page_title: Leroy Milton Grider
section_title: Vocation
hierarchical_section_title: Leroy Milton Grider / Vocation
caption_attribution_description: English: Los Angeles Herald advertisement for Birdland in Los Angeles, California, owned by Leroy Milton Grider, 1910
context_page_description: Leroy Milton Grider, or L.M. Grider, was a pioneer land developer in Los Angeles County, California, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was said to be the originator of the excursion method of selling residential lots. He was also a Los Angeles City Council member and a businessman known for establishing a noted pet store in that city. He was the target of a publicized but unsuccessful suit by his wife for a legal separation in 1914.
context_section_description: Grider first opened a real estate office in Downey and then moved to a space in Los Angeles at First and Main Streets. He "was said to be the first real estate man in the city to use the excursion method of selling lots," and he eventually opened and sold property in 26 subdivisions, including Sunnyside, Bell, Floral Park, Grant Place, Lomita Park and Manchester Heights, often by "giving old-fashioned Spanish barbecues on the sites."
  A Democrat, Grider ran for Los Angeles County assessor or recorder in 1890, and he was a Los Angeles City Council member in 1896-98; he was also a fire commissioner.  He was a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West  and the Knights of Pythias. According to the Los Angeles Times, "he established the business in this city known as Birdland, where birds of all kinds and descriptions, as well as other kinds of pets, were on sale and exhibition." It was the largest bird store in Los Angeles.
caption: Advertisement for Birdland, 1910
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