Burton E. Green | |
---|---|
Born |
Burton Edmond Green September 6, 1868 Madison, Wisconsin |
Died | May 13, 1965 Los Angeles County, California |
(aged 96)
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California |
Education | Beaver Dam Academy Los Angeles High School |
Occupation | Oilman, real estate developer |
Spouse(s) | Lillian (Wellburn) Green |
Children | 3, including Dorothy (Dolly) |
Relatives | Olin Wellborn (father-in-law) |
Burton Edmond Green (1868–1965) was an American oilman and real estate developer. He was critical in the development of Beverly Hills, California, and he is credited with naming it Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Massachusetts.
Burton Edmond Green was born on September 6, 1868 near Madison, Wisconsin. His father was Richard Green and his mother, Amanda Hill (Bush) Green. He attended the Beaver Dam Academy in Wisconsin. He moved to California with his family in 1886, at the age of sixteen. He graduated from the Los Angeles High School in 1889.
Green worked as an orange grower in Redlands, California for five years. He then decided to return to Los Angeles and invest in the oil industry. Together with Max Whittier (1867–1928), he established the Green & Whittier Oil Company and drilled oil in the Los Angeles area. Shortly after, they started drilling near Bakersfield, California. In 1905, the Green & Whittier Oil Company merged with two other oil companies to become the Associated Oil Company of California. As a result, he served on the Board of Directors of the Associated Oil Company, later serving as its President. He served as the President of the Bellridge Oil Company, which encompassed 32,000 acres of the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County, California.
In 1900, together with Max Whittier, Charles A. Canfield (1848–1913), Frank H. Buck (1887–1942), Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927), William G. Kerckhoff (1856–1929), William F. Herrin (1854-1927), W.S. Porter and Frank H. Balch, known as the Amalgated Oil Company, he purchased Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas from Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker and renamed it Morocco Junction. After drilling for oil and only finding water, they reorganized their business into the Rodeo Land and Water Company to develop a new residential town later known as Beverly Hills, California. Green served as the President of the Rodeo Land and Water Company. He called the new town Beverly Hills after his fond recollections of time spent in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. He hired architects Wilbur David Cook and Myron Hunt to design the master plans of the city.