Cooley & Grizzle

George E. Cooley & Harold W. Grizzle worked together from 1937 to 1948, during a building boom in Talmadge. They built 58  houses within Talmadge Park Estates Historic District (TPEHD).   Together they built the third hightest number of homes within TPEHD. John Lovett  built 83 houses and The Dennstedt Co. built 60.

Prior to his partnership with Grizzle, Cooley was in a building partnership with the Master Builder Benjamin Torgerson from 1931 until 1935 according to San Diego City Directories. Cooley and Torgerson combined their resources to take advantage of lower prices for supplies and build bigger homes for wealthier buyers during the first part of the Great Depression. In 1931 they built a historically designated house in Kensington Heights. It is called, “Benjamin M. Torgerson, Lois Torgerson, George E. Cooley, and Bertha Cooley Speculation House No. 1”. It was built in the Spanish Eclectic Style.

Cooley and Torgerson stopped working together in 1935, right before the big building boom in San Diego. This is likely due to government financing making building homes financially easier, therefore Cooley and Torgerson no longer needed to pool resources. This boom was in part due to the aircraft industry taking flight in San Diego before and during WWII. Another factor was the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program that was founded in 1934 as part of President’s Roosevelt’s New Deal to help first time homebuyers afford homes during the Great Depression. Benjamin Torgerson went on to build five houses (1936-1939) within TPEHD after his partnership ended with Cooley. It appears he took advantage of the FHA program since these homes were built in the Minimal Traditional style. The Minimal Traditional style was an approved FHA building design.

Harold W. Grizzle was born in 1898 in Indiana. He served in WWI. He went from being a taxi driver at Owl Taxi in 1918 to an auto mechanic at the time of the 1920 Census. In the 1920s he later went on to work for Thearle Music Company (640 Broadway) as a piano finisher. By the 1930 Census, Grizzle was listed as a carpenter. As mentioned earlier, Cooley & Grizzle were in partnership from 1937 until 1948. In 1959 Grizzle was incorporated as H W Grizzle Inc. Grizzle was President and his two sons, Harold D. Grizzle and Roy D. Grizzle were both Vice-Presidents.

Personally, Cooley & Grizzle could of not have been more different. George E. Cooley was married to the same woman for over 35 years. Her name was Bertha, and she was 20 years his junior. They never had children. Harold Grizzle, on the other hand, was married three times, widowed once and divorced once. He had 2 children with his first wife, Delilah, who died in 1941. He remarried in 1942 to Ruth Grizzle. Harold built a house at 4505 47th Street in Talmadge where Ruth and he lived from 1941 until about 1946. This was during the time he was building homes within TPEHD. They divorced around 1946 and Harold then married Nell Grizzle in 1947. They remained married until his death in 1969.

Reference

May, Ronald V. & May, Dale Ballou 2011. “Benjamin M. Torgerson, Lois Torgerson, George E. Cooley, and Bertha Cooley Speculation House No. 1” Pages 10, 35-36 https://sandiego.cfwebtools.com/images/files/Marlborough.pdf