907 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1902 on Lot 14 of Grider & Dow's Orangedale Tract by Sarah E. Keller
  • On February 24, 1902, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mrs. Keller had just purchased Lot 14 "and will build for her own home." The broker was Frank Baiersky, who had recently erected 1008 East Adams, among other houses in the neighborhood. Baiersky was a builder as well as a broker; the elder of the widowed Mrs. Keller's two daughters, Lillia, however, was married to another contractor also building in the neighborhood at the time, Ellery Henck, who presumably would have been responsible for the construction of his mother-in-law's house. Mrs. Keller and the Hencks had been living to the south on what is today East 48th Place south of Vernon Avenue in the Kellar [sic] Tract, between the Pacific Electric tracks along Long Beach Avenue and those of the Southern Pacific along Alameda Street. Around the time that he would have been building 907 East Adams for his mother-in-law, Ellery Henck was working on a new house for himself and Lillia at 546 East Jefferson Street, between San Pedro and Trinity. Mrs. Keller's younger daughter Florence was married to James B. Brewer; the Brewers bought and sold a number of properties in the Kellar Tract and improved at least one lot in Grider & Dow's Orangedale Tract around the corner from 907 East Adams
  • It seems that not long after the completion of 907 East Adams, Sarah Keller became ill, apparently then moving in with the Hencks; on November 20, 1903, the Herald reported the sale of 907 to George and Minnie Bostwick. Sarah Keller died seven weeks later, on January 8, 1904. Her funeral was held at 546 East Jefferson two days afterward
  • George and Minnie Bostwick had been running a rooming house on West Fifth Street before acquiring 907 East Adams; Bostwick was also listed in the 1903 city directory as a cook at the Lyke & Black restaurant on Spring Street. In the 1904 directory, the Bostwicks are listed as living at 907 along with the William Meddex, the chief dispatcher of the Pacific Electric Railway, as well as two other apparently unrelated occupants. It seems that the Bostwicks had turned 907 into another rooming house, an adjunct of his downtown operation, now, with a partner having been taken on, called "Bostwick & Kirby," which provided "furnished rooms" at 120½ East Ninth Street. In the 1905 city directory, George Bostwick—apparently the restless type—was listed as living in Goldfield, Nevada, presumably hoping to get rich in mining or at least by feeding miners. A year later, Bostwick was back in Los Angeles and living at 123 West 23rd Street, retaining 907 East Adams, it seems, as rental property, or, possibly, selling it to someone who did. From 1905 until 1911, a different occupant was listed at 907 each year; from 1912 until 1921, Norwegian-born Christopher Peterson, an engineer at a flour mill, rented the house, followed by the brief stay of tailor Samuel Appel
  • Bertha Congdon, a widow, purchased 907 East Adams in 1923; on August 13 of that year, the Department of Buildings issued her a permit to add an 8-by-23-foot porch to the back of the house
  • By 1926, 907 East Adams had become the property of Italian-born Nick and Anna Piediscalzo, who had emigrated to the United States in 1901, arriving in Southern California via Chicago, Racine, and San Jose. Piediscalzo is enumerated in the 1930 Federal census at 907 as a farm laborer, his sons Benny as an engraving artist and George as a barber. The Piediscalzos moved to East Los Angeles in 1938, where the family was living on Clela Avenue when Nick died the day after Christmas 1939; 907 East Adams had been sold to Dr. and Mrs. Emery Irvin Robinson
  • Emery and Fannie Robinson had been living down on East 52nd Street with his parents, Edward and Julia Robinson; their acquisition of 907 East Adams would allow the doctor to walk a block east to his office at 2510 Central Avenue. In addition to his practice and community activism, Dr. Robinson worked toward the advancement of his profession as president of the National Negro Medical Association; he was also tireless politically, active in the A.C.L.U. of Southern California and serving as the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. from 1949 to 1954. His leadership as an African-American in this era made him a target of witch hunts, the red-baiting magazine Alert—which carried the tagline "A Weekly Confidential Report on Communism and How to Combat It"—smearing him, along with four other doctors living in South Los Angeles and along the West Adams corridor, as communists. On December 10, 1949, the national edition of The Pittsburgh Courier reported on Alert's attack, noting that the doctors were being vilified along with a number of others living on the other side of town including Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Frederic March, and Edward G. Robinson, the Hollywood actors in no small part through the efforts of the gleefully vindictive Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper
  • On May 16, 1947, the Department of Building and Safety issued the Robinsons a permit to add a 16-by-20-foot room to the back of the house
  • The Robinsons remained at 907 East Adams until the end of their lives. He died at the age of 73 on Thanksgiving Day, 1961, she at 55 on May 15, 1962
  • There are no listings for 907 East Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles city directories after the departure of the Robinsons through the 1973 edition; acquiring the house by 1974 was James S. Ray, who on September 18, 1974, was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to demolish the property's garage. Ray's family appears to have owned 907 well into the 2000s



 Illustration: Private Collection