Added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 2006

Los Angeles is such a sprawling, fully developed megalopolis it’s hard to imagine that just over a century ago, an Angeleno could build a house in the middle of acre upon acre of untouched land and rugged mountains. That’s the backdrop for Ard Eevin, a 1903 mansion just below the Verdugo Mountains north of Glendale. In Gaelic, the name means “beautiful heights,” and that’s pretty spot-on. On a clear day, you can stroll down the home’s long walkway under a canopy of leaves and get a clear view of the high-rises of downtown LA, 10 miles away. Just imagine what it would have been like before the land was subdivided, with just citrus and vegetable crops stretching out in every direction, and a virtually uninterrupted view from your porch to the San Fernando Valley and the LA basin. 

Ard Eevin was commissioned by Daniel Campbell, a banker and developer, and one of Glendale’s early civic leaders. Campbell had a colorful life before settling in Southern California. Born in Ireland in 1872, he and his younger brothers Arthur and James left the family farm in the 1890s to seek their fortune in America. Campbell traveled to Sacramento in his twenties where he met an enterprising prospector named Joe Brand. The Campbell brothers and Joe made their way to the Klondike in Alaska to look for gold. It took over a year and nine crossings of the treacherous Chilkoot Pass before they had any luck. But Dan Campbell eventually struck gold, and returned to his Irish village a rich man. In 1900 he married his cousin Margaret McPeak, and they sailed to America, took the train to Los Angeles, moved into a cottage in Angelino Heights and soon bought the 48 acres of land that would become Ard Eevin. 

The Campbells’ next door neighbors? Leslie Coombs and Mary Louise Brand, the brother and sister-in-law of Campbell’s old pal Joe. Leslie was a wealthy developer and associate of Henry Huntington’s, well known for spearheading Glendale’s transformation from a small rural enclave into an urban center in the early 1900s. Brand’s company owned the area’s water and power rights before selling them to the City of Glendale. 

Ard Eevin itself is an eclectic mix of styles. There’s some east coast colonial revival vibes in the two-story columns that dominate the front entrance, the balustrade on the balcony and the crown moulding and fluted window frames on the inside. But you wouldn’t expect to find a wraparound veranda on a colonial revival joint, like you do here. Some historians connect that to Caribbean plantation architecture more than anything you’d find in New England. There’s also a music room (added in 1911) with craftsman touches, including built-in shelving, exposed rafter tails and a fireplace with those Batchelder tiles, so ubiquitous in the finest craftsman homes of the era. Much of the redwood framing, oak flooring, pottery, tiles and brass hardware you’ll find (if you’re invited in) are original. This home has held up handsomely.

The architect was Nathaniel Dryden, a self-taught designer who was married to Leslie Brand’s sister. Two years before completing Ard Eevin, Dryden designed the Brands’ sprawling estate El Miradero, which still stands today as the Brand Library & Art Center. Dryden was also responsible for one of the very first residences in Beverly Hills, built for his daughter Virginia Robinson. The Virginia Robinson Gardens were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Originally, Ard Eevin was surrounded by 25 acres of farmland, mostly citrus fruits and vegetables. You can still see some remnants of the farming days behind the existing house; an old barn, a milkhouse wall, pipes that led to a water tower, the foundation of a feeding trough, etc. But in 1923, Dan and his brother Arthur started subdividing their farming property into parcels that would become the Campbell Heights and Cumberland Heights tracts. Also behind the main house is a garage dating back to 1912. Dan Campbell’s son, Daniel Campbell Jr., owned a Ford dealership in Glendale in the 1920s, and he kept a private collection of cars there. 

According to its National Register of Historic Places nomination form, Ard Eevin’s “period of significance” ends in 1940, when Dan Jr. and his wife Agnes made the last significant changes in Ard Eevin’s design history. They combined two upstairs rooms into one master suite, remodeled the bathrooms and kitchen with some streamline moderne features, and painted over a fresco on the living room ceiling.

Why all these changes in 1940? That was the year when Dan Jr won $250,000 in the Irish Sweepstakes, an international lottery run by the Irish government to benefit Irish hospitals. As it turns out, the luck of the Irish ran generations deep in the Campbell family.

Recommended Reading

+Ard Eevin’s NRHP nomination form 

+Dan Campbell seeks gold in the Klondike (Glendale News-Press via LA Times, 2003)

+Pioneers leave legacy of development (Glendale News-Press via LA Times, 2003)

+The Campbells: Close ties between brothers (Glendale News-Press via LA Times, 2003)

+The Campbells: Dan brings his bride back home to Glendale

+Please Ensure No Adverse Impacts to Historic Ard Eevin Home & Ard Eevin Highlands Historic District (Glendale Historical Society)

+PDF: Historic Assessment Report and Review of the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Proposed Project at 1732/1735 Ard Eevin Avenue and its Impact on the Historic 1903 Ard Eevin Residence (Mitzi March Mogul, 2017)