John Edward “Ed” Hollenbeck (1829-1885) was an Ohio boy who made his fortune in Central America. In the pre-Panama Canal era, people sailing from the East Coast to the West often crossed at Nicaragua, its huge lake expediting the journey. Hollenbeck himself was headed to San Francisco c. 1849 when illness forced him to disembark en route. He decided to stay in Greytown, Nicaragua and soon began profiting off his fellow migrants, running steamboat lines, a general store, and even a hotel, where he partnered with a German expat named Elizabeth Hatsfeldt (1827-1918) then married her. After years of illness and political turmoil, the childless Hollenbecks decided to leave Nicaragua for Los Angeles. (Ed’s sister Susan was likewise headed here with her husband J.G. Bell.) They snapped up loads of property in 1874 and settled in Boyle Heights two years later. Ed’s money talked, and during his short time in L.A. he got into politics, banking, streetcars, hotels, and real estate, in particular the thousands of acres in the San Gabriel Valley that he took from the Badilla (a.k.a. Badillo) brothers and partly sold to J.S. Phillips, who founded Covina on the land. In 1890-1895, Elizabeth Hollenbeck transformed their opulent Boyle Heights estate into a home for the elderly; it still exists as Hollenbeck Palms.
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