David M. Renton.
Born 1878. Pasadena designer and builder, 1904 to 1918.
David M. Renton came to Pasadena in 1902 after working as a carpenter in Massachusetts and Connecticut, kept his own lumber yard, mill and cabinet shop, built for Frederick Roehrig and Greene & Greene, and by 1909 was producing his own designs. This record names him as architect on 9 houses, and as the builder of 4 more that other architects drew. A 2011 City of Pasadena landmark report counts more than 100 Pasadena houses he built between 1904 and 1918.
Who was David M. Renton?
A carpenter who became a builder and then a designer. Born February 8, 1878, he arrived in Pasadena in 1902 and was building there by 1904. This record shows him as builder on Greene & Greene houses at 210 North Grand Avenue in 1904, 530 West California Boulevard in 1906 and 1188 Hillcrest Avenue in 1912, and by 1909 he was producing his own designs.
In 1919 he went to work for William Wrigley Jr., and by 1920 he was general manager of the Santa Catalina Island Company, a post he held until 1936.
How do I recognize a David M. Renton house?
A 2016 City of Pasadena landmark report, citing the city's 1984 Los Robles Corridor inventory, names paired beam ends as a particular trademark of his. The houses credited to him here are mostly Craftsman bungalows and Arts and Crafts houses, one with Swiss Chalet touches. A trademark is a clue, not proof: if your Orange Heights or Bungalow Heaven bungalow has paired beam ends, check its address in the table below.
Where are David M. Renton's houses?
His largest group stands in Orange Heights, the 1906 tract between Los Robles and El Molino Avenues, where the district nomination counts seventeen of his buildings, the largest collection of his work in the city. Others are in Bungalow Heaven, the Lower Arroyo and along North Los Robles Avenue. The county record confirms 11 of these houses standing.
Who can tell me if my house is a Renton?
I can check. I'm Greg Anderson of Arroyo Casa. Send me the address and I'll tell you whether a nomination or landmark report credits Renton with it, and whether the credit is stated outright or attributed.
Every building credited to David M. Renton.
Buildings the record credits to David M. Renton, in the order they were built. Commercial buildings and courts are included here because they are part of the maker's work; the neighborhood, city and year pages list houses only.
Names on the same buildings.
Greene & Greene (architect, 3) and Hunt & Grey (architect, 1)
Where to look next.
- Bungalow Heaven · 5 of these houses
- The Lower Arroyo Seco · 2 of these houses
- Markham Place · 1 of these houses
- Pasadena
How this record is built.
This record is compiled by the Arroyo Casa Archive of Records from public documents: city and county historic resources surveys and inventories, National Register nominations, landmark designation reports and council records, planning documents and preservation groups' publications, plus the building notices of 1917 to 1930, printed as houses were permitted, contracted or announced. Where a house was matched to the Los Angeles County Assessor's record at the same address in the same city, the page says whether the county confirms it standing. A house is shown only when one of those documents names its architect, and the builder and the first family are shown beside the architect where a document names them. Each house carries the kind of document behind it, and a credit the document itself calls likely, probable, possible or attributed is marked attributed. The methodology and every source document are on one page.
Find who designed your house.
Every house has a birth year. Start with the owner's guide: how to find who designed and built your house, who lived in it first, and what this record already holds.
ArroyoCasa.com · (310) 402-8430 · greg@arroyocasa.com
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