12 Facts About Prudent Beaudry

Prudent Beaudry was a Canadian-born American politician who served as the 13th mayor of Los Angeles, from 1874 to 1876.

Prudent Beaudry was born in Mascouche, Quebec, Canada, in 1819.

Prudent Beaudry started a business in Montreal and during his career he visited Europe multiple times.

Prudent Beaudry immigrated to the United States in 1850, and moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1852.

Prudent Beaudry worked as a merchant in Los Angeles until 1867, and afterwards became active in real estate.

Prudent Beaudry then decided to use his savings to buy inexpensive, undeveloped parcels of land on Bunker Hill above central Los Angeles which featured views of the city at its base and the Pacific Ocean, and an undeveloped hilltop he named Angelino Heights.

Prudent Beaudry bought property near the Sierra Nevada, and built an aqueduct to redirect several mountain streams to his properties.

Prudent Beaudry owned a great deal of real estate in Downtown Los Angeles, located for the most part around Temple Street, Bunker Hill, Bellevue Road, and in the Angelino Heights and Arcadia areas.

Prudent Beaudry served on the Los Angeles Common Council from 1873 to 1875, and was elected as mayor in 1874.

Prudent Beaudry died on May 29,1893, in Los Angeles, but was entombed at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.

Prudent Beaudry has the record of having made in different lines five large fortunes, four of which, through the act of God, or by the duplicity of man, in whom he had trusted, have been lost; but even then he was not discouraged, but faced the world, even at an advanced age, like a lion at bay, and his reward he now enjoys in the shape of a large and assured fortune.

Prudent Beaudry was instrumental in helping found the towns of Alhambra and Pasadena.