Robert C. Owens

A lifetime Angeleno, Robert C. Owens was the grandson of Mrs. Biddy Mason, a slave from Missouri, who in 1856, successfully petitioned the California state Supreme Court for freedom for her and her family. Owens, her oldest grandchild, started as a farmer and rancher and the owner of his father's livery stable in on Spring Street in Los Angeles. By 1900, he had built on the real estate holdings of his father and grandmother to the extent that he listed himself in the city directories as a "capitalist," with his net worth estimated at a quarter million dollars.