In the early 20th century, the citizens of Covina all recognized this ornate manse formerly standing at the southwest corner of San Bernardino Road and Hollenbeck Street as the house of the city's founder: Joseph S. Phillips (1840-1905). Despite its past status as a local landmark, over time its origins became obscured, and confusion has arisen in recent years about exactly whose house this was.
Painting by Melbourne Sumpter, image courtesy Glenn Reed/Covina Valley Historical Society.
Two specific facts about the place are undisputed:
• The first house on that site was built by pioneer José Julián Badilla after he and his elder brother Pedro bought the land in 1876.1,2,3
• In 1882, after Joseph Phillips agreed to buy 2,000 acres of then ex-Badilla land from J. Edward Hollenbeck (1829-1885), Phillips moved into Julián Badilla's former home.1,3,4
Most latter-day historians have also presumed that this two-storey Queen Anne Victorian is the same house built by Julián Badilla.1,4 However, could it be that Phillips replaced the original structure with a home of his own? Fact is, we don't know for certain one way or another, because there is no surviving record of who actually built the old landmark, or when.
In this article, I will attempt to answer the "who and when" with information that is now available, specifically maps that were published in the 1870s and 1880s, modern-day photographic and descriptive evidence, logical deduction and parsimony.
