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Historic Name

P. E. Walline House

Address

365 N Euclid Avenue
Upland, CA 91786

Evaluation

Building
5/11/2007

Construction Date

1895

Current Owner

Mary H. Ellingwood

Current Owner Address

P. O. box 1705
Upland, CA 91786

Description

An impressive legacy of the late 19th century, this is a two-anda- half story residence whose design is influenced by the late Queen Anne style. Crowned by a cross gable of medium pitch, the building is sheathed in narrow clapboards. The gable end is faced with shingles in a staggered pattern and contains a palladian window. Beneath a bracketed cornice the second floor is pierced by widely spaced, one-over-one, double-hung sash windows. Wrapping facade and the north elevation, a one-story porch is sheltered by a pent roof. Cobblestone walls define the porch space; tapered posts on stone pedestals support the roof. Four steps flanked by stone rails rise to the offset entry. Other notable features include boxed cornices, a two-story bay on the north, and the strongly curved porch roof. Uncompromised by alterations, the house is in good condition.

The Peter E. Walline House is significant on its architectural merits and for its association with a notable early Uplander. According to a former resident of the house, Esther Anderson Hunt, it was built in 1895 by Upland contractor John Gerry for Walline. The documentary evidence records an $1100 improvement on the parcel in 1914, when the lot books resumed including assessment amounts. At that time it was assessed to Mary A. Pierce, the title holder since 1912. (The following year, 1915, the amount fell to $500; similar drops occurred on other properties, indicating a depression or change in the assessment system.) The assessed owner in 1910-11 was Lewis E. Hayes. Walline was the owner from 1907 to 1909, following the Leeke and Walline's subdivision of lots 600 and 599 of the Ontario Colony. In 1900, Walline had been assessed for a $900 improvement on the northeast quarter of lot 566, as well as for $175 of trees and vines. Most likely that assessment corresponds to the house that still stands today.

Walline was active in the early affairs of Upland. He moved to Ontario in 1895 from Illinois, then purchased the 2 1/2 acres on which the house originally stood. He was one of the founders of the First Methodist Church, started its Sunday School, and was involved in the origins of the Commercial Bank and the San Antonio Hospital. He left Upland in 1908. John and Mathilda Anderson purchased the house in 1918 and remained there until 1948. The house acquired some local notoriety in the 1970s, when a group of six young people shared the home and dubbed it the "Earth Mansion." One of the oldest houses in Upland, and the oldest building in the Euclid Craftsman District, the Walline House continues to be a local landmark.