818 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1902 on Lot 23 of Grider & Dow's Adams Street Tract by Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Boswell. Mr. Boswell was a traveling salesman
  • On October 20, 1902, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Boswells were spending $3,500 to build the house
  • According to the Los Angeles Herald of January 17, 1904, Albert Boswell was one of the "best known commercial travelers in Southern California." He dealt in "haberdashers' goods and Yankee notions." His brother, mining man William W. Boswell, had bought a newly built house across the street in January 1902; 807 East Adams is not dissimilar to 818 in massing and in some window designs. It seems likely that the builder of 807, Robert J. Anderson, may have also designed and acted as contractor on 818. In 1904, W. W. Boswell sold 807 and built 824 East Adams next door to Albert
  • Albert and Mollie Boswell, their son Albert, and Mrs. Boswell's mother, Mary Warfield, remained at 818 East Adams until moving to a newly built house at 239 North Manhattan Place in the Wilshire District in 1913. It appears that before 818 was sold, the Boswells rented it to the Iota Pi chapter of the Chi Phi medical fraternity of U.S.C.
  • The next owner of 818 West Adams was Gustave P. Eisenshiml, who had recently moved to Los Angeles. After he and his wife, Magda, received a patent on November 2, 1914, for a non-alcoholic beverage made from raisin juice, he started the short-lived National Fruit Products Company of California. On September 29, 1914, Eisenshiml had been issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to build a fruit cellar behind 818; it was recessed eight feet below grade and measured 14 by 15 feet. His business appears to have failed within two years, by which time Eisenshiml had caught film fever. By 1919, according to the Federal census enumerated on January 2, 1920, he described himself as a filmmaker. He and Magda had, however, moved east to suburban New York; they may have retained ownership of 818 West Adams, keeping their California options open for the time being. Between their departure from Adams Street and 1924, the house was rented. Among tenants during the period was Herbert H. Fisher, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church down the street at 639 East Adams Street
  • Nathan Ross, having moved to Los Angeles from New York as a thread manufacturer's agent, was the owner of 818 East Adams by 1923. The family—which included five children, at least three of whom (Fannie, Henry and Leo) would live at 818—appear to have retained the house for at least the next 40 years
  • On October 21, 1935, the Rosses were issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to remodel the house to create two apartments; the building then officially became 818-820 East Adams Boulevard
  • On April 20, 1937, Nathan Ross was issued a patent for a newfangled cloth-cutting machine; his new venture, the Ross Cloth Cutting Machine Company, was barely off the ground when he died on August 9, 1938
  • The Department of Building and Safety issued a permit on January 29, 1943, for repairs after a small fire in the building
  • Sarah Ross died on January 7, 1945. The Rosses' youngest son, Leo, appears to have retained 818-820 East Adams until the early 1960s; he is listed on voter rolls at 818 as late as 1962. There are, curiously, no listings for him or his mother or anyone else at 818 or 820 East Adams in available city directories between 1942 and 1987



Illustration: Private Collection