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Description
'Idlewild' built by General William Anderson Pile at 255 N. Mayflower Avenue. According to the Bigoraphical Directory of the U.S. Congress, Pile (1829-1889) was "a Representative from Missouri; born near Indianapolis, Ind., February 11, 1829; completed preparatory studies; studied theology and became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church and a member of the Missouri conference; during the Civil War entered the Union Army; commissioned chaplain of the First Regiment, Missouri Light Artillery, June 12, 1861; lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-third Regiment, Missouri Infantry, September 5, 1862; colonel December 23, 1862; brigadier general of Volunteers December 26, 1863; brevetted major general April 9, 1865; elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1869); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Post office Department (Fortieth Congress); unsuccessful for reelection in 1868 to the Forty-first Congress; Governor of New Mexico in 1869 and 1870; Minister Resident to Venezuela from 1871 to 1874, when he resigned." He moved to Monrovia in 1886, purchasing a 50-acre property. In 1887 he commissioned renouned San Francisco architects Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom to design "Idlewild." He was Monrovia's mayor for a year, then applied to be consul general in Melbourne, Australia, but contracted pneumonia that same year and died in Monrovia, California on July 7, 1889.
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