Henricus Wallace Westlake (June 1858 – 12 May 1905) was a Canadian physician who moved to Los Angeles, California, around 1888, settled in the rolling hills west of the city and gave his name to both a municipal park and a neighborhood in the city.[1][2]
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Westlake was born in either Canada[3] or England in June 1858.[4] He was a graduate of the medical department of McGill University in Montreal and also earned diplomas in Edinburgh and Vienna. He moved to Los Angeles in 1888, where he pioneered in building a large home on Burlington Avenue in the empty, rolling hills west of the city. He developed a large medical practice and was also president of the California-Corsica Citron Company and the Westlake-Rommel Oil Company, besides owning mining interests in Arizona.[2] He was also the inventor of at least one medical device.[5]
He was known as a generous philanthropist who gave large sums to charities.[2] He donated to the city an "unsightly gully" which in the winter filled with storm water and became stagnant, and the land was later developed into Westlake Park,[1] now known as MacArthur Park.
In 1885[2] or 1889[1] he married Fannie Farquhar of Canada, who was his only survivor when he died on May 12, 1905.
References
edit- ^ a b c "Dr. Westlake Is No More," Los Angeles Times, page II-1
- ^ a b c d "Death Ends Career of Able Physician," Los Angeles Herald, May 14, 1905
- ^ California, Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999
- ^ 1900 United States Federal Census
- ^ U.S. patent 693,358