Florence Casler, 1928.
Long before Rick Caruso, CIM group, Lincoln Property, and others hit the Los Angeles real estate world, Florence C. Casler dominated its ranks, constructing many of Los Angeles’ most successful skyscraper buildings in the 1920s. Powerhouse Casler observed her father and husband in their financial and real estate dealings, turbocharging herself into one of Los Angeles’ earliest real estate developers through daring, drive, and insight.
Born Florence C. Sherk in Sherkston, Weiland, Ontario, Canada in 1869, Casler grew up on her family’s farm, where her father Hugh grew mammoth strawberries and other fruits and vegetables and she studied music. Her successful father Hugh made extra money allowing the gas company to set up their telegraph and telephone office on his property.
Above, baseball and ostriches. Below, the Rev. G.W. Woodbey, an African American minister described in The Times as a rabid radical, is convicted of speaking on a street corner without a license. 
The Methodist Episcopal congregation, formed from a merger of the Centennial and Central churches, planned a wonderful new building at 22nd Street and Union. Although the congregation studied the idea of a new location, the members finally decided there was no better place than the one they had.
Note: This is an encore post from 2006.
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