2081 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1911 on Lot 2 of the Adams Place Tract by Christian C. Rohrer; Rohrer was issued a building permit for a 12-room house on March 25 of that year, the same day that his brother-in-law, Chester L. Whitnah, was issued a permit to build next door at 2091 West Adams Street on Lot 1 of the Adams Place Tract
  • Architect: Hudson & Munsell (Frank D. Hudson and William A. O. Munsell), who also designed 2091; the contractor for both houses was the Alta Planing Mill Company
  • Rohrer and his wife, the former Perle Arzena Whitnah, had lived next door to her brother and his wife in Canton, Illinois, from which the Rohrers and Whitnahs moved west together after having been winter visitors since the '90s and where the families had been prosperous farmers and stock raisers. The couples first appeared in the Los Angeles city directory in the 1906 issue, at addresses just around the corner from each other (the Whitnahs at 1264 West Adams Street, the Rohrers at 2708 Ellendale Place)
  • Perle Rohrer died at 2081 on December 30, 1930; her husband left the house soon after, stopping first at a small house just up St. Andrews Place. After he died in Orange County on September 13, 1954, he was buried next to Perle in Canton
  • 2081 West Adams, along with 2091 and other properties adjacent, would eventually belong to the People's Independent Church of Christ; 2081 was used as a meeting hall for various groups and from 1959 housed the Sojourner Truth Home, run by the eponymous women's aid and advocacy organization named for the famous 19th-century abolitionist and women's rights activist. (The Home moved from its former location at 2133 South Harvard Boulevard nearby after that house was condemned for the Santa Monica Freeway.)
  • Just as had the original building permits for 2081 and 2091 West Adams been issued on the same day, so too were those for their demolition. The People's Independent Church of Christ pulled permits to raze both on December 2, 1964. The Norman W.  Church house at 2105 had been the first of the church's three St. Andrews–corner properties to come down, a demolition permit for it being issued on April 8, 1963; a large complex including a seven-story apartment building for senior citizens was dedicated on the corner in the summer of 1966. It was christened "Independent Square" and remains on the site, with the address of 2455 South St. Andrews Place




Illustration: Library of Congress