped pass bills that impact tens of thousands of Californians to this day. In 1967, the passage of the Lanterman-Petris-Short act ended the practice of warehousing the mentally ill. The watershed Lanterman Act, initially passed as the Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act 1969, and expanded as the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Act in 1977, granted people with developmental disabilities the right to get the services and support they needed to live like people without disabilities.

It established regional support centers, one for every one million citizens, so that disabled Californians could get the help they needed while living at home or on their own.

Frank retired from the assembly in 1978, railing against Jerry Brown, claiming the young governor's shenanigans had turned his eyebrows white. He died in 1981. Lloyd stayed at El Refugio until his death in 1987, surrounded by the relics of his family's past. The house is now owned by the city of La Canada-Flintridge, which their grandfather founded over 130 years ago.

Special Thanks to the Lanterman Foundation.

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