1315 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Completed as 1319 East Adams Street in 1905 on Lot 49 in Hooper's Adams Street Tract by builder and real estate investor Frederick R. Black and sold immediately
  • The Los Angeles Herald of November 27, 1904, reported that F. R. Black was building a 1½-story brick house at 1319 East Adams. It is unclear as to whether the original lower-floor exterior walls were clad in brick veneer or sided with wood, as is the upper floor currently. It was common practice for builders to designate their wives as owners of their projects; Alice H. Black is referred to in the Herald report as the original owner of the house and of many other of her husband's projects. In this case it so happened that Mrs. Black was a daughter of the original property owners, John W. Hooper and his wife Adeline, who had farmed there since the 1870s
  • Fred 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 five on the East Adams block of Hooper's Adams Street Tract between Hooper and Compton avenues. In the mid-1890s, Fred Black became an agent along with Loren B. Case, who maintained an orange orchard on the property in the new subdivision of Adeline Hooper's East Adams Street holdings. After Mrs. Hooper died on February 28, 1900, the Black family retained a number of lots in the tract for themselves, going on to build residences that in some cases would be kept by them for over 60 years. In 1896, Black built 1331 East Adams, moving in with his wife and four children; after his completion of 1335 in 1904, he retained 1331 as investment property. Soon after the completion of 1335, Black began erecting 1315 four lots to the west as a speculative project. It should be noted that in the first years of the development of the Hooper holdings, house numbering was somewhat haphazard, an example of which is "1315." On the Sanborn fire insurance map of 1906, for example, the address 1315 is applied to a house on Lot 48 (next door to our subject dwelling), which became within a few years "1309." After 1319 gained more dwelling units, "1315" would reappear decades later when it was applied to the original house, "1319" being relegated to the rear units
  • Moving from 1334 across the street, William E. Ludlow, then a bookkeeper for the Los Angeles Lighting Company, was the first occupant of 1319 East Adams. He and his wife Rosa remained in the house until 1920, with Ludlow still a bookkeeper and still with the same utility, now known as the Los Angeles Gas & Electric Company
  • In 1920, the Ludlows, moving to Vendome Street in what is today the neighborhood called Rampart Village, sold 1319 East Adams to James A. Graham, a watchman for the Union Oil Company, who had been renting nearby at 1255 East Adams
  • James Graham and his wife Exer lived the rest of their lives quietly at 1319 East Adams, for a time with her widowed son Calvin Blanton, though the couple did rent rooms in the later years of their ownership. James, who had been born in Toledo, died on December 8, 1942, a month after his 62nd birthday; Georgia-born Exer appears to have sold the house a year or so before she died on October 19, 1948, just before her 68th birthday
  • Lawrence M. and Lydia K. Ridley had acquired 1319 East Adams not long before Mr. Ridley was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety on January 19, 1948, for the addition to the property of what was first proposed to be a 20-by-30-foot storage building; on February 9, Ridley was issued a permit to convert this project into a two-unit dwelling. Addresses for these units appear to have become 1319¼ and 1319½
  • Eugene Williams, who had been living at 1319¾ East Adams—yet another of the fractional addresses associated with the property—died in an automobile accident at Compton Avenue and Nadeau Street on April 25, 1954
  • Edgar and Gertrude Thomas occupied the main house at 1319 East Adams by 1956, and may have by now become the owners of the property, with the rear units being rented out
  • The Thomases occupied the property at least as late as 1970, with the renumbering of the main house to 1315 occurring by at least 1964. The name Woodard appears as an occupant of a rear unit in 1961, with an Ida May Woodard apparently becoming the owner by 1973 and remaining so until the early 1990s
  • Later owners of 1315/1319 East Adams included Gaspar and Maria Rodriguez, who acquired the property by 2004, when, on October 12, they were issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for a major renovation. Permitted were 12 new windows, 6 doors, a new roof, kitchen and bath remodelings, and a full stuccoing of the first floor exterior
  • On February 1, 2017, owner Abel Vergara was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to install 10 solar panels on the south-facing side of the roof



Illustration: Private Collection