1254 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1907 on Lot 125 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by dry-goods merchant Jacob Goldner. The Department of Buildings issued the construction permit for a six-room house to Goldner's wife, Lena, on February 27, 1907
  • The contractor hired by the Goldners to build 1254 was Henry D. McCabe, who lived and worked in the neighborhood. Although no record has been found indicating his involvement in the building of 1012 East Adams two blocks to the west in 1902, he appears to have borrowed that house's porch design, or perhaps the Goldners admired 1012 and asked McCabe to replicate it
  • Jacob Goldner was at the time of construction in the dry-goods business as a partner with Herman Desser in Goldner & Desser, nearby at 2515 Central Avenue. This store and a branch at 800 Central appear to have closed in 1909, with the partners reopening as Goldner Desser & Company at 300 East Fifth Street in 1910
  • The Goldners left 1254 East Adams in 1911, either selling it or retaining it as rental property. The house was then occupied by the family of tailor Abraham Goldring, who died on November 23, 1913. His widow, Fannie, remained for a few years
  • Succeeding Fannie Goldring briefly was button manufacturer Morris Solomon; afterward through the 1920s and into the '30s were nearly annual changes of residents until the house's apparent acquisition by a Mrs. Mary Smith by 1934
  • Mary Smith was joined at 1254 in the mid-1930s by automobile mechanic Thomas Hurd Jr., apparently no longer married to Emma Hurd. The clarity of the marital status of Mrs. Smith and Mr. Hurd over the years is unclear, they being variously listed at 1254 East Adams in Los Angeles city directories and on voter rolls separately or as married (or not together at all) between 1934 and 1950 and for years afterward elsewhere
  • In 1951, 1254 East Adams was acquired by Aaron Sampson, whose family had arrived in the neighborhood in the 1930s, his father Arthur having purchased 1262 East 27th Street around the corner by early 1940. Aaron married Ida Lewis in Los Angeles on June 11, 1949; their son Aaron Jr. was born on March 1, 1950. After moving into 1254, Sampson was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety on October 3, 1951, to add a large 22-by-36½-foot rear addition to the house. On March 23, 1954, a permit was issued in the name of Arthur Sampson of 1262 East 27th Street to add a garage to the rear of 1254 East Adams
  • During the 1950s, Arthur Sampson was head of Sampson & Sons, haulers. The family appears to have retained possession of 1254 East Adams for several decades and to have lived in the neighborhood well into the 1990s



Illustration: Private Collection