Addition to City’s Historic Registry

By Brian CHERNICK

On Tuesday, the Glendale City Council approved the addition into the city’s historic registry a Tudor Revival-style commercial building and the Miradero Gateway to the Brand Family Cemetery. Designed and built by local architect Alfred Priest in 1928, the former mortuary was crafted in a Tudor Revival architectural style that is known for decorative embellishments and the use of brick. Priest worked on numerous structures in early Glendale and is most notable for his work on the Security Trust building on Broadway and Brand Boulevard and the Seeley’s building on Brand Boulevard and San Fernando Road.

The Brand Family Cemetery and its gateway structure were also given honorable membership into Glendale’s list of historical locations and properties. The gateway is located at the entrance into the cemetery, which originally served as the entryway to the Brand family mansion called El Miradero.

The Brand family has a rich history in Glendale. Leslie Coombs Brand was instrumental in establishing the First National Bank of Glendale, financed the Masonic Temple and his interest in airplanes influenced the establishment of the Grand Central Airport. The gateway and private cemetery are located behind Brand Park where Brand and other members of his family are buried.

The council also voted to allow the city’s Library, Arts & Culture Dept. to continue working with the CALIFA Group in purchasing books and other related materials. CALIFA is a nonprofit library consortium of over 230 libraries, the largest in California, which allows for libraries to receive necessary materials at discounted rates. Councilmember Vrej Agajanian expressed curiosity as to how the department and CALIFA determine which books to buy for the libraries. Currently, the library director and other librarians discuss and select which books and materials to purchase based on the communities’ needs and wants.

“I want to make sure that when you buy a book and the city decides this book is not proper for this library we can stop the purchase,” Agajanian said, “that we can stop [the purchase of] a book because we think it is not proper for Glendale kids or adults.”

Newly appointed City Manager Yasmin Beers clarified the ability of the council to enact such a policy, stating that the city’s attorneys would need to be involved in order to determine the first amendment implications of rejecting any singular book from purchase. On occasion, the library does receive complaints about certain books. Cynthia Cleary, director of the Library, Arts & Culture Dept., stated that there is a particular process in which the library goes through to determine the merit of the complaint.