Paul Trousdale

Paul Trousdale
Born	1915 Gallatin, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	1990 Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Resting place	El Camino Memorial Park, Sorrento Valley, San Diego, U.S.
Residence	Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Occupation	Real estate developer
Spouse(s)	Margaret Reid Trousdale Adrienne Trousdale
Children	Mary Dickie Trousdale Marguerite Trousdale

Paul Trousdale (1915–1990) was an American real estate developer. He is best known for developing the Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills, California. He built over 25,000 homes in Southern California.

Paul Whitney Trousdale was born on a farm near Gallatin, Tennessee in 1915. He grew up with relatives in New York City, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Los Angeles High School. He spent a year at the University of Southern California, then dropped out. At USC, he sold cars, clothes and automobile spotlights. He won a $5,000 college scholarship from the New York State Industrial Department, but decided to go traveling abroad with the money.

Trousdale returned to Los Angeles, arriving broke in San Pedro. He started selling gum, and transitioned to real estate shortly after. By 1946, he founded the Trousdale Construction Company. He built tract homes and neighborhoods that came with churches and shopping centers, mostly in minority areas located in Long Beach, Wilmington, Compton and the San Fernando Valley. He borrowed money from Bank of America to finance his projects. The scale of his loans raised suspicions from its CEO, Amadeo Giannini, as his advances reached US$8,000,000, although this only accounted for one fourth of the entire financing of his real estate projects. In 1946, Gianninni visited him in his office in Westwood Hills, as Trousdale had already borrowed $30 million and was asking for an additional $50 million. After his visit, he granted him the loan. His firm built "two houses per day, seven days a week" and he had three hundred houses under construction at any given time.

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