1231 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1902 on Lot 110 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by Lucinda Dickey
  • On October 28, 1902, the Los Angeles Herald reported that a permit had been issued to Mrs. Dickey for a six-room cottage to be addressed 1231 East Adams Street; her husband Francis, a well driller, had died the previous July 3 at home a few blocks away at 1016 East 29th Street
  • In 1904, Lucinda Dickey sold 1231 East Adams to real estate operator Milo N. Miles, who appears to have briefly occupied the house as his own home until he sold it to Danish-born Nathalie Jung, another widow, in April 1906. Mrs. Jung and her family would remain at 1231 for the next 16 years
  • Soon after Nathalie Young died on June 16, 1922, 1231 East Adams was sold to railroad cook José Perez
  • On September 25, 1922, the Department of Buildings issued Ada and José Perez a permit to add a 10-by-12-foot room to rear of the house
  • José Perez died on April 17, 1933; his widow remained at 1231 until her death on March 20, 1963
  • It appears that Ada Katharyn Robinson Wilson, one of Ada Perez's daughters by a previous marriage, may have retained ownership of 1231 until her death on January 14, 1982
  • Romanian-born Andres Marchis owned 1231 East Adams during the 1980s; on October 17, 1986, he was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to add a room to the house. Marchis died on September 15, 1988
  • Rogelio and Maria Enriquez were later owners of 1231 East Adams


The Perez family had been living at 1231 East Adams—seen at right—for 10 years when this image was
taken on November 18, 1932, by German photographer Anton Wagner. His 1935 book Los Angeles:
The Development, Life, and Form of the City of Two Million in Southern California was based
on archival research, field work, and wide-ranging walks across the city. Wagner's work
influenced no less than British architectural critic Reyner Banham and his seminal
Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971). Wagner described his
image here as one depicting "good negro houses," the neighborhood by
1932  having become a stronghold of African-American life. At
left is 1219 East Adams; at center is 1227 East Adams.



 Illustrations: Private Collection; CHSDL