1163 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1902 on Lot 99 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by real estate investor Isabella G. Beach
  • On October 14, 1899, the Los Angeles Herald reported that investors Isabella and Samuel Beach had just purchased Lots 96-102 in Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract; the price paid for the parcel of seven building sites was $7,000. The couple was then living at 1213½ West Washington Street, where they still were when hard-of-hearing Samuel Beach was killed by a streetcar at Central Avenue and East 21st Street on October 10, 1900
  • Isabella Beach would be selling off Lots 96 and 100-102; on Lots 97-99, she built three cottages of similar design, with the right-side front porch/ left-hand bay window configuration of 1163 being a variation on the left-porch/right bay designs of 1155 and 1157
  • Mrs. Beach would occupy 1163 herself, apparently renting out 1155 and 1157, the latter to the Reverend Robert A. Henck of the Bethel Baptist Church nearby on East 25th Street just west of Central Avenue
  • On July 20, 1904, the Los Angeles Herald reported that a thief posing as an insurance agent had been stealing valuables from gullible homeowners in the neighborhood, including "Mrs. Elizabeth Beach of 1163 East Adams street...an elderly woman between sixty-five and seventy years of age, living alone...." After the perp left, the discovery his having slipped a gold watch chain into his pocket not yet made, Mrs. Beach went next door to the Hencks' to call her insurance company to inquire as to the legitimacy of her visitor—and then the police. (It seems that while she might have been savvy in terms of real estate, Mrs. Beach could also be easily deceived)
  • Three years later, a swap of houses between Mrs. Beach and the Reverend Henck was effected, the Los Angeles Express reporting on May 9, 1907, that she had just sold 1163 East Adams to him; she moved into 1157
  • It appears that the Reverend Henck's spiritual side was complemented by a personal interest in terms of property perhaps learned by observing Elizabeth Beach. After less than two months at 1163, he resigned the pulpit at Bethel Baptist in the summer of 1907 to freelance, setting up on the side as a dealer in real estate; one of his last sermons at Bethel included urging his congregation to vote for the latest bond issue for the developing Owens Valley aqueduct. He was not above shameless shaming: "Give us water a-plenty and you will perpetuate our wealth and happiness," he intoned on June 9, four days before the referendum. "If you vote against the project...you will always be held in contempt by your fellow citizens...." With the Express reporting on April 8, 1908, that he had sold 1163 to an E. Bradford, Henck moved up to Ash Street in the Highland Park neighborhood. He does not seem to have become a major player in Los Angeles real estate
  • The identity of the new owner of 1163, "E. Bradford," is unclear, though he or she appears to have been a real estate operator. From 1908 to 1914, 1163 was rented to several parties including poultryman William Berman, ice deliveryman John F. Perry, George Sterling, a dealer in second-hand wagons, and tailor John Granstrom
  • By 1914, 1163 East Adams had been acquired by the family of Joseph Wisotzky Sr., which would remain for the next 14 years. Joseph and Sima Wisotzky—spellings of the family name would vary over the years from Wisotzky to Wisotsky to Wise and other variations—were recent Russian immigrants; during the 1910s Joseph was a baker, his son Joseph Jr. a metalworker
  • On March 1, 1921, the Department of Buildings issued Joseph Witsotky a permit to add a screen porch
  • The Wisotkys put 1163 West Adams on the market in 1927. (On July 1 of that year, the Department of Building and Safety issued Joseph Wisotsky Sr. a permit for a new house miles to the west in a subdivision at the northwest corner of Adams Boulevard and La Brea Avenue—now part of southerly Mid-City—at 2507 Verdun Avenue, soon renamed as part of South Sycamore Avenue. Standing in the path of the Santa Monica Freeway, that house was demolished in the early 1960s)
  • The Witsoskys sold 1163 East Adams to the family of Everett P. Hill, a laborer with the city's Bureau of Engineering. Mr. Hill and his wife, Georgia, moved in with their five children
  • On September 19, 1944, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mrs. Hill a permit to extend water and gas lines to a new kitchen being added to the house
  • Georgia Hill died on March 1, 1945; Everett Hill survived until September 15, 1960. The family continued to occupy 1163 into the mid-1970s.
  • Succeeding the Hills at 1163 East Adams was José Contreras; Mr. Contreras's wife, Teodosia, and her extended family still occupy the house in 2020



Illustration: Private Collection