TABLE OF CONTENTS :
THE PHILOSOPHER ON ALLESANDRO STREET: A Tome of Letters and Other Writings by Edendale Nature Boy Dr. Edgar Colburn Found Buried in a Santa Clarita Bookstore !!! by Damian Gatto INTRODUCTION You may have read my piece from October 2017 (originally written in 2014) entitled The Nature Boys of Edendale about the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, the Landacres, and the Colburn Biological Institute, all of whom resided on a tract located southeast of Allesandro Street in the late 19th and/or early 20th centuries. Landacre came to Southern California from his native Ohio to rehabilitate himself from a respiratory illness (as did many others at that time), and thereafter realized his passion for wood engraving and printmaking. The Spiritualists and Colburn came to the West Coast in the late-19th century and early-20th century, respectively, with their alternative philosophies about the occult, astrology, and metascience. Colburn, for his part, was the pioneer of a field called "medicology." There had been a decent amount of information on the Landacres and the Spiritualists, but the Colburns--not so much. The Colburn Institute appeared on my radar via a blog comment by a longtime resident of Elysian Heights who recalled that, adjacent to the Semi Tropic Spiritualist Tract, there once stood “a house with a koi pond and a pitched roof” that “mysteriously burned down around 1979.” As it happened, I had a photograph documenting this to be true. Above: A photo dating from the 1960s construction of the Allesandro Freeway, depicting a structure on stilts with a brown shake hipped roof, just to the right of center. This would be the hipped cottage spoken of in the aforementioned blog comment. (Source: Futterer family; the Holyland Exibition) CLICK "READ MORE" BELOW Try as I could, I couldn’t find any contacts, even family or friends, who lived in the area during that period who could recall a house in that location with a koi pond. Luckily, Los Angeles released its public urban planning database ZIMAS in the early 2010s, which details, among other things, current and past lot cuts, as well as the historic names of streets. Shortly thereafter, in 2014, the City streamlined its historic building permit archive. On top of this, USC, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, and Edendale’s own Holyland Exhibit have archived countless primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, I had learned additional social research methods during my university studies and through my internships with the City of Los Angeles' Office of Historic Resources. So, I got right down to it. I searched the entire address range of Allesandro Street in the vicinity of the Spiritualist's Tract (#1900 thru #2599), focusing on large parcels. I found that, aside from the Spiritualists and a few others, there was one major landholder: The Colburn Biological Institute at 2518 Allesandro, and later 2511 Allesandro and 2055 El Moran Street. Soon enough, I found permits for the buildings, including the one with the koi pond, as well as their auxiliary buildings for their collection of plants (a sign of sophistication in those days) and for medicine storage. Above: The "notes" section of the original permit for the hipped-roof cottage reads "The Lumber for this Laboratory was from the old Laboratory in Rubio Canyon, North of Alta Dena and is in good shape, most [of the wood] is heavier than required in LA City Limits, on account of heavy winds in Rubio Canyon where it was formerly used.” (Source: LADBS) Colburn actually dismantled a lab in Alta Dena and rebuilt in Echo Park. It shows you what neighborhoods were “hot and happening” at the time! Not to mention the whole "reusing-the-lumber" thing—that would NEVER fly nowadays with LADBS! Still, Dr. Colburn's green thumb entices me. DR. EDGAR LEONARD COLBURN Via the 1910 Census, I found that Dr. Edgar Leonard (or "E.L.") Colburn was born on July 12th, 1859 in Shrewsbury, Rutland County, Vermont. Via obituaries, I learned that early in life he was a Christian Scientist; this may explain his syncretic philosophy later in life. He attended Hahnemann College, Osteopathic College of Missouri, and Bellevue Medical School in New York. The Colburn Family lived in Rutland County, Vermont and Norfolk County, Massechusetts goings back to the mid-late 18th century. There is even a cemetery in Rutland County named after them. Dr. Edgar Leonard Colburn and his brother Dr. Jefferson Martin Colburn appear to be the only ones to have left the nest—so to