751 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Completed in early 1902 on Lot 14 in Block A of Menlo Park Subdivision No. 1 by Maria S. Wirt, wife of retired auctioneer James Madison Wirt
  • The Los Angeles Herald of October 5, 1901, reported real-estate investor Charles F. Dollinger's sale of Lot 14 to Mrs. Wirt the day before; items in the Times on November 25 and in the Herald on December 1 noted that Mrs. Wirt had commenced the process of building a $2,300 residence on the lot
  • Pennsylvania natives James and Maria Wirt, who had been farming in Minnesota, arrived in Los Angeles in the late 1880s. The couple settled in what is today's Fashion District and Mr. Wirt became an auctioneer. In March 1899 his widowed niece Maggie W. Hall moved to Los Angeles and moved into 1322 Myrtle Avenue with the Wirts, who were now in their 70s. On the evening of June 8 of that year, a fire in an adjacent residence spread to 1322 Myrtle, forcing them out of the house; after a year down the street at 1357 Myrtle, a move 10 blocks south was decided upon—by the late '90s new residential tracts had been opening in frenzied development along Adams Street
  • James Wirt died of peritonitis at 751 East Adams on November 17, 1902; he was 74. Maria followed him to Rosedale Cemetery on November 30, 1904, at 79. Maggie Hall remained at 751 until leaving in 1906; she may have inherited the house, possibly maintaining it herself as rental property, or selling it to someone who did. It is known that Nellie H. Taylor, a widow who lived next door at 747 East Adams with her spinster daughters Mary and Lizzie Belle, acquired 751 as well as 741 East Adams by 1923, if not as early as 1906. The Taylor sisters would later occupy 751
  • In August 1923, the Department of Buildings issued Nellie Taylor several permits for the construction of a garage at 751 East Adams as part of a series of improvements to her three adjacent properties including 741 and 747 
  • The many renters of 751 East Adams from 1906 into the 1930s included recently married Arthur and Bertha Beach (he was a bookkeeper for Commercial National Bank); Solomon Weeks, who was in the fuel business on Central Avenue before turning to house painting; salesmen Fred Waldeck (bricks) and Edward Mead (pianos); horse trader Harry Robertson; oil worker Francis McComb; and barber Charles Piazza. In 1934, 751 was occupied for a couple of years by the notorious physician Eugene C. Nelson, who had been renting across the street at 746 East Adams
  • In July 1933, New York oil-machinery salesman Leo F. Desmond had filed a $100,000 alienation of affections suit against the notorious Dr. Nelson, charging that the physician had "persuaded, abducted and enticed" his wife away from the couple's home on Long Island. Margaret Fay Desmond was found to be working as Nelson's secretary in his office at 4472 Wilshire Boulevard, apparently also providing comfort to the good doctor after his sensational 1932 divorce from "famous [Greenwich Village and Ziegfeld] Follies beauty" Helen Lee Worthing. Much was made in the press of the African-American Nelson's penchant for ladies of other races; his neighbors were definitely not amused, but at least they could be grateful he was gone by the time he'd lost his medical license after an arrest in 1941 on charges of being an abortionist. By then Dr. Nelson had vacated 751 after a widely-publicized suicide attempt of his ex-wife in September 1935—Miss Worthing cited Eugene's intention to remarry as the cause for her distress
  • Nellie Taylor had died at the age of 75 on January 9, 1928; following the departure of their tenant Dr. Nelson, her spinster daughters Mary and Lizzie Belle moved into 751 East Adams from the larger 747 next door. (The Taylors may have bought the smaller 751 in anticipation of Nellie's demise; after their shift slightly east, the sisters rented out 747)
  • The Taylor sisters left 751 East Adams by 1943. Belle died in 1954 and Mary in 1960, both being buried with their parents at Rosedale Cemetery. The ownership of 751 after their departure is unclear until 1964, when, curiously, 83-year-old former Angeleno Vera M. Giebler (now of Whittier) was issued a permit as the owner by the Department of Building and Safety on January 6, 1964—signed for her by a John W. Chamberlain—for the demolition of a rear building, presumably the 1923 garage that had been converted at some point into a dwelling
  • Later apparent investors in 751 East Adams as rental property were James S. Ray, who also owned 907 East Adams, and Sergio S. Hernandez. Ray renovated 751 in 1972; Hernandez replaced its roof in 2011
Illustration: Private Collection