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Highly detailed Cadastral map of Windsor Heights, showing numbered blocks and lots with measurements, the property offered by Tracy E. Shoults Company.

The map is colored to show the lots sold, with the prices of the unsold lots and several apparently recently sold lots also given in pencil. At the right, a promotional description of the concept and favorable location of the subdivision is given. I pencil, there is a note stating that homes are limited to 6500 square feet and a single story. or 2 stories, depending upon the block.

Area generally bounded by Temple Street, Vine Street, Larchmont and Third Street. In the "heart of the Wilshire district."

In 1885, an investor group formed a syndicate called the Windsor Square Land Co. and bought 200 acres of the Plummer Homestead, bounded today by Plymouth, Bronson, Wilshire and Beverly for $400 an acre. They sold it in 1911 for $5,000 an acre for a total of $1,000,000 to a group led by George Howard. Sometime between 1900 and 1910, George A.J. Howard first envisioned a beautiful tranquil park as a setting for family homes similar to the English countryside in what was then a undeveloped and rural area about half way between Downtown Los Angeles and the coast. Howard pushed the early city fathers to make his vision come true, and in 1911, Mr. Robert A. Rowan was able to initiate a unique residential development, which became Windsor Square.

The development was constituted as a private square. Both the homes and the streets would be privately owned. Intervening walls or fences were discouraged so that one garden ran into another creating a park-like setting. Windsor Square was the first area in the city to have the power lines below grade, an extraordinary innovation for 1911.

To make sure that the homes were significantly upscale as befitted the exceptionally beautiful setting, deed restrictions were set at a minimum cost of $12,550. per home, an enormous amount at the time. Many outstanding architects designed homes for the area including Paul Williams and A.C. Martin. As a result, many of the city's elite moved west to Windsor Square including Howard and Norman Chandler who took up life-long residence with his wife Buffy on Lorraine Blvd. Oil magnate John Paul Getty bought a property on Irving Blvd. that is now Los Angeles' official mayor's residence.

Later, a development called New Windsor Square was created, which consisted of land bounded by Third, Larchmont, Beverly, Plymouth down to First and over to Irving and then back to Third. This tract was laid out on contour with meandering streets and irregular lots. This new idea residential community was labeled by the marketer as "A subdivision without mistakes."

The entire Windsor Square area really comprises two distinct tracts and philosophies: Pre- and Post- WWI. The architecture of New Windsor Square took on a less formal look. It was as though the Edwardian era of Old Windsor Square gave way to the roaring '20s of New Windsor Square.