1335 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1904 on Lot 53 in Hooper's Adams Street Tract by builder and real estate investor Frederick Rufus Black as his own home
  • Frederick Black invested all over Los Angeles and built a number of houses in the neighborhoods flanking the eastern end of East Adams Street, including at least three on the East Adams block between Hooper and Compton avenues. At the time of building 1335, Black and his wife and four children were living next door at 1333, a house he'd built in 1899 and which he would retain as investment property after moving into 1335. Soon after the completion of 1335, Black began erecting 1315 East Adams four lots to the west as a speculative project
  • The Los Angeles Express of August 11, 1904, reported that F. R. Black was building a 2-story, 8-room house at 1335 East Adams. It was common practice for builders to designate their wives as owners of their projects; Alice H. Black is often referred to in press reports of her husband's residential real estate ventures as their nominal owner, as she was of 1335
  • Fred and Alice Black remained at 1335 East Adams until the family moved into a new house Mr. Black had begun building for them in the summer of 1924 at 1950 Victoria Avenue in Wellington Square, a newer development at the western edge of the West Adams district. Still living at home were elder son Elmore and daughters Hazel and Helen, as well as a niece, Sadie, who had been living with the family for many years. Younger son Edgar had by this time joined his father in the contracting trade
  • The Black family would retain 1335 East Adams and other assets as rental property even until after the death of Frederick Black on October 28, 1950; 1333 next door was still owned by them as late as 1966. After Edgar took over the family contracting business, his name appeared on several permits pertinent to 1333 and 1335 issued by the Department of Building and Safety between 1924 and 1966. On these, following his father's practice of naming Mrs. Black as a property's owner, Edgar sometimes used his sisters' names


Fred Black became an agent along with Loren B. Case, who maintained the orange orchard on the
property, in the subdivision of his mother-in-law's East Adams Street holdings. Mrs. Hooper's
address after Los Angeles's adoption of numerical addresses circa 1891 had become
2601 Orange Avenue, Orange Avenue later becoming part of Compton
Avenue. The Los Angeles Times ran the advertisement
above in the spring of 1896 as lot sales
of the Hooper tract began.


  • On April 21, 1930, the Department of Building and Safety issued F. R. Black a permit to duplex 1335 East Adams, adding a kitchen and bath and rear stairs. Edgar Black was listed as the contractor
  • During 1940, the Blacks would make major additions to their adjacent properties at 1333/1335 East Adams. On May 17, Helen Black was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to build a new rear building at 1333 incorporating apartments over a garage, adding variations of the 1331 address to the property. On December 9, a permit was issued in the name of Hazel Black for the construction of a single-story duplex at the rear of the lot of 1335, adding variations of the 1337 address to that property
  • Numerous names aside from those of the Frederick Black family are associated with 1335/1335½/1337/1337½ East Adams in various records from the 1920s to the present day. While the various residents occupying the apartments on the lot seem generally to have led quiet lives, and item in the Los Angeles Sentinel of April 3, 1947, had it that "Joseph Adolphus Lewis, 36, a musician of 1335 East Adams street, was arrested on suspicion of violation of the Federal Narcotics Acts, when police said they found marijuana in his guitar at the Cafe Zombie" at 5435 South Central Avenue. Joe Lewis, as he was apparently well known professionally, was acquitted, the joint in his instrument found to have been concealed there by someone else. Living at 1337 in 1949 was Myrlene Jackson, active in the Gay Ladies Social and Art Club, among the activities of which was the sponsorship of square dances
  • By late 1952, 1335/1337 East Adams had a new owner; on November 10 of that year the Department of Building and Safety issued Lawrence Mitchell a permit to have the house covered with asbestos siding
  • By 1960 Richard and Berniece Spells were the owners of 1335/1337 East Adams. On May 17, 1966, Richard Spells was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for unspecified repairs to "comply with building requirements." On September 1, 1967, a permit was issued not to Spells but to the Mortgage Mart for a general rehabilitation of the property. By 2000, 1335/1337 had become the property of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was issued a permit on September 15 of that year for another rehabilitation. It may be at this time that the asbestos siding was removed and stucco applied
  • A recent owner of the property is Ron V. Le of Cucamonga; on October 4, 2018, Le was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to replace the roof of the 114-year-old main house



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT