1322 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1897 on Lot 43 of Hooper's Adams Street Tract by plumber Michael H. Madden and his wife Wilhelmina
  • On January 8, 1897, the Los Angeles Herald reported that a building permit for the house had been issued to "Mrs. W. M. Madden" within the prior week
  • Michael Madden died on February 13, 1924, while still living at 1322 East Adams; Wilhelmina Madden left the house in 1926 and moved down to 1068 West 56th Street. It is unclear as to whether she sold 1322 East Adams to a new owner or retained it herself as a rental property
  • Thomas Poole, a janitor with the city's Department of Public Works, was renting 1322 East Adams by 1927. Poole, a bachelor, had become the owner of the house by 1940 and was still living there when he was found dead at home on May 27, 1967. He was 71. A large news item in the Los Angeles Sentinel on June 15 revealed that Poole had $157,000 in cash in the bank—the equivalent of $1,206,000 in 2019 dollars—in addition to his real estate and pension funds. Poole was understood to live very frugally; according to the Sentinel, he "was a familiar figure to people working at [his branch of] the Bank of America. 'He'd come in here very week to make a deposit...and he never withdrew anything'"
  • By 1969, Irene D. Cummings was in possession of the house, apparently keeping it as rental property
  • In the early 1970s, the family of Noel K. and Drudene Spears moved in. One of their daughters, Trina, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School and a princess in homecoming festivities on November 10, 1972, was one of five wounded when gang warfare broke out near the queen's float during a parade; she was shot in her left thigh but survived
  • Permits for interior renovations and a new roof issued in May 2019 by the Department of Building and Safety indicate that Noel and Drudene Spears were still the owners of 1322 East Adams, now 122 years old and an exemplar of the largely cottage character of eastern Adams Boulevard



Illustration: Private Collection