A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HOUSE AT 11201 BERENDO BY ALEX F. MAGDALENO The house at 11201 South Berendo was originaly a real estate office at 120th and Vermont. It was moved to Berendo shortly after WW1. It was placed on stones for a foundation. The back bedroom was added at that time. On March 2, 1923, my grandparents Porfirio and Adelaida Magdaleno purchased the house from Gilbert and Mary Fields. Adelaida had been spending the summers in Los Angeles to escape the heat of Yuma. By buying she saved paying rent, and I think at least one of her sons was working in L.A. He could live in the house year around. Some of her son's Also wanted to go the National Technical Schools in L.A. Porfirio worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, so the family could travel free between L.A. and Yuma Ariz. Porfirio prefered Yuma and spent little time at the Berendo house. His job in Yuma was 12 hours a day, 7days a week. Adelaida could speak and read English and did all of the work to purchase the house. I don't know how much they paid for the house but the payments were $10.00 every 15 days. At that time the street was known as Venetia ave. It was renamed Berendo about 1932. The Names of some of the neighbors were Mcreary, Castle, Hisey and Vreeland. Adelaida's children were Ray, Artie, Alex, Bert,Eddie, Martin, Hope, Manual, and Henry. Francis and Gloria were born in 1923 and 1925. I asked my aunt Hope how the family was accepted. She said that almost everyone treated them nicely. Ray was already working for the Railroad in Yuma, and never lived in the Berendo house. Some of the children stayed year around and went to Woodcrest Elementary school. My Dad, Edward went there for the sixth grade. There was no High Scool in the area, so he returned to Yuma for the upper grades. When George Washington high was built, he returned and was one of the five seniors in the first graqduating class of 1928. One of his friends who was several years behind him at Washihngton, told me that Dad was one of his football heros at the school. Adelaida died of a stroke while living in Yuma in 1928. I believe my grandfather left it up to the older sons to take care of the house. During the depression it became difficult to keep up the payments and the taxes. The Fields's were pretty understanding but the tax man wasn't. Around 1935 they had an order to take over the house. Delinquent taxes for several years equaled $272. It was up to my dad to find a way to save it,as two of his older brothers had died in the early thirties. He was able to secure a FHA loan for about $1400 to pay off the loan, the taxes, and bring the house up to FHA standards. The new payments were 14.85 a month. They required that he upgrade the wiring and pour a cement foundation. They also had to hook up to the sewere system and fill in the cesspool. He traded labor with a contractor to get a good price on the foundation. They dug out the foundation in 8 foot lengths, and wood forms for the raised parts. They skipped every 8 feet to support the house. The cement was mixed by hand in a wheel barrow. After that had set they dug out the rest of the footings and finished the foundation. In 1933 Hope was living in the house with her husband Charlie Lucero and her infant son. She was in the kitchen when the Long Beach earthquake struck. She remembered that Douglas was in a bassinet on top of a trunk. She said she had to try three time to go rescue him, as she kept banging into the door jamb. She got there just in time to catch the bassinet. A picture had fallen off the wall onto Doug, but luckily. It didn't break. She said she was amazed the the house had not slipped off the stones it was resting on. Eddie and Lamora were living in the house when Raymond was born in 1937. Marla came along in 1940 and Alex In 1942. Around that time, the Vreelands tore down their old garage. Dad took three walls and the roof and tacked them on to our existing garage, making it a two car garage. Manual and Burt built the large shed in the back of the lot. Charlie Lucero did the Stucco. I can still recall the sound of the Hit and Miss engine on the cement mixer. Manual and a friend bought a kiln, and made pottery in the shed, but it wasn't a commercial success. I can remember years later, we used to play on the bags of clay and cement stored in there. When the Tuckers Cesspool caved in, that's where all the bags went. Eddie and Lamora bought a newer house in Hollypark in 1965. Alex and Elma moved into the house and stayed till 1968. After that the house was rented to the Robert Garcia family till 1972 when it was sold for $ 14,500 to Ronald and Doris Hamilton. Dad had to have new roofing and a new electic service box installed to meet newer FHA standards.