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National Register: 86003668 (3/31/1987)
Helme--Worthy Store and Residence, also known as Worthy Building and Residence
on
513--519 Walnut St. and 128 Sixth St.,
Huntington Beach
Historic Person: Helme, Matthew E.
Significant Year: 1903, 1904
Area of Significance: Architecture,
Exploration/Settlement
Period of Significance: 1900-1924
Matthew E. Helme,
a member of the first Board of Trustees in Huntington Beach.
Serving also as its
fourth mayor, he played a significant role in
the formation and settlement of this sea
side town. He moved to Huntington Beach in
1903, living in this house. He contributed
much to the formation and incorporation of
the community of Huntington Beach. He fought
for incorporation, was elected to the town's
first Board of Trustees, worked to get that
all-important commodity, water, functioning
in a city system, helped to set up a modern
fire department, helped set up the city
manager system which still prevails,
authored an ordinance setting up the sale of
the city's first gas bonds, and introduced a
substantial street paving and lighting
program.
In 1903 Matthew and Mary Josephine Helme
moved their two-story house from the farm
country near 5th and Verano (now Euclid
Street) to the corner of 6th and Walnut
Streets in Huntington Beach. The wooden
house, previously owned by Leatherman
family, was moved 11 miles by a mule team
into the heart of town.
The next year the Helmes built a two-story
wooden commercial building and opened the
M.E. Helme House Furnishing Company. Located
next to their residence, the business was
the first furniture company in the new
village and was quite successful, offering
all kinds of household goods ranging from
furniture to bird cages, baby buggies and
mirrors. In addition, there were seven
furnished rooms and two one-bedroom units on
the second floor.
Mary Josephine Helme, born on October 4,
1862, in Indiana, was a woman of courage and
fortitude. She was orphaned at an early age
when her father was killed in the Civil War
and her moth passed away. She moved in with
her grandparents who already had 12 children
of their own. In 1883, she married Charles
E. Helme. Sadly, he lived only two years
after their marriage. Heading west in the
spring of 1886, she homesteaded 160 acres on
Rattlesnake Flat in Washington State. Three
years later she and Matthew, her deceased
husband's brother, were married. They moved
to Santa Ana so that their three children
might get a better education than what was
available in Washington at that time.
Matthew Helme went on to become one of
Huntington Beach's most influential
citizens. After fighting for incorporation
in 1909, he was elected to the new city's first
Board of Trustees (City Council). He worked
hard to bring water, that all-important
commodity, flowing in the new town. He
helped set up the modern fired department
and in 1916, worked to get the city manager
system into place. His next important tasks
were to introduce an ordinance to set up the
city's first gas bonds, and to begin a
substantial street paving and lighting
program. He served as president of the
Huntington Beach Tent City Company in 1914.
Helme was the town's fourth mayor in 1916
and 1917. Among his accomplishments were the
gas lighting system, with gas lights
installed along Main Street; paving Ocean
Avenue from Main to 17th Street and
providing a new brick boulevard along Fifth
Street. He introduced the action resulting
in the urchase of the water system from the
Huntington Beach Company by the City.
In 1917, Helme resigned from the Board of
Trustees and he and Mary Josephine moved
back to their wheat farm in Washington. The
house and the store remained in the family,
however, when their daughter, Amy, and her
husband, Lawrence Worthy, opened a plumbing
business in the store building and continued
the Helme-Worthy family legacy of active
involvement in the community. Today the City
of Huntington Beach recognizes and remembers
the accomplishments of this family with two
public parks. Be sure to visit
Helme Park
and
Worthy
Community Park in Huntington Beach.
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