The Lamson’s Lair

Over the years I’ve made a point of going on eBay to search the various names that interest me hoping to uncover something historical in nature – La Cañada, Lake View Terrace, Montrose, Sunland, La Crescenta, Tujunga – to name a handful. Most often there is nothing to find but sometimes it’s quite intriguing what comes up for sale. I believe there’s a future story to write expounding on these finds, but today I’d like to tell of my most recent score.

There’s always this moment of tension as you count down the last moments at the end of an auction. You’ve committed the top amount you’re willing to shell out and it all comes down to whether the other party wants it more. The time dwindles down to zero and you have to wait a few moments as the wheels spin to find out if you’ve been victorious. Luckily in this instance, I won the battle.

Days ago, I received the item. It’s a handmade Christmas card dated 1950 from local Tujunga pioneers Joseph Harry Lamson and his wife Alice. 

The name Joseph was on the Lamson family tree as far as his great-great-great grandfather, born in 1718, and yet he went by his middle name, Harry. On the front of the card, which measures only 4 x 5 inches, is a photograph of Harry out in front of his home which once stood at 7139 Greeley St. Below is a handwritten caption, “Lamson’s Lair.”

Before I explain what more was included with the card, I must first share just how important Harry Lamson was and is for the history of this community. Harry was born on Aug. 2, 1873 in Maine. His grandfather, Joseph Sanborn Lamson, had been one of the earliest daguerreotype photographers in the United States in the 1840s. His father, Joseph Harrison Lamson, became somewhat famous as a photographer on the east coast when Harry was a boy in the 1880s and 1890s.

When Harry arrived in this area in the early 1900s, he came with his camera and initially set up his photography shop near to his younger brother Frank in Pasadena. After his brother passed in 1908, he and Alice found their way to Greeley Street in Tujunga. With years of experience as a photographer and with what he had learned from his father, Harry lost no time in setting out to photograph – well – everything. He photographed the people and the places they congregated. He took pictures of the local hills and the buildings that were springing up everywhere. He captured a great deal of the pioneer days of the surrounding area and for that we are truly indebted to him.

Now going back to the Christmas card: it makes more sense that it included a series of photographs. The first, as I mentioned, was the exterior of their home. Harry stands near the front door and vines and greenery literally mask much of the house. In this initial photo the number of windows stands out. All the doors and windows in their home were created by combining a great number of glass photographic plates that were approximately 8 x 10 inches in size. I counted over 260 of these glass plates within the photos included with the card. 

The rest of the photographs revolved around Harry in what Alice labeled as The Studio. Each picture has some of Alice’s handwriting with a short description on the back. Strangely, Alice does not appear in any of the images. We see Harry sitting at a grand piano, another with him sitting at his desk with a photograph of John Steven McGroarty in his right hand and a cigarette in his left, and another where he relaxes with a beer and a newspaper on their patio. The card concludes on the final page with the handwritten words, “Christmas Greetings to you all from Alice and Harry, 1950.”