The real estate adventures of Walter S. Tubach

I just can’t get over the prices that homes are selling for here in the land of opportunity that we call Huntington Beach.

If I had told someone living on Main Street fifty years ago that their small house would one day be worth over a million dollars, I would have been hauled off to Fairview State Hospital in a strait jacket.

I wonder what some of the early real estate people would think about what our town’s homes are selling for today. Back then, agents were selling lots and homes here for a few thousand dollars.

This week, we’ll look back at one of these early real estate men and at some of the deals that could be had if we had only known.

Can you imagine buying an oceanfront lot on Pacific Coast Highway between Second and Third streets for $2,000, with half down and the rest in two years?

If a house was what you were looking for to raise a family, you were in luck. You could purchase a nice six-room house on Seventh Street with two two-room cottages in the rear for $5,000 from the real estate office of Walter S. Tubach.

That is ? if you could come up with the down payment of $2,500 and payments of $75 a month. In the 1920s, that would have been a good-sized amount for a young family to come up with.

It seems that Tubach was an interesting character in the real estate business, as we shall see.

He was born in Colley, Pa., on May 25, 1897. When he was a young boy, his family moved to California and settled in Anaheim, where Tubach attended high school.

After graduating in 1915, Tubach went to junior college, then became interested in California real estate.

It was during this time that the 22-year-old began courting Della Ana Williams. On October 4, 1919, the two were wed.

With a new wife, Tubach wanted his own real estate office. He found that office in Huntington Beach just in time for the oil and land boom. In December 1920, Tubach and a partner formed the firm Bradley and Tubach and opened a real estate office at 108 Main Street.

In 1921 Della Tubach presented her husband with a baby girl. For the next two years, the office prospered. Tubach assembled an organization of agents that any real estate office today would envy.

By 1924 his partner had left the firm, and Tubach became sole owner of the successful real estate business. Tubach would credit his success in business to always being careful about what properties he accepted.

He sold property not only in Orange County but also in many other parts of California.

I’m sure you have seen Erik Estrada selling lots in California Pines on television today. You might say that Walter Tubach was the Erik Estrada of the 1920s.

Tubach sold lots in a place called Cedar Pines Park, just 15 miles north of San Bernardino.

Cabin lots could be had from $25 to $100 each, with tennis courts, golf links, shade trees of all kinds, children’s playgrounds, a grocery store and a dance pavilion nearby all at a “ridiculously small first payment with terms to suit.”

Tubach even offered a round trip to Cedar Pines Park for $3, and if you bought a lot from him he would refund the $3.

Cedar Pines Park sounded nice, just like in those ads Estrada does today. And just like today, the property was way out in the boonies.

I wonder if Cedar Pines is still there?

Besides running a successful real estate business, Tubach was also a director in the Orange County Finance Corp., a director in the Huntington Beach Investment Company and president of the Santa New Mex Drilling Co.

He was a member of our Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Huntington Beach Lions Club.

Not bad for someone under 30 years old.