Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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OCTAVIUS MORGAN.
 
        Among the representative substantial business men of Los Angeles perhaps 
none has done so much�literally speaking�to transform it from a Mexican adobe 
village to a modern American city of metropolitan appearance as the gentleman 
whose name heads this sketch. Being the leading member of the oldest and most 
prominent firm of architects in the city, he has been connected with the 
construction of a majority of the principal business blocks and public buildings 
erected in and about Los Angeles within the past fifteen years. Out of the large 
number of such structures planned and erected by Keysor & Morgan, the following 
are worthy of mention: The Catholic Cathedral, the Pico House, the Los Angeles 
Infirmary, Sisters' Hospital, St. Vincent's College, the Orphans' Home, the 
Nadeau Block, Hoffman House, McDonald Block, Grand Opera House, Los Angeles 
National Bank Building, San Gabriel Winery, Naud's Warehouse, Capital Milling 
Company's
buildings, Turner's Hall, Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, First Baptist 
Church, Fort Street Methodist Episcopal Church Los Angeles Abstract Building, 
the elegant dwellings of I. W. Hellman, Jasper Harrell, Frank Sabachi, besides 
many others designed and built by them. This firm is so well and favorably known 
that they seldom enter into sharp competition where plans are advertised for. 
Their work is chiefly from the oldest, most substantial and conservative 
citizens of the city and surrounding country, whose long-continued patronage of 
this firm is conclusive evidence of their reliability and good standing. An idea 
of the great magnitude of the business done by this firm will be gathered from 
the fact that it amounted, in 1886-87, to $1,687,000, and the aggregate cost of 
the buildings erected by them in the past five years is nearly $6,000,000. Their 
business extends as far north as Visalia and over a large area of Southern 
California. Their office was established by E. F. Keysor in 1872. Two years 
later Mr. Morgan came to Los Angeles and entered his employ as a draftsman, and 
in 1876 became a partner. This relation continued until 1887, when Mr. Keysor 
retired, being succeeded by John A. Walls. The name of Keysor being retained, 
the firm title became Keysor, Morgan & Walls. Octavius Morgan was born in 
Canterbury, Kent County, England, in 1850, and was educated for his profession 
in his native country; came to the United States in 1871, and was two years in 
Denver, Colorado, before coming to Los Angeles. He spent 1879 and 1880 traveling 
in the East. In 1884 Mr. Morgan was joined in marriage with the widow of Judge 
Offenbacher, of Custer County, Colorado. Two children are the fruit of their 
marriage to date. Mrs. Morgan's maiden name was Weller, and she is a native of 
Ohio. Mr. Morgan is one of the oldest members of the American Institute of 
Architects on the Pacific Coast; is one of the charter members of the Southern 
California Architects' Association, and has been president from its 
organization; is Noble Grand of Golden Rule Lodge, No. 160, I. O. O. F.; is 
vice-president of the Temple Street Cable Railway Company, of which he was one 
of the organizers, and was managing director and secretary during its 
construction. This popular line was begun in 1884, when the population tributary 
to it was but 1,400 by actual census. The first cars ran over the line in July, 
1885. It is three miles in length, and when the double track is completed 
sometime daring 1889, it will have cost $400,000. The population now tributary 
to it is about 8,000. This line has carried upward of 5,000,000 passengers to 
date without an accident, thereby showing the excellence of this road and the 
care of its management and its employ�s.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 566
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
 

OCTAVIUS MORGAN, Los Angeles
 
Born at Hothe Court, near Canterbury, England, Oct. 20, 1850. Educated at Kent 
House Academy, Thomas Cross Classic School and Sydney Cooper Art School, 
Canterbury. Then spent five years in the office of F. A. Gilhams, an architect 
of repute in the same county, locating in Denver, Col., in 1871, and continuing 
his studies and experience; for about three years was a mining prospector in 
various western States, locating in California in 1874; in June of that year 
resumed his professional work at Los Angeles. In 1875 became a partner of E. F. 
Kysor, the pioneer architect, who retired from the firm in 1888, when J. A. 
Walls was admitted to partnership; third member of the firm is O. W. Morgan, and 
style thereof, Morgan, Walls & Morgan. Some of the buildings designed: Van Nuys 
Hotel, Hollenbeck Home, Sisters' Hospital, and Farmers & Merchants' Bank, H. W. 
Hellman Office and W. P. Story buildings. Ex-Pres. Engineers' & Architects Assn. 
and Southern Cal. Chapter A. I. A.; Mason, I. O. O. F. and mem. clubs. Married, 
1884, Margaret S. (Weller) Offenbacher; two children.
 
SOURCE: Greater Los Angeles & Southern California Portraits & Personal 
Memoranda, Lewis Publishing Company, 1910, P.226