1017 East Adams Boulevard


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  • Built in 1906 on Lot 4 in Grider & Dow's Orangedale Tract
  • On May 14, 1906, the Department of Buildings issued Sarah Jane Denison a permit for a six-room house at 1017 East Adams Street
  • Contractor: Michael Van Buskirk
  • Sarah Jane Denison was the daughter of Mary A. Denison, a widow, who was the actual head of the household. By 1910, Mary Denison was living at 1017 East Adams Street with Sarah and 10-year-old Mary Stroud, daughter of Sarah's older sister Susan, who'd died in August 1899 four days after giving birth to Mary. Susan had been married to William Garrett Stroud; in February 1911, Sarah married William's year-older brother George Allen Stroud. By 1920, the household at 1017 East Adams included Mary Denison, Mary Stroud, Sarah and George's son Laurence, born at 1017 East Adams on January 14, 1912, and yet another Mary, Sarah and George's daughter Mary Jane, who'd been born on April Fool's Day in 1914
  • An item in the Los Angeles Record on December 11, 1918, reported that Mary Denison's four vines of Gigantic Guinea beans at 1017 East Adams had produced specimens "measuring between three and four feet in length and weighing from 12 to 15 pounds each.... The freak bean is about 15 inches in circumference."
  • Mary Denison died at the age of 75 on July 28, 1921
  • Both the Times and the Evening Express reported that George Stroud was severely injured in December 1929 when, alighting from a Los Angeles Railway streetcar at Vernon and Central avenues, he was struck by a hit-and-run motorist. He suffered a broken left leg, a broken ankle, and a dislocated shoulder
  • George Stroud died at the age of 75 on St. Patrick's Day 1943
  • In the 1950 Federal census, Sarah Stroud was still living at 1017 East Adams Boulevard, the throughfare having been upgraded to Boulevard status in the 1920s. Also living at 1017 were her divorced daughter Jane and her two sons Stephen and Anthony; Jane had married Wilmer A. Cooper in September 1937
  • In April 1953, Jane married Clarence A. Norman and appears to have left 1017 with Stephen and Anthony
  • Sarah Stroud died on September 1, 1954, at the age of 78
  • It appears to be around this time that Jane and Clarence Norman and her sons moved to 1424 West 94th Street; after Sarah Stroud's death, 1017 East Adams was retained by the family for a time. A permit issued in the name of Stroud by the Department of Building and Safety, referring to the house as a "rental residence," authorized termite remediation
  • By 1960, Safeway had its eye on 1017 East Adams as well as six other lots and part of another for a new store. Presumably it was Jane Norman who sold 1017 East Adams to the grocery chain, which had the L.A. Wrecking Company demolish the house per a permit issued by the Department of Building and Safety on February 1, 1960. The new Safeway, addressed 1011 East Adams, opened on March 8, 1961. This building in turn was demolished in 2006 and replaced two years later with the apartment and retail complex on the site today


Illustration: LAPL