Sumner House
The Queen Anne Victorian style Sumner House in Claremont was built in 1887 for Charles Burt Sumner and his wife, Mary Louisa Steadman Sumner. In Pomona. Because Sumner, an instrumental member of the founding Board of Trustees of Pomona College, wanted his home to be near its future campus in north Pomona. After the 1888 land bust, however, the college was offered an empty hotel in Claremont and eventually gave up on the north Pomona site. In 1901, Sumner had his house hoisted onto heavy timbers and rollers for a 1 1/2 mile, 6 day move to Claremont and its present location at First and College. Sumner’s son donated the house to the college in the 1940s. In the 1970s and ’80s it was a student dormitory favored by vegetarians and nicknamed Veggie House. It was closed as a dormitory in 1989, restored in 1992 and now serves as the College’s guest house.
Claremont, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt