The Cottage Home tract was set up in 1895 by William R. Burke (1852-1911) and his wife Jessie (1854-1910). William Burke hailed from Helena, AR, where at the tender age of 18 he established the Helena World newspaper, still in print today. He married Jessie Greenfield, the New Orleans-born daughter of a cotton broker, in 1879. The couple and their kids Louise and Carleton came to Los Angeles in 1885, shortly after William sold his paper for a tidy sum. Here he got into insurance sales, then real estate. After Cottage Home – presumably named just because it sounded cozy – he built his signature tract, Berkeley Square, in 1903-1905. Located between Gramercy and Western and between 21st and 24th streets, it was a posh, private enclave of mansions, one of which the Burkes lived in themselves, but it was razed in the 1960s to make way for the 10 freeway. Similarly, much of the Cottage Home tract would vanish under the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
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