1120 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1896 on Lot 152 in Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by real estate investors John and Helene Ungerland
  • The German-born Ungerlands appear to have become prosperous by way of their farm near Burbank; on January 15, 1894, the Los Angeles Express reported her purchase of Lots 151, 152, 153, 154 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract. On the following June 9, the Express reported that Mrs. Ungerland was issued a permit for a house on Lot 153, addressed 1118 East Adams, into which she moved her family. She was listed there as a dressmaker, John Ungerland as a wood turner, in the 1895 city directory. That much-altered house still stands today, as does our subject house, the much more original-appearing 1120, built on spec by the Ungerlands, as reported in the Express on October 24, 1896 
  • On April 13, 1897, the Los Angeles Times reported that, the day before, that the Ungerlands had sold 1120 East Adams to educator Roscoe E. Hewitt, who appears to have purchased the house as an investment. In 1902, Hewitt would be admitted to the Los Angeles bar at the age of 63
  • Five months later, Roscoe Hewitt sold 1120 East Adams to real estate dealer George W. MacKnight; on September 24, 1897, the Express reported MacKnight's wife, Louise, as the nominal buyer. The MacKnights, who lived on Hoover Street, rented the house briefly to insurance man Albert G. Slocum
  • After eight months of ownership, the MacKnights sold 1120 East Adams to Edward Deffebach, proprietor of the Dakota Stock Yards, as reported in the Herald on June 8, 1898. Unlike Hewitt or MacKnight, Deffebach seems to have actually lived at 1120, if only for two years before moving to East 18th Street
  • A classified ad ran in the Times on Christmas Day, 1899, offering 1120 East Adams for sale as "a modern six-room cottage," which "must be sold." On September 8, 1900, the Herald reported Edward Deffebach's sale of the house to Clark Wicks, who was listed at the address, occupation farmer, in the 1901 city directory
  • As was not unusual in the cottage neighborhoods flanking East Adams Street (as the Boulevard was then designated) and near the industrial districts of Los Angeles, 1120 continued to be occupied by renters, often by those of more than one family at a time. Landlords were often real estate operators such as Frank B. Roney, to whom Clark Wicks appears to have sold 1120 by 1904. Roney was the manager of William R. Roney, his father's firm. Frank Roney himself was listed at 1120 East Adams in the city directories of 1903 to 1906, after which, under Roney ownership or that of others, the house was rented for at least the next 13 years
  • Among the longer-term renters of 1120 East Adams were Edwin C. Lockard and his wife Mary, whose family was in residence from 1908 to 1916. Lockard had been a teacher in San Bernardino before moving to Los Angeles to open a dairy. Lockard's son Clyde was married in the parlor of 1120 in March 1909; the marriage didn't last, with Clyde moving back to 1120 within a few years. Mary Lockard died in the house on April 16, 1913; newspapers cited the cause as cirrhosis of the liver. Classified ads appearing in the spring of 1916 offered Edwin Lockard's 40 cows and his retail route for sale—where the herd might have been kept is unclear
  • Israel Geier was among the many men described as peddlars who inhabited East Adams Street and its flanking neighborhoods in the 1910s and '20s. He and his wife Lottie arrived at 1120 in 1919 with two sons and three daughters. The Federal census enumerated in January 1920 describes Mr. And Mrs. Geier, who arrived in the United States via Canada in January 1917, as Polish-speakers from Galicia, and as the owners of the house. A fourth daughter arrived on July 17, 1921
  • On September 28, 1921, Israel Geier was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to make an addition to the garage at 1120; on October 9, 1922, Geier was issued a permit to build a second residence on the lot, which became 1120½ and was rented out. (A demolition permit for 1120½ was issued in 1978, although the building appears to still stand today.) Appearing in some records is a 1120¼; it may be that the 1922 building carried two addresses, or that the garage may have been converted to contain a dwelling unit (it is this rearmost structure that appears to have been the one demolished)
  • Israel Geier died on February 10, 1929. His widow remained at 1120 East Adams for a time, although, curiously, the census of 1930 indicates that she was then renting the house. By 1932 Lottie Geier was living on Arlington Avenue a few houses north of Exposition Boulevard
  • The ownership of 1120 East Adams after the departure of the Geier family is unclear, with multiple renters at its three designations (1120, 1120½, and 1120¼) appearing in directories over the next 40 years. In a police report in the Los Angeles Sentinel on March 15, 1973, 1120 is referred to as an apartment building; it seems that a notorious cross-dressing prostitute known in the neighborhood as Coco, dressed in an ensemble that included a bra and padding around the hips, solicited undercover vice officers sitting in an unmarked car around the corner at Central Avenue and 25th Street, after which he ran into one of the buildings at 1120 and came out chasing the officers with a meat cleaver and was then shot 



Illustration: Private Collection