426 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1891 on Lot 9 of Block 8 of the Daman & Millard Subdivision of the Shaw Tract, apparently by Edwin Morse Frazee, whose first city directory listing at 426 was in that year's edition; Frazee is described therein as secretary of both the Long Beach Development Company and the Cucamonga Land Improvement Company. His last listing at 426 was in the 1893 directory, where he is noted as a bookkeeper with the Crescent Coal Company
  • In residence by 1895 were attorney Charles Bradshaw and his wife, née Julia Baldwin, to whom he had recently been married after his first wife—and the mother of his 12 children—had died in 1893. On April 3, 1897, a curious classified advertisement appeared in the Los Angeles Herald: "FOR RENT—A 5-room furnished cottage, No. 426 E. Adams st. Owner would take room and board with tenant"; the Bradshaws seem to have begun running the property as something of a boarding establishment. Charles Bradshaw died on February 22, 1898; Julia Bradshaw remained at 426, apparently continuing to rent rooms
  • By the 1902 issue, building contractor Robert A. Brown appears at 426 East Adams in the city directory. Brown seems to now be the owner, although Mrs. Bradshaw, and/or relatives, may have remained living at the address (a John S. Baldwin, "miner," was there in 1908; an H. A. Baldwin makes a cameo in appearance in 1913)
  • On July 6, 1905, Robert Brown was issued a building permit to do "general alterations" to 426, apparently transforming the house into its current configuration
  • On June 5, 1913, a building permit was issued to an H. A. Baldwin—cited, curiously, as the owner—to build a second house on the rear of the lot occupied by 426; this was to be addressed as 426½. The four-room bungalow was supplied by the Walker Portable Cottage Company
  • On October 23, 1913, Sarah L. Brown, Robert's wife, was issued a permit to alter the entrance of and add a bathroom to the original 426; on the document, the house is described as "two flats," with "424 East Adams" becoming the second address of what was now a duplex
  • The Browns remained in the house until 1919, when they moved to Escondido to raise citrus; they were living back in Los Angeles by 1930
  • A demolition permit for the vacant rear house, 426½, was issued on November 10, 1960, to owner Joe Wolf
  • A building permit authorizing repairs after a fire—the damage to the house recorded as being less than 50 percent—was issued to owner Joe Wolf on October 11, 1961



Illustration: Private Collection