Down the Rabbit Hole: the Women of Talmadge #1

As I have been doing research on the original homeowners of Talmadge, I have always been struck by the women who bought homes here. Many of them who were either widowed or never married. These women caught my eye because homeownership was mostly the purview of men in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. In addition, this topic is near and dear to my heart since my own grandmother moved to San Diego in the early 1940s after my grandfather tragically died during the Great Depression. She owned a house and ran a very successful business on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. The resilience of my grandmother and the Talmadge women I am about to tell you about are very inspiring and remarkable. So, let us begin with the first rabbit hole located in West Talmadge.

This journey starts with a place called the Talmadge Tavern and its owner Alma Staggs. It was brought to my attention by a TPEHD volunteer that the Talmadge Tavern appeared in the 1927 Phone Directory. This is where the entrance to the rabbit hole began. The Talmadge Tavern had two different addresses listed on 44th Street, yet neither address exists today. It appears the Tavern was somewhere near the corner of 44th Street and Monroe Avenue. It appeared in the Phone Directories from 1928 until 1932. According to a San Diego Union article dated May 5, 1929, Roy Litchy, the original real estate developer of Talmadge, had arranged for the Tavern to be a place where prospective homeowners could come to get lunch and hear an economic lecture on the benefits of owning property. A clever marketing strategy, especially since the Great Crash and Depression were looming on the horizon.

In the 1928 Voter Registrations List, Alma Staggs was the owner of the Talmadge Tavern and Fletcher Staggs, her husband, was the manager. My research up until this point was unclear until, I discovered how to use the Union Tribune Archive website. This is where my advanced rabbit hole research skills developed.

Often when I go down a rabbit hole, I will take someone with me. This time it was my trusted mentor and historical advisor, Priscilla Berge. Here is how the rabbit hole manifested this night on the Union Tribune Archive website.

San Diego Union, April 28, 1927 – First call to Priscilla, “Fletcher has been arrested for serving alcohol in the Tavern during prohibition!”

San Diego Union, July 14, 1929 - Second call to Priscilla, “Oh no, Fletcher has knocked Alma’s front teeth out! Thank goodness the judge has granted an annulment to their marriage!”

San Diego Union, October 14, 1929 – Third call to Priscilla, “Now someone has shot at Alma through the window at the Tavern as she was doing her bookkeeping! Do you think it was Fletcher?”

San Diego Union, June 10, 1931 - Fourth call to Priscilla, “Alma is building a new cafe on Atlantic Street, near the Marine Base.”

San Diego Union, October 25, 1931 – Fifth call to Priscilla, “Alma is throwing a Halloween Party at the Tavern and Fletcher has opened his own restaurant on Hawthorn Street.”

San Diego Union, June 3, 1933 – Sixth call to Priscilla, “The Tavern has burned down, and Alma is in the hospital! Poor Alma!”

San Diego Union, June 18, 1934 – Seventh and last call to Priscilla, “Fletcher has been arrested in Los Angeles on two counts of grand theft. He was accused of stealing $1,800 from an older woman!”

By this last unearthing, Priscilla and I were exhausted from digging, so we called it a night.

In preparation for this email blast, I went down the rabbit hole once again. What I unearthed was that by the mid-1930s Alma was no longer in the restaurant business. According to Voter Registration documents and the 1940 U.S. Census, Alma was managing an apartment building. By this time, she was in her 50s.

Happily, at the age of 72, Alma remarried in 1949 to a widower by the name of Robin M. Webb. She was retired and lived in National City with her new husband. She died in 1961, as did her husband, at the ripe old age of 84 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego with her two sons. Alma overcame adversity and is an example that it is never too late to fall in love and have a second chance at a better life!

The next adventure of Down the Rabbit Hole: The Women of Talmadge will take place on 48th Street.