Early Monrovia Structures Research

William

Birthdate:

William McLean was born in Scotland on 29 Jan 1842 and emigrated to the United States when he was 23 years old.  His name first appears in Los Angeles in the Voter Registration List for 1879 where is listed as a plasterer.

McLean never lived in Monrovia, but he owned Block A, Lot 14 in the Town of Monrovia Subdivision from 1888 until 1914.  He was able to pay the taxes on the proerty all those years because he was successful as a contractor, plasterer, and cement laying.  This is one of the few businesses that survived during Los Angeles"s lean periods as the city seemed to keep growing.

Additionally, McLean seemed to have developed a healthy speciality of designing and constructing plaster decorations.  A newspaper article from the Los Angeles Times dated 4 Apr 1898 indicates he owned additional property in Los Angeles County.

At the age of 56, he married Julia A. Hilditch (1869-1940) who had been born in Wisconsin to Irish immigrants.  She was 33 and had a child by a previous relationship.  She died in Los Angeles at the age of 71.

Without ever having built on it, William McLean sold his Monrovia property to A. Foster in 1914.  McLean died two years later at the age of 74.