Smith Estate/El Mio

This Victorian house in Los Angeles' Highland Park was built in 1887 for David P. Hatch, a Superior Court Judge. Members of the Smith family owned the house from about the mid-1890s to the 1960s. The house's later owners included a railroad tycoon and a deputy mayor of Los Angeles. Known as the Smith Estate and nicknamed "El Mio," the two-story, Eastlake Queen Anne style wood frame house with a three-story corner tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its architecture. In 1975, the house was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The Smith Estate was a site of cult films "Spider Baby" (1964) and "Silent Scream" (1979); the interior appeared in "Insidious: Chapter 2" (2013).

Judge David Patterson Hatch (1846-1912) was born in Maine and moved to California in 1875. He settled in Santa Barbara, where he served as a Superior Court judge for the county. Judge Hatch and his wife, Ida, moved to Los Angeles and into their new home around 1887. Their four children - Eugene, Bruce, Ida, and David Jr. - were born between 1877 and 1892. Judge Hatch later wrote several books on philosophy and the occult, including Scientific Occultism (1905). A British author, Elsa Barker, claimed that the spirit of Judge Hatch wrote through her via "automatic writing" (guiding her pen) to produce at least one book after his 1912 death; War Letters From a Living Dead Man was "channeled" in 1913 and published in 1915.

Charles William Smith, a real estate promoter and railroad tycoon, purchased the house around the mid-1890s, after Judge Hatch moved for health reasons. The Smith family owned the mansion until the 1960s; the mansion is known as the Smith Estate or "El Mio." Charles and his wife, Emma, shared the home with their daughters, Emma and Bethene, and son, S. Quay. Later, their son, a physician, occupied the house until his death in 1958. William Wise owned El Mio by 1964 when some of the cult classic film "Spider Baby" was shot there.

On a 1920 Sanborn map, the mansion was alone on a large hilly lot except for a small concrete garage that had been built to the west, into the bank of the hill by W. Ave. 59. The Smiths subdivided the hill into lots in the 1920s. A dirt lane named El Mio Drive led from the garage up the hill, forming a loop around the mansion; the road continued behind the mansion, where a mixture of homes was constructed. Bungalows, Spanish style, and mid-century houses on a one-block-long cul-de-sac now share the hill with El Mio.

The two-story, wood frame house is Queen Anne style. The corner polygonal, three-story tower has a steep conical roof; the adjacent chimney has decorative brickwork on its exterior. Its fishscale shingles and fine exterior and exterior woodwork are other hallmarks of Queen Anne style architecture. The hilltop mansion with a spectacular view of downtown Los Angeles was the local equivalent of a country estate for the well-to-do. When the house was built, it was in the town of Garvanza; the area was incorporated into the city limits of Los Angeles in 1899. The architect is unknown, and the house is the only remaining Queen Anne style residence in Highland Park. A kitchen addition's porch was enclosed in the 1920s in a similar style.

When El Mio was documented in 1982 for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, it was owned and occupied by the Peters family. Historic preservationists Michael and Lacy Gage purchased El Mio in the late 1980s and began to restore the house; Michael was deputy mayor of L.A. when the house was bought. Later owners, Tim and Mari Parker, were having some work done in 2001 when contractors accidentally started a fire in the attic. The attic has since been rebuilt. The Milford Archaeological Institute recently had an office at El Mio, with Mari Pritchard Parker as president; the non-profit, founded in 2000, studies past cultures and lifeways of the Desert Southwest.

Bariscale, Floyd B. No. 142 - Smith Estate, Big Orange Landmarks. May 12th, 2008. Accessed April 5th, 2023. http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-142-smith-estate.html.

Cejudo, Priscilla. Historical Home Tour of 'El Mio', Patch: Eagle Rock, CA. November 15th, 2010. Accessed April 5th, 2023. https://patch.com/california/eaglerock/ev--historical-home-tour-of-el-mio.

Demarest, Marc. David Patterson Hatch (1846-1912), Chasing Down Emma. blog. July 17th, 2012. Accessed April 6th, 2023. http://ehbritten.blogspot.com/2012/07/david-patterson-hatch-1846-1912-file.html.

Grace, Roger M. The Man Called 'X' was Judge David P. Hatch, Metropolitan News-Enterprise. November 5th, 2009. Accessed April 6th, 2023. http://www.metnews.com/articles/2009/reminiscing110509.htm.

Johnson, Christy. Peters, Louis and Nora. NRHP nomination of Smith Estate, Los Angeles, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1982.

Milford Archaeological Research Institute. Home, Milford Archaeological Research Institute. Accessed April 5th, 2023. http://www.mariarchaeology.com/Milford_Archaeological_Research_Institute/Home.html.

Sanborn Map Company. Fire Insurance Map of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Volume 12. New York, NY. Sanborn Map Company, 1920.

Stalwick, Ann. El Mio Neighborhood, Highland Park, California, NELA Live. Accessed April 5th, 2023. https://www.nelalive.net/2009/06/el-mio-neighborhood-highland-park-california.html.