32
COMMUNITY
history
The Ranch and Residence of H.M. Warden on Los Osos Valley Road, 1883.
queenie warden By Joe Carotenuti
T
ens of thousands have walked over the bridge; there are even vehicles using it to access the backs of businesses facing Higuera Street. Built in 1927 linking the Warden Building to Monterey Street, few travelers know it was built by Queenie Warden and not by her husband, the civic legend, Horatio M. Warden. When his wife of 25 years, Maria, died in 1881, Horatio returned to an ongoing friendship to marry again. Warden, born in 1828 in Granville, Ohio married Queenie Parr on November 30, 1882 in Grass Valley at the home of her mother Loraine Page Parr. While Horatio had left his home in 1850 for the gold fields of California, he maintained a friendship with his neighbors, the Parr family. For the 21-year-old woman, the new life with the successful Warden could have been one devoted to family duties and attendant responsibilities. For Queenie, however, the next 62 years were ones of increasing maturity as both an adult and a prominent resident on the central coast. Moving to the Warden ranch in Los Osos, Queenie found her new home on the 3000-acre ranch filled with “every convenience and luxury any reasonable man can desire” according to a contemporary account. Complete with family memorabilia, it burned to the ground in 1930. While many might be content with the safety and security of wealth and privilege, Queenie excelled in maintaining the stature of her life but was most willing to share advantages with others. Here’s the story. Little is known of Queenie’s early years. The Page ancestors had arrived in America in 1630 with the family motto “Spe Labor Levis” (Hope Lightens Labor) that became especially appropriate for Queenie in her later years as a progressive resident and enabler locally. Educated in a convent school in Davenport, Iowa (her home state), the new bride also assumed the care of two adopted Warden children, Rosa Louisa and Joseph Wilkinson.
The Warden Bridge and Building in 1929. J A N U A R Y
2015
Journal PLUS
Family life on the Warden ranch grew rapidly with the birth of three children: Queenie Moore (1884), Horatio, Jr. (1886) and Mary Loraine (1888). The latter child survived to 14. The eldest daughter would eventually marry Thomas A. Norton, the Superior Court judge, and the son is remembered with his own building in town. Yet, amid the demands of family, when the various Warden interests were incorporated in 1898, Queenie became the president of the enterprise. One observer praised her “splendid executive and business ability.” Possibly for Queenie, managing a large household or business utilized the same skill set. Queenie’s interests outside the home had already shown themselves as she joined the Political Equality Club in 1896 and undoubtedly was in the audience that year to listen to the legendary Susan B. Anthony extoll the necessity of allowing women to vote. It was not to be until 1911. The nascent suffrage movement would be a constant theme in many of the female leaders’ issues at the time. For Queenie, however, talking about change was not enough. Words needed to be translated into deeds. Essential to an understanding of both the suffrage and temperance movements is the momentum provided by the women’s clubs. Quite often designated as “civic improvement” clubs, the ladies were not content in having meetings designed as merely social but also addressed what a community needed to do to become “progressive” as well. Thus, Queenie Warden—the daughter—became one of the five founding members in 1915 of the San Luis Obispo Women’s Civic Club. With the right to vote attained in 1911, attention shifted to reminding those elected or wanting to be elected that the newly
The Warden Bridge and Building today.