A TRINKET TO A TALE
A small charm leads us to a Wabash man’s shining legacy in Los Angeles’ Union Station.
I take delight in caring for the Archives’ artifacts—the gifts that come to our collection for safekeeping from alumni, their families, or even someone with no connection to the College.
So it was with this little beauty, a miniature copper football with “Wabash Class of 1909” engraved on one side, “J.W. Hargrave” on the other.
The charm belonged to Palmer W. “Jack” Hargrave, Wabash Class of 1909, and came to Wabash from his daughter, who sent it to Wabash President Greg Hess for the Archives. Its arrival prompted a correspondence and additional gifts of photographs and letters, all of which create a picture of a life well lived and a legacy that continues to shine.
Jack, as he was known on campus, was the son of Arthur Hargrave, Wabash Class of 1881, who became a newspaperman and is a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Arthur found his way to the Middle East as part of a Presbyterian mission, and Jack was born in Persia. The family returned to Indiana and Jack grew up in Rockville. At Wabash he was quarterback of the football team and made money playing clarinet in local dance bands.
After graduation Jack moved to Portland, Oregon, and with the onset of World War I he joined the Army, serving as an aerial gunner. After the war he married Anna McCabe in Crawfordsville and the couple moved back west for good, settling first in Portland and later in Los Angeles. They had two daughters: Marian, who sent us the football charm and family photos, and Janet, who followed in her father’s footsteps and served as an aviator in World War II, one of only 1,074 female pilots who earned their wings as members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. When Janet came home she joined Jack in the family’s new endeavor, Palmer Hargrave, where her father was designing and making lamps and light fixtures.
Jack had worked in the lighting business at the B.B. Bell Company before opening his own shop. When that firm won the contract for the new Union Station in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, Jack was responsible for the massive Art Deco chandeliers and other fixtures still hanging there today. Opening in 1939, the station is on the National Register of Historic Places, and his chandeliers are among its most iconic features. The station has been featured often in films and TV, and you can see those elegant chandeliers in Blade Runner, Catch Me If You Can, Pearl Harbor, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, among others.
Palmer Hargrave became synonymous with the finest high-end light fixtures, and although Janet sold the company to Dessin Fournir in 2000, the Hargrave brand is still featured, a legacy of taste and style.
But for Jack, the most precious legacies were his daughters. Among his letters in the Archives is this sweet note and drawing to Marian on her birthday. It still delights and shines another light on a good man 62 years later.