912 East Adams Boulevard

PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES
FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO ADAMS BOULEVARD, CLICK HERE




  • Built in 1903 on Lot 12 of Grider & Dow's Adams Street Tract by plumbing contractor Frank G. Wride
  • Frank Wride appears to have done a fair amount of property speculation in the first years of the 1900s in addition to his plumbing work; on April 5, 1903, the Los Angeles Herald reported that he had just bought Lot 12 for $1,100, with the intention of building a residence for himself to cost $2,000. A year before, Wride had bought property nearby—on the east side of Central Avenue just north of Adams Street—to build his plumbing shop
  • California native Frank G. Wride had married Minnesota-born Edith Bills in May 1896; she appears to have been the stepdaughter or ward of George Washington Hidden, a Minnesotan who later began farming in San Bernardino County. Curiously, while she was recorded in newspaper announcements as being 18 at the time of her marriage to Frank Wride, other records indicate that she was just three months beyond her 14th birthday. The Wrides' first child, Milo, was born in 1903 around the time of the building of 912 East Adams
  • On May 1, 1904, Frank Wride was among those arrested during a raid on a cockfight in Tropico—a town absorbed by Glendale in 1918—where a man was shot and killed by an officer of the S.P.C.A. Other occurrences during the Wrides' time at 912 East Adams include the theft of Frank's Buick in December 1906 by two men who lived nearby (it was recovered); Hazel Wride was born in November 1907 and Dorothy in September 1913. Their brother Stanley, known as Bud, came along in February 1917, four months before Milo Wride was struck by a car on June 15, resulting in his death after lingering until July 10. On November 5, 1924, the Wride residence was burglarized, which may have been part of the family's decision consider other neighborhoods
  • The Wrides would remain at 912 for 24 years, well into the years of the demographic changes that came to South Los Angeles beginning not long before World War I, which resulted in a considerably more cosmopolitan district; as Los Angeles expanded geographically, the area's original homebuilders began to move to new tracts as far afield as the San Fernando Valley and newly annexed territory toward the Pacific and alongside the Shoestring connection to the ports at San Pedro and Wilmington. A tract down toward Manchester and Western avenues developed by the prominent Los Angeles developer Carlin G. Smith became part of the city when the Wagner annexation became effective on September 8, 1924; it was here at the southwest corner of West 80th Street and Harvard Boulevard that Frank Wride began building a new house in the fall of 1927, one with, presumably, very good plumbing; 1702 West 80th still stands today
  • After leaving 912 East Adams and waiting for their new house to be ready, the Wrides lived at 411 West 73rd Street. They sold 912 to the Reverend Junjo Izumida, pastor for many years of the Japanese Buddhist Temple—later the Higashi Honganji Temple—on Mott Street in Boyle Heights. The Reverend Izumida and his wife, Suma, had four daughters and two sons son. After leaving 912 in 1938, the Izumidas moved to Sunrise Street in Boyle Heights. The family was interned at Manzanar in 1942; Mrs. Izumida died there on October 25 of that year. The Reverend Izumida was released in 1945 and returned to Los Angeles; of the children, their third daughter Teru, also released in 1945, suffered mentally and was eventually sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino
  • After a serious fire at 912 East Adams, the Department of Building and Safety issued the Reverend Izumida a permit on January 27, 1932, for repairs to the house including new roofing, wiring, and the rebuilding of upstairs rooms
  • The Izumidas sold 912 East Adams to Louisiana natives Robert and Mamie V. Primmer, proprietors of a restaurant at Central Avenue and East 20th Street. Their family is difficult to parse, but it seems that the couple divorced—if they were ever actually married—soon after moving into 912, with Mamie reverting to her maiden name. As Mamie Gaskin, she would be listed in the Los Angeles city directory at 912 through 1967
  • On May 1, 1944, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mamie Gaskin a permit for a new roof; on January 11, 1946, her son, Edwin Ford, was issued a permit to repair fire damage
  • Relatives of Mamie Gaskin appear to have remained at 912 East Adams well into the 1970s


Illustration: Private Collection