Stallard & Oates

Stallard & Oates are featured in the Talmadge Park Estates Homebuilders Guide from 1940. They built 10 homes within Talmadge between 1938–1941. This was during the major building boom within our proposed historic district.

They also built a home at 4803 Kensington Drive that is individually designated as a historic resource listed on the City of San Diego Historic Resources Register. The Historical Nomination was written by Ron May and Kiley Wallace and is called the William and Elva Page House. The report gives detailed information from the public record regarding Stallard & Oates, which is summarized below.

William B. Stallard was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1896. His father was a real estate agent, and his mother was a housewife born in Wales. His WWI Draft Card listed him as an electrician for the Western Pacific Railroad.

By 1923, Stallard was living in San Diego. In the mid-1920s he worked for a builder who was the son of the Master Builder, Martin V. Melhorn. By 1927, the City Directory listed Stallard as a “carpenter.”

In the 1930 Census, Willian Stallard, his wife, Opal, and their son Bobby lived at 1321 Vine Street, San Diego. William was a building contractor and Opal was a stenographer in a title office. William and Opal divorced in 1932. William died in 1956 while vacationing in Flagstaff, Arizona. He was 60 years old.

Pirl A. Oates was born in 1896 in Havana, Arkansas. Interestingly, this was the same year Stallard was born. Pirl and his twin brother grew up on a farm. Pirl enlisted in the Navy during WWI from 1917 – 1919. He married his wife Ester in 1920. By 1922 they were living in San Diego. Pirl died at age 90 in 1986 in Vista, California, 30 years after his business partner William Stallard passed away.

William B. Stallard and Pirl A. Oates became business partners in the mid-1920s. They remained in business until the early 1950s. One of their most well-known projects was the Spanish style bungalow courtyard apartments on 2417 Broadway in Golden Hills. They were considered high-class apartment buildings in 1930 when they were built. Luckily, this gorgeous bungalow still exists today.

References

May, Ronald V. & Wallace, Kiley 2017. “William and Elva Page House” Pages 26, 28 & 92 https://sandiego.cfwebtools.com/images/files/4803%20Kensington%20Drive.pdf