741 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1902 on Lot 16 in Block A of the Menlo Park Subdivision No. 1 by developers Bowen & Chamberlain (J. Frank Bowen and William H. Chamberlain)
  • Bowen & Chamberlain built 741 East Adams and its easterly neighbor 747 East Adams together as speculative projects. The houses differed in that their façade configurations mirrored each other, with 741's entrance on the right, its front bay window on the left. Both houses were offered for sale in classified advertisements placed by the builder in the fall of 1902, each priced at $3,750. They were "hand decorated," "never lived in," and constructed with the "best materials"
  • 741 East Adams appears to have been rental property from its earliest days, the landlords being unclear during its first two decades. Among those occupying 741 during those years were John S. Billheimer, the manager of the Consolidated Lumber Company; Henry B. Henley, manager of the Pacific Milling & Elevator Company; and the family of Downing D. Nice, a physician with a general practice
  • Moving from 807 East Adams, Dr. Downing D. Nice rented 741 from 1912 until 1921, living there with his wife Jessie, their son Hubert, daughter Madeline, Mrs. Nice's widowed mother, Inez Cook, and Mrs. Cook's elder daughter Inez and her husband Rolla Duane Bennett, a real estate agent. Inez Cook died in Los Angeles on October 9, 1915, age 61; Mrs. Nice died at 741 East Adams on July 2, 1916, age 43. The Nices and the Bennetts remained at 741 until 1921, with Dr. Nice moving to Three Rivers in Tulare County, where he had a fruit ranch
  • In 1900, 48-year-old Wisconsin-born Nellie H. Taylor was a widow raising fruit in San José Township, an agricultural district now part of Pomona, where she lived with her daughters Mary and Lizzie Belle and her brother, John B. Miner, who worked in her orchards. Mrs. Taylor's farming efforts proved fruitful; by 1905, she and her brother were investing in Los Angeles real estate and began spending time in the city after purchasing 747 East Adams. John Miner died in Los Angeles at the age of 49 on December 7, 1908; Nellie Taylor and her daughters remained at 747 and—if she hadn't already—would acquire the houses that flanked her own, 741 and 751 East Adams, over which she became landlord. By 1922, Mrs. Taylor began making improvements to her three properties by doubling the size of the horse-stable-turned-garage at the rear of 747 and, as a selling point to renters, adding new garages to 741 and 751 in 1923
  • On August 9, 1923, the Department of Buildings issued a permit for an 18-by-38-foot garage at 741 East Adams to Belle Taylor for her mother
  • Among the tenants occupying 741 East Adams during the 1920s were Jacob A. Miller, a clerk, and George A. Brandt, a foreman at the Ford Motor Company assembly plant at Seventh Street and Santa Fe Avenue
  • Nellie Taylor died at the age of 75 on January 9, 1928; following the departure of their tenant at 751 East Adams, the notorious Dr. Eugene C. Nelson, Mary and Lizzie Belle, still not married, moved into that house from the larger 747. The sisters left 751 East Adams by 1943, Belle dying in 1954 and Mary in 1960, both joining their parents at Rosedale Cemetery
  • Occupying 741 East Adams from 1937 to 1940 were Meitaro and Tosiko Yoshie; he was the manager of the wholesale T & Y Produce Company and had an interest in two filling stations not far from 741. Then, briefly, Joseph P. Quiros—an employee of an electrical-equipment factory—and his extended family, all Costa Rican–born—lived in the house
  • By 1948, Maxwell Sparks was living at 741 East Adams, apparently as the owner. Though now living in Compton, Mr. Sparks still owned 741 as late as 1973, when, after remodeling the garage and its dwelling space, he was issued a certificate of occupancy for the result on October 1
  • The house now owned by Elpidio and Juana Hernandez, the Department of Building and Safety issued them a permit on May 5, 1988, for the replacement of its windows and for a full exterior stuccoing, which seriously muted the original appearance of 741 East Adams if not its general profile. On July 27, 1993, the Hernandezes were issued a permit to install a new roof
Illustration: Private Collection