speak—when they came to California in the early 1900s, and ironically the only ones not to be buried in the family cemetery, but instead at Forrest Lawn in Glendale. I also found court records, with the Colburn Institute named as involved parties, via requests from the California Supreme Court and Los Angeles County Superior Court, illustrating a power struggle that erupted in October of 1925 when Dr. Colburn suddenly died while exploring in Kowloon, China. The woman who was present with Dr. Colburn when he died, Mrs. Oberdorfer, claimed that he had bequeathed her position of and publishing rights to his “Wisdom Papers,” to which other board members objected. There is a much longer story, but in the end, this litigation lasted well into 1936! I was enticed by the sound of these “wisdom papers,” but I figured I would probably never have any way of finding them, and even if I did....... who knows what this fellow was even writing about. That was in 2014. A DISCOVERY… Earlier this month, 100% on a whim, I was browsing a moribund rare book store while on break at a job site in Santa Clarita. I came across a book entitled “The Letters of Dr. Edgar Colburn.” The name had a natural flow to it, but beyond that, I was sure I had heard the name somewhere before. Then it occurred to me: This Dr. Colburn was the very same fellow that I had been previously published original research upon. (Left: A hand-enlarged photographed pasted into the book with Dr. Colburn's signature embossed below it. ) With the owner’s permission, I browsed through it—with a poker face, of course. As soon as I saw this address and the hand-written serial number, it was doubly conclusive. This was our guy, and these were his "Wisdom Papers." This is one of the more breathtaking occurrences —or coincidences, if you believe in those—that I have run into during my independent research endeavors. What’s even more wild is that Santa Clarita is not my usual stomping grounds; I was simply dispatched there to inspect a job site—for just one day. What are the odds? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COLBURN INSTITUTE? After the early 1980s, I am not certain. The Institute's last discernible research activities were circa the early 1950s, which coincides with the early phases of the Allesandro Freeway’s construction. The work performed on the building in the 60s and 70s, as well as the 1982 demolition permit, list the Colburn Institute as owners. The Institute remained incorporated until at least the early 2000s; its LLC status is currently listed as “inactive.” The Semi Tropic Spiritualist's Tract, including where the Institute's cabins once stood, is presently the site of the awful Via Artis Development. During the construction of the Allessandro Freeway in the late 50s-early 60s, the organization, still in existence and clearly dedicated to preserving their founder’s work, hired Star House Movers to relocate the cottage and one auxiliary building from its second location at 2511 Allessandro, up the hill to 2055 El Moran, just north of Mr. Paul Landacre’s cabin and workshop. Below: The vicinity of the Semi Tropic Spiritualist Tract as the Allesandro Freeway was under construction. What a deeply sad photo. (Source: Futterer family; The Holyland Exibition) The Colburn folks must have been at work one day in June 1964 when they heard a large WHOOSH--the sound of Landacre lighting his gas oven on fire—whether intentional or not—resulting in his death days later. DR. COLBURN’S WRITINGS THUS FAR Dr. Colburn’s letters, as I have read them thus far, have showcased all kinds of interesting theories that he divides into three categories: Theology, Medicology, and Astrology. He refers to God as “Lauxes.” He devises complex Venn diagrams about the intersections of certain forces in the universe and within the human body. His recommendations for devotional prayer are similar to Pentacostalism. His view of energy in the Universe is dualistic—negative and positive—with the Devil being the negative, and Theology in general being the positive force of the Universe. One of the best inclusions in the book is of none other than the brown hipped roof cottage, which I had so badly wanted other documentation of: That picture was taken circa the late 1920s, when the cottage was located at upon its first site on the north side of Allesandro Street, before the 2 Freeway was built.
I'm not sure how much of this tome I will read immediately, but rest assured, there are more details to come. Stay tuned!
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