Crowds packed the Rose Bowl Stadium in 1923. photos courtesy of the Fullerton Public Library History Room

After World War II, the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce annually selected as honored guests two members from the two football teams – USC and Penn State – who played at the first Tournament of Roses game held in the newly constructed Rose Bowl Stadium on January 1, 1923. In 1947, notable local contractor Horace R. Blair (1899-1976) was selected as one of the two celebrated football players.

Blair was feted at the Rose Bowl kickoff banquet at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and attended a reunion banquet of Penn State and USC players at the Pasadena Athletic Club in the evening. Blair’s teammates on the winning 1923 USC team included Roy “Bullet” Baker, Howard “Hobo” Kincaid, Norman “Swede” Anderson, and Johnny Hawkins, who, like Blair, was also a Fullerton Union High School (FUHS) graduate. In an interview, Blair recalled that the coaches from the two teams almost got into a fistfight when the Penn State team arrived an hour after the game was expected to start and then demanded additional warm-up time. The game ended at night.

During World War I, Blair enlisted in the United States Navy, serving from 1918-1919. In 1920, he graduated from FUHS, where he excelled at sports – football, baseball, and basketball – but was a serious student, with his classmates noting in the 1920 yearbook: “He works when he works, and plays when he plays, though quiet, he is always busy”.

After he graduated from USC, Blair worked for the Union Oil Company before moving into real estate. He established the H. R. Blair Construction Company and later formed the Blair Brothers with his younger brother, Melvin (1912-1983). Both brothers were handsome blue-eyed blondes. Separately and with his brother, Horace Blair constructed homes around Fullerton for forty years. Both brothers maintained separate contractor licenses, and the Fullerton News Tribune noted that while one brother would be working on a project, the other one would be building another home in a different part of town.

The two brothers listed both their names when advertising new subdivisions. Their first office was located in the angled Spanish Colonial Revival building opposite the Fullerton Police Station.

The brothers initially designed and built individual homes but later formed the Sunny Hills Investment Company to concentrate on subdivision developments. Examples of multiple Blair Brothers homes will be found on Glenwood, Riedel, Sudene, Oakdale, and Ferndale avenues and Hollydale Drive.

When designing and building homes around Fullerton, the brothers turned away from period revival styles – Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, English Cottage, etc. – so popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Their first dwellings were Minimal Traditional homes (e.g., 501 East Virginia Road, 740 West Amerige Avenue), but by the 1950s, the firm was constructing Ranch-styled homes that rambled across large lots.

Horace and Melvin Blair’s major competitors were William and Richard Jewett (the Jewett Bros.), their cousins. Still, the Blair Brothers’ homes were significantly larger (three to five bedrooms), pricier, and located in more desirable areas of Fullerton.

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