Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Los Angeles daily times
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
The papers provide a unique perspective of 20th century California history and American business history and more specifically, a view of business practices in Los Angeles. The Business Files, the largest series of the collection has 6,436 items. This material includes invoices, receipts, bills of lading, purchase orders, bid requests, bids, statements, and other general account and job information including handwritten notes, drawings, construction plans and diagrams. The Correspondence series contains 768 items. Most of the correspondence is also business-related. The Photographs and Negatives series contains 1,110 items. The photographs (and negatives) include views of jobs (at various stages of completion), plants, machinery, as well as a few aerial views of the company's jobs. The Ephemera series contains 124 items. The series includes: business-related newsletters and bulletins, brochures and publications, newspaper clippings; tax forms, several LA Paving Company related artifacts, a copy of the 1926 Who's who in Los Angeles and a copy of Scratches: a volume of cartoons and caricatures of Los Angeles citizens, 1911 (Ernest R. Werdin is in both volumes). There is also one folder related to E. Russell Werdin's involvement in the USC Alumni Association. The 38 volumes include bid requests, daily job reports, invoices, journals, one photograph album, a plant and shop register, and stock certificates.
mssLA Paving Co records
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of personal and business papers primarily related to the James De Barth Shorb family and their business ventures and estate settlements. There is also a substantial amount of material about Benjamin Davis Wilson and his business dealings in California. Topics covered in the collection include agriculture, land development in southern California, the history of the San Marino area, mining operations, water rights and irrigation, politics, society stories, and wills, court documents, and settlement papers related to the Shorb estate.
mssShorb1