ADAMS BOULEVARD

848 East Adams Boulevard

PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES

BERKELEY SQUARE   WILSHIRE BOULEVARD   WINDSOR SQUARE

 FREMONT PLACE   ST. JAMES PARK   WESTMORELAND PLACE

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• Built in 1902 on Lot 17 in Grider & Dow's Adams Street Tract by carpenter Peter G. Engebrigtsen as his own home, and presumably built by him

• On June 29, 1902, the Los Angeles Herald reported that developer Frank Baiersky had just sold Lot 17 to Peter Engebrigtsen, whose family was then living at 728 East 23rd Street. The Superintendent of Buildings issued a construction permit for a barn on the lot within the week, followed by one for the house itself

• Peter and Maud Engebrigtsen emigrated separately to the United States in the early 1880s, marrying in 1883 and settling among other Norwegian expatriates in and around Sioux City, Iowa. Resettling in Los Angeles by 1896, the couple and their four children at first lived at 1214 East 27th Street. Prospering, Engebrigtsen appears to have then built 723 East 23rd, where the family was living when a fourth son was born in June 1899

• The Engebrigtsens would remain at 848 East Adams until 1921, living quietly for the most part. On September 19, 1905, they hosted a reception at 848 East Adams for a visiting Norwegian evangelist; in November 1908, 17-year-old Harry Engebrigtsen sued his employer, the California Industrial Company—a metalworks at Fourth and Santa Fe Avenue—after he suffered a broken leg on the job

• On January 16, 1912, the Department of Buildings issued Peter Engebrigtsen a permit to add two rooms to the barn, doubling its size, for use as rental units 

• It seems that by 1918 the Engebrigtsens had embraced the automobile age: On January 12 of that year, in a classified advertisement in the Los Angeles Express, Mr. Engebrigtsen offered two eight-year-old mares and a wagon for sale. Also that year, Harry, Helen (also known as "Nellyne"), Martin, and Roy, all still living at home, appeared in the city directory under the surname "Britt"—the latter three under both. Their parents would retain their original name. Reasons for the new name no doubt had to do with the perennial difficulty in spelling Engebrigtsen but also perhaps because of its sound, the abbreviation an attempt to circumvent the effects the anti-German sentiment that came about during World War I, if in this case misplaced. The move appears to have been instigated by the eldest child, Edward, who had married German native Frieda Barmann in 1907 and now had a son. He and Martin were by this time established in the printing business. In signing his draft registration card, Edward had simplified his name by eliminating the "g" from his birth name; Edward signed his "Edward D. Britt." Curiously, the 1920 Federal census enumerating those at 848 East Adams on January 3 lists the entire family as "Engebritsen"—no "g"—including Harry (mistakenly identified as Edward), Helen, Martin, and Roy. The actual Edward was living on West 28th Street and using "Britt"

• With their neighborhood of nearly 20 years changing demographically, Peter Engebrigtsen decided to build a new house. Improved access to the new "West End" of Los Angeles from downtown under Bunker Hill, including an extended Temple Street, had developers working overtime to open new subdivisions, which were among those siphoning residents away from South Los Angeles in droves. One such development was Tract 3906—marketed seductively as "Wilshire Manor" for its proximity to the Wilshire Country Club, founded in 1919—where Engebrigtsen purchased Lot 51. On July 27, 1921, the Department of Buildings issued him a permit for a six-room house at 301 North Irving Boulevard, the northwest corner of Irving Boulevard and West Temple Street, the latter thoroughfare just at that time being renamed Beverly Boulevard. (Roy L. Jones, who would be designing many houses in the area during the decade, was indicated on the building permit as architect of 301 North Irving, with Peter Engebrigtsen of 848 East Adams as contractor; the house still stands)      

• Maud Engebrigtsen died on October 1, 1921, just as, it seems, the new house on Irving Boulevard was being completed. Two weeks later—in a classified ad in the Herald on November 11—848 East Adams Street was offered for rent; Alex Kaplan, a wholesale fruit dealer, moved in

• Peter Engebrigtsen and Harry, Martin, and Roy Britt were listed at 301 North Irving in the 1922 city directory, though their stay in the new house was short. Helen Britt, who had married John L. Davenport of Sioux City in May 1921, was a widowed mother within days of the couple's fourth anniversary. By mid 1925, Helen and her brothers Martin and Roy, along with their father, had moved to a duplex on North Rossmore Avenue. Peter Engebrigtsen died on September 24, 1927

• It is unclear as to whether the Engebrigtsen/Britt family retained ownership of 848 East Adams into the Depression; the house and its rear dependencies were in any case rented to a number of individuals into the early 1930s if not owner-occupied. By early 1932, the property had been acquired by Louisiana-born Camille Dardenne and his wife Bertha, who had recently married and moved south from Seattle. The Dardennes would remain at 848, with various lodgers, for over 20 years, during the 1940s operating Camille's Party Den on the premises. The business served as a meeting venue, including one for a benefit breakfast for the Negro Motion Picture Players Association on August 31, 1947. Friends and tenants of the Dardenne would throw them a surprise celebration at 848 for their 18th anniversary on October 30, 1948

• On May 20, 1932, the Department of Building and Safety had issued Camille Dardenne a permit to add a window to the kitchen, replace flooring, and to make general repairs. A permit was issued to Dardenne on June 1, 1937, to enclose the front porch with glass (whether the lower or upper is unspecified). Permits issued in January 1941 authorized revisions and additions to the rear structures; one issued the next month called for the eastward shift of two garages (added to the property at an unknown date) and an addition to them

• After the Dardennes' departure from 848 East Adams, the ownership of the property is unclear; its various apartments were occupied by a number of different individuals until 1968, after which it disappeared temporarily from the city directory. The house—described as seven apartments "plus manager's"—was offered for sale in a classified ad in the Los Angeles Sentinel of March 14, 1968

• By the summer of 1990, 848 East Adams was owned by Mario Mora of Huntington Park. Mora was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety on July 25 of that year to remove an interior wall to convert the house back into a single-family dwelling. Permits issued to Mora in 1993 authorized the installation of security bars and new roofs for 848, 848½, and 848¾, indicating that there were now three separate stuctures, apparently in addition to garages accessible via the back alley between Griffin and Stanford avenues, on the lot. The rear dwellings (848½ and 848¾) are, like the parent, sizable two-story buildings

Illustration: Private Collection