One of Herbert Armstrong's biggest trophies when he was buying land in Pasadena was when he acquired the Hulett C Merritt Estate. Merritt was a multimillionaire by the time he was 18.
Merritt’s father had discovered the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota. Young Hulett spent a year in a cast with an injured hip but graduated at the head of 800 students at a business college. He started selling real estate in Duluth, his hometown. By 18, he was a multimillionaire, having developed Texas City, in Texas, and owning a large interest in iron mines and railroads. Pasadena History: Remembering Hulett C MerrittMerritt's house was ahead of its time when he built it. He had a pool installed underground to the left of the house.
That pool ended up being part of the Frontier Room, which was a student lounge for many years. The pool was also where many hundreds Ambassador students and church members were baptized.
Now it has been put to better use. Now the living dead can use it for their caskets in the latest American Horror Story: Hotel on FX.
Quite a fitting epitaph for a dying church.