The Albert P. Seymour Home

Albert P. Seymour was an inventor and businessman who arrived in Monrovia in 1905 from Syracuse, New York. 

He helped form the Monrovia Publishing Company and served as its president. The company purchased the Monrovia News from A. E. Cronenwett in 1906, and five years later it became the Monrovia Daily News which was Monrovia’s first daily newspaper. 

Seymour’s leadership in Monrovia’s newspaper business was short lived as he passed away in September, 1908. Prior to his death, Seymour deeded the street next to and east of the house, and it was originally called Seymour Place. The street was renamed Ivy Avenue when the Seymour Tract was subdivided, but a street behind the house is still called Seymour Place.

The home at 205 E. Hillcrest Boulevard was built for Seymour in 1905. This Craftsman style single family residence consisted of five bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a billiard room, front parlor, great room, library, dining room, kitchen and breakfast nook, spread over 3700 square feet. 

The current owners purchased the home in 2001 and began making significant improvements right away.  First order of business was to update the original 65-amp power service, unify the hodge-podge of plumbing, and modernize the HVAC system. A major project was begun several years ago with a kitchen remodel that included extensions to the living area and basement, adding approximately 800 square feet to the house.

The previous owners who had acquired the home in 1980 turned it into the “See More Museum”, a play on words from the original owner of the home, Albert Seymour. The wife, Fern Olson, was an accomplished collector of costumes, hats, dolls, and souvenirs from around the world. 

When it came time to move, she had to conduct several estate sales to sell off the over 70,000 costumes, 10,000 hats, and various other collections within the museum! For years Fern had rented costumes to local drama clubs and to individuals seeking that one-of-a-kind outfit for Halloween. 

When the current owners first visited the home during a trip out from their home in Boston, the Olsons’ son offered to sell the house “lock, stock, and barrel”, an offer that was politely turned down, due to the enormous amount of work it would have taken to clear the house of its contents.

If you drive along Hillcrest Boulevard east of Myrtle, you will have no difficulty identifying the house, as there is a carousel horse prominently displayed on the lawn in the front yard. Installed sometime in the 1980s, it was purchased from the Pony Express Museum in Arcadia. The carousel horse continues to greet friends and visitors to the house as it has for almost 30 years.

The house was landmarked in 2002 (HL#41) and is under a Mills Act contract. It has been on the Mother’s Day Home Tour only one time, and that was in 2003.

A special thanks to owners John and Penny Zuk for providing background material on the house, as well as to Craig Jimenez of the City of Monrovia whose staff report on the landmark application contained some historical data.