Ard Eevin

Constructed in 1903, this Glendale estate is named Ard Eevin ("heavenly view" or "beautiful heights" in Gaelic) and features an eclectic mixture of Craftsman, Colonial Revival, and West Indies Plantation styles was constructed for Dan Campbell. Campbell immigrated from Ireland with his brothers and struck it rich in Alaska in gold mining in the 1890s. He returned to Ireland to marry in 1900 and then settled in California. Originally farmland, the property was subdivided in the 1920s. Ard Eevin remained the Campbell family home for decades. Ard Eevin was added to the Glendale Register of Historic Resources in 2002 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2006; the home is still a private residence and is part of a Glendale historic district.

Ard Eevin was built for Daniel Campbell, who emigrated to America from Ireland with his brothers in the 1890s. Daniel eventually struck gold in the Klondike in Alaska after repeated tries at prospecting. The now-wealthy man returned to Ireland and married a cousin, Margaret McPeak, in November 1900 before returning with his bride to California. The couple moved into a new cottage on W. 25th Street in Angelino Heights and purchased 48 acres of farmland in north Glendale with a brother to establish a home. Daniel was one of the directors of the Glendale Building Association, incorporated in 1905.

Nathaniel Dryden designed the new house in Glendale named "Ard Eevin" in an eclectic mix of Craftsman, Colonial, and West Indies Plantation styles. Dryden was a builder and a self-taught architect. He also designed a home in Beverly Hills for his daughter, Virginia Robinson, and her husband (also a Clio entry). The two-story house was placed on a point of land between two canyons. The land was first leveled, exposing underlying granite, before a stone retaining wall was constructed. The front of the house followed the semicircular lines of the retaining wall and featured a rounded veranda between two side wings. Ard Eevin contained nine large rooms with plastered walls. The home was lit with acetylene gas.

About half (25 acres) of the new house site remained as farmland. Foundation remnants of a milkhouse, a barn, and a feeding trough still remained in the backyard in the 2000s (when the house was documented for the National Register). A garage (still standing) was built in 1912; Daniel's son, Daniel Jr., became a Ford dealer in the 1920s and kept a car collection in the garage. Daniel Jr. had been one year old when his family moved into their new home in February 1903. Margaret Campbell held an "afternoon musicale" at Ard Eevin in July 1916 for a visiting cousin, Miss Mary Baxter of Oklahoma. In 1920, Ard Eevin was shared by Daniel (age 47), wife Margaret (40), and children Daniel M. (18), Arthur (16), and Kathleen L. (14). Also residing in the house were: Laura M. Hill (40, a housekeeper), Frank Acosta (22, a laborer), and Frank's wife, Madeline (18).

Daniel and his brother Arthur began subdividing the Ard Eevin land in 1923; the new tracts became part of Campbell Heights and Cumberland Heights subdivisions. Daniel Jr. and his wife, Agnes, owned Ard Eevin by 1940, when Jr. won a quarter million dollars in the Irish sweepstakes. The couple soon made a number of interior improvements at Ard Eevin, including kitchen remodeling and painting over a ceiling fresco in the living room. Daniel Jr. (age 48) shared Ard Eevin with his wife Agnes (46), a native of Massachusetts, in 1950. Unlike the 1920 census, the house was no longer considered to be on a farm. Daniel Jr. was the secretary of a plastic manufacturing corporation in 1950; Agnes worked as an elementary school teacher in a city school. By the 1990s, her flower garden had been replaced with orange trees.

Ard Eevin continues to be a private residence, perched on high ground at the base of a hillside and shielded from view from the nearby streets by mature trees and hedges. The house was last sold in 2015 and is not open to the public.

Anonymous. "Incorporations." Los Angeles Herald (Los Angeles) March 28th, 1905. 11-11.

City of Glendale. Glendale Register of Historic Resources, Glendale Register of Historic Resources. September 1st, 2021. Accessed July 20th, 2023. https://www.glendaleca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12452/637715527191700000.

Glendale Historical Society. Ard Eevin, Landmarks. January 1st, 2023. Accessed July 20th, 2023. https://glendalehistorical.org/landmarks.

Levy, Juana Neal. "Society Gossip: Cousin as Guest." Los Angeles Herald (Los Angeles) July 13th, 1916. 7-7.

Paul, Daniel D. NRHP nomination of Ard Eevin, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2006.

R., Etan. #105: Ard Eevin (Glendale), Etan Does LA. July 3rd, 2022. Accessed July 20th, 2023. https://etandoesla.com/ard-eevin-daniel-campbell-glendale-history/.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Daniel Campbell on farm on Highland in Burbank Township, Los Angeles County, California, dwelling 200, family 204. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Daniel Campbell at 851 Mountain St. in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, dwelling 25. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1950.

Yamada, Katherine. "The Campbells: Dan brings his bride back home to Glendale." Glendale News-Press (Glendale) March 1st, 2003. News sec.