1143 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1904 on Lot 94 in Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by builder Charles Pease, who lived next door at 1139 East Adams. The Los Angeles Times of January 18, 1904, reported that Pease was "now in the course of building," either on spec or as rental property, a residence at 1139 costing $1,400
  • The first resident of 1143 East Adams, apparently as a renter, was Robert M. Yost, who arrived in the city from St. Louis in the spring of 1904 to become the managing editor of the Los Angeles Herald. Politically well-connected in Missouri, Yost had been the city editor and editorial writer at The St. Louis Republic. In the fall of 1905, Yost and his family built a house in Boyle Heights, leaving 1143 by early the next year
  • After Charles Pease died on February 13, 1905, its ownership is unclear, though the house appears to have remained a rental until 1922
  • Frank N. Emerson, a clerk at the Main Street clothier Jules Blum, rented 1143 East Adams until 1911 and was followed by the family of waterworks engineer Ezra W. Carter. Carter left for Escondido in 1916. Renters until 1922 included salesman Hajime Hirano and a K. Kuramoto. Kuramoto was the proprietor of a pool hall at 403 North Main Street; in 1923, he would be investigated for running a blind-pig operation there and for narcotics violations, his business eventually being closed down)
  • Purchasing 1143 East Adams in 1922 and remaining for over three decades were John and Sallie Warren. Mr. Warren was employed as a chauffeur by a private family
  • On September 14, 1922, the Department of Buildings issued Sallie Warren a permit for 1143 for a roof replacement and to build new front steps; Doyle C. Clemons was the contractor, as he was for the addition of a screen porch for the Warrens, a permit for which was issued on May 15, 1928
  • Sallie Warren died in Los Angeles on June 14, 1953; her widower left 1143 East Adams soon after. The house was then occupied by the family of Henry Dixon until 1964
  • The longest-term occupant of 1143 East Adams was Reatha Dora Morris Herndon, who moved in in 1964, possibly renting from, or buying the house from, her daughter. Mrs. Herndon had been born in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, on October 11, 1899, along with an identical twin sister named Leatha Cora Morris; later, the twins became evangelists, by 1920 in Witchita, later that decade in Chicago, and then as Dr. Reatha Herndon and Mother Leatha Chapman in Los Angeles. Dora and her daughter, Reatha Lee Herndon— born in Chicago 1928—bought 1139 East Adams in 1954. Reatha Lee, a 1953 graduate of U.C.L.A., moved to Compton after her marriage to Joseph Thomas in October 1959, with Dr. Herndon remaining at 1139 until purchasing 1143. The Thomases also owned 1131 East Adams a few doors to the west
  • Dora Herndon still occupied 1143 East Adams as late as the fall of 1999, when, on October 1 of that year, she was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for the installation of a new roof. She moved to Inglewood before she died at 105 on March 31, 2005, seven days after the Los Angeles Sentinel published her picture and a bit of her story. (Leatha Chapman had died in Los Angeles on December 10, 1976)



 Illustration: Private Collection