1255 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1898 on Lot 116 in Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract
  • In May 1896, an apparently unimproved Lot 116 was sold by real estate investor Maria S. Bowman to an Alice Baldridge, who may have been the "trance medium" by that name popular in Los Angeles at the time. The house appears to have been investment rental property from the beginning, with a steady turnover of renters until 1928, when it would become owner-occupied by mail carrier Walter R. Norwood
  • Among the renters of 1255 East Adams prior to the arrival of Walter Norwood was James A. Graham, a watchman for the Union Oil Company, and his wife Exer. After three years in the house, the Grahams bought 1315 East Adams in 1920 
  • Walter Norwood married Rosa Louise Gregory in October 1929; Walter Jr. and Sylvia would be born while they were living at 1255 East Adams and before their purchase of 2158 West 29th Place in Jefferson Park in 1938
  • On November 7, 1930, the Department of Building and Safety issued Walter Norwood a permit for an interior remodeling of 1255 East Adams that included a new half bath
  • It may be that the Norwoods retained 1255 East Adams as rental property after their move to Jefferson Park if they didn't sell it to a new landlord. Elevator operator Shepherd Smith and his wife Louise rented 1255 during 1939 before a new tenant, and later owner, moved in by the spring of 1940
  • James Burnett and his wife Ardalia were listed at 1255 East Adams in the 1940 Federal census enumerated on April 24th. Burnett is described on the document as a laborer with the W.P.A.; during the war he was employed by the Warman Steel Casting Company in Huntington Park. Living with the Burnetts at 1255 were a nephew, Johnnie Lee, an apartment house janitor, and his wife Nebraska, as well as two other lodgers. It is unclear as to when the Burnetts became the owners of the property, though it may have been before the end of the decade; remarkably, the couple was still living at 1255 in the 1980s
  • On June 12, 1968, the Department of Building and Safety issued James Burnett a permit for repairs to the garage
  • James Burnett died in Los Angeles on April 13, 1984, at the age of 88. Ardalia Burnett was still living at 1255 East Adams at the time of her death—or near to it—on April 26, 1988, three days before her 86th birthday
  • By 1994, Jaime Romero owned 1255 East Adams; on December 13 of that year the Department of Building and Safety issued him a permit to apply a new layer of stucco to the exterior of the house
  • 1255 East Adams appears to have last been sold in 2000 and since then occupied by the Reyes family



 Illustration: Private Collection