1139 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Completed in 1895 on Lot 93 of Grider & Dow's Subdivision of the Briswalter Tract by brick mason Albert J. Moss as his own home. On November 20, 1894, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lot 93 had been purchased the day before by Mr. Moss's wife, Lily Ann
  • 1139 East Adams was one of the first houses built in its tract and a very rare example locally of brick veneer residential construction, the choice of which, clearly, had to do with its builder
  • In 1902 the Mosses sold 1139 to farmer-turned-carriage-maker-turned-homebuilder Charles Pease. Born on Martha's Vineyard, Pease had wandered across the country via, among other places, Wisconsin and eastern South Dakota, where he farmed before arriving in Los Angeles by 1902 with his considerably younger wife, Rebecca, and three children. The Peases came west with William T. Hancock, with whom Pease had grown up in Massachusetts in a blended family; Hancock and his son, William F., set up a blacksmithing and carriage-repair business on Main Street, with Charles joining them in the venture at first before setting out on his own as a home builder. In early 1904, either on spec or as rental property, he put up 1143 East Adams next door just to the west of 1139. Pease's stay in California was brief. Having just turned 60, he died unexpectedly at 1139 East Adams on February 13, 1905; the next day, the Los Angeles Herald ran a single-column but rather lengthy obituary headlined PROMINENT CONTRACTOR IS CLAIMED BY DEATH. "After an illness of less than two weeks Charles Pease, a prominent contractor and builder of Los Angeles and Hollywood, died yesterday morning at his home...from an abscess of the brain." He was suffering from a serious cold and had been under considerable stress: Rebecca Pease had recently given birth to the couple's fifth child; Charles's older sister, Abby P. Cosens, an M.D., had just died at 1139 East Adams, on January 11, of nephritis; his younger sister Mary P. Merrill had died of pneumonia the previous October 27 at her home a few blocks away
  • On September 24, 1905, the Herald ran a human-interest item on 2½-year-old Dickey Pease, who had wandered all the way down to Central Avenue and 36th Street, where he was found hours later crying on the curb
  • Rebecca Pease remained at 1139 East Adams until 1908, when she sold it and moved to Santa Ana
  • Mitchel and Isadora Mills were the owners of 1139 from 1908; he was an employee of The Broadway department store. On August 4, 1908, a daylight thief said to be posing a peddler cut a rear screen door and made off with Mrs. Mills's jewelry
  • The Millses moved 13 blocks south to Zamora Street in 1912; 1139 East Adams was sold to Samuel and Katie Hallner, who dealt in second-hand furniture
  • On April 17, 1912, Samuel Hallner was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to add a room to 1139
  • The Hallners remained at 1139 before selling it to Samuel and Yetta Snyder, who were also junk dealers
  • On October 9, 1922, the Snyders were issued a permit by the Department of Buildings for a 20-by-12-foot, two-room addition to 1139 
  • After the departure of the Snyders in 1932, ownership of 1139 East Adams is unclear, with at least a dozen names being associated with the address for the next two decades, apparently as renters. The most consistent of these is janitor William Monroe Davis and his wife Alice, a cosmetologist, who appear in voting and census records at 1139 from 1936 until 1954, after which the house was acquired by its longest-term owner, Reatha Lee Herndon
  • Reatha Lee Herndon was the daughter of Dr. Reatha Dora Morris Herndon, who also moved into 1139. Dr. Herndon was a well-known evangelist, as was her identical twin sister, Mother Leatha Cora Morris Chapman, born in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, on October 11, 1899
  • Reatha Lee Herndon, born in Chicago in 1928, left 1139 East Adams and moved to Compton after her marriage to Joseph Thomas in 1959; the Thomases owned 1131 East Adams two doors to the west of 1139 as well as 1143 next door to the east, to which Dr. Herndon moved in 1964
  • Reatha Thomas appears to have shed her husband by 1987, when she was issued two permits by the Department of Building and Safety regarding 1139 East Adams, both with her identified, curiously, as "Mrs. T. Herndon." The first, dated February 5, carries the notation "Comply with substandard order dated 10-20-86 & remove unapproved additions." A permit issued on May 6 was for "rear bedroom additions" at the rear northeast corner of the house
  • "Reatha L. Herndon" is listed in the Los Angeles city directory issued in July 1987 as living at 1131 East Adams
  • Among later owners of 1139 East Adams was Maria C. Gonzalez, who was issued a permit by the Deparmtent of Building and Safety on June 9, 2008, to convert the house into a duplex
  • Two permits for 1139 were issued to owner Sung Yong Kang, possessing a Palos Verdes address, in 2016: One on Febraury 5 called for the a remodeling of the house and addition of a bedroom and bath; one on Febraury 23 called for new windows



 Illustration: Private Collection