3330 West Adams Boulevard

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Clothier J. J. Haggarty, an Englishman, had the local engineering firm of Knapp & Woodard build what he called "Castle York" at 3330 West Adams Street after the Department of Buildings issued a construction permit on May 24, 1912. A precursor of Beverly Hills, an estate area had developed since the turn of the century on the south side of Adams west of Arlington Avenue, with large houses set well back from the street in front of elaborate terraces rippling down a broad southerly slope. In 1971, with the neighborhood long in decline and the Haggarty house following suit, it was demolished by the Los Angeles Council of Churches, which had occupied it since 1941. The last Haggarty store had closed the year before.
A rendering of the Haggarty residence appeared in the Los Angeles Herald on
on February 24, 1912; 13 days before, the Times illustrated the proposed house and
its grounds, as seen below. Adams Street, as the Boulevard was then called, runs at left
in the lower image, with the elaborately terraced rear of the property extending southward
down to West 27th Street. The Times reported that "English ivy will be planted in such
a manner as to completely cover the exterior, lending an appearance of great age
 to the dwelling." The house was sited 125 feet from the Adams Street curb.


According to the Los Angeles Public Library's description, the building, "of Norman Gothic architecture, was built at a cost of $100,000. Frontage was of 125 feet on south side of Adams and extended back to a depth of 500 feet. [The] structure itself was 92x91 feet in size. A tower planned after one of the famous towers of Windsor castle...stood forty feet in height and twenty feet in diameter rising at the northwest corner of the building. A second tower, twelve feet in diameter and fifty feet high, at the northeast corner, was copied after a famous castle in Yorkshire. The interior consisted of living room, organ loft, dining room, billiard room, sixteen bedrooms, servants' quarters, kitchens, pantries and china closets, along with numerous porches, balconies, gardens, and barns."




As seen in the Los Angeles Times on June 29, 1941; below, opening
day of the auction brought out dealers and curiosity seekers. The Los Angeles
Council of Churches would be occupying it until demolition in 1971.




Illustrations: Private Collection; CDNC; LAT; LAPL