116 East Adams Boulevard


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




  • Built circa 1895 at the corner of Park Grove Avenue and West 21st Street; moved in 1912 to 1740 South Vermont Avenue; moved in 1942 to Lot 6 in Block A of Shafer & Lanterman's Subdivision of the Montague Tract and addressed 116 East Adams Boulevard. A previous dwelling on the lot, dating from at least 1892, was moved "out side of city" per a relocation permit issued by the Department of Buildings on December 17, 1908 
  • The Johnson & Keeney Company were real estate developers active in Los Angeles during the mid-1890s; the Los Angeles Express reported on March 8, 1894, that the firm had just graded and opened Park Grove Avenue south of Washington to West 21st Street, having installed curbs and sidewalks. That year, Johnson & Keeney built several speculative houses on the block. No record of one of these being sold to attorney James G. Garrison has been found, and no record has been found of him building the house himself, but by mid 1895 he was listed as living at 1978 Park Grove in that year's newly published city directory. Precise addresses were often unsettled in newly developing subdivisions; in the directories of 1897 through 1904, Garrison was listed as living at 1986 Park Grove. Some sources indicate that Garrison may have been buying and selling other properties on his block (perhaps in conjunction with Johnson & Keeney), but his own residence was at the northeast corner of Park Grove and 21st Street until it was sold to Edwin W. Lowell in 1904, as reported in the Herald on September 1 of that year
  • In 1904 Edwin Webster Lowell was a recent employee of Lowman & Company, Spring Street haberdashers; by 1910, after the sudden death of the store's founder, he was president of the firm. At the time of his purchase of 1986 Park Grove, Lowell was engaged to divorcée Etta Rousseau Borrendame, who, after more than a year of trying to rid herself of her previous husband back in Michigan, was granted a decree on the grounds of desertion on August 26, 1904. Edwin and Etta were married in San Francisco on September 30. Phyllis Lowell was born in the house that now sits on Adams Boulevard on February 22, 1908
  • Edwin Lowell's tenure at Lowman & Company after Isaac Lowman's demise was brief; afterward, he turned his thoughts of income production toward his domestic property. On January 10, 1912, Lowell was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to relocate 1986 Park Grove Avenue to Lot 28 of the Reid Addition; there the house became 1740 South Vermont Avenue. Taking up most of its former site, as reported in the Herald on February 10, would be a three-story-plus-basement, 26-unit apartment house for which Lowell was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings on February 19, 1912. For some reason this building would be renumbered as 1984 Park Grove, as it remains today. The Lowells lived briefly at 1740 South Vermont before moving into what was dubbed the Lowell Apartments. Edwin died in Los Angeles on July 24, 1920, six days after his 51st birthday. It is unclear as to whether Etta Lowell retained ownership of the Lowell after she left the building soon after her husband's death
  • Edwin Lowell sold 1740 South Vermont Avenue—the future 116 East Adams Boulevard—to downtown hatter Louis Schwartz in 1913, whose family was still listed at the address in the 1931 in city directory. Ownership afterward is unclear; by 1935, the Vermont Avenue property appears to have been partially converted to commercial use, with Joseph and William Freitas—apparently brothers—living with their wives at 1740 as renters and running a stove works on the premises
  • By mid 1942, 1740 South Vermont Avenue was owned by builder Joseph A. Fischbeck, who would be moving the already-once-moved house to its current location on Adams Boulevard
  • On July 21, 1942, the Department of Building and Safety issued Joseph Fischbeck a permit to move 1740 South Vermont to Lot 6 in Block A of Shafer & Lanterman's Subdivision of the Montague Tract, where it would become 116-118 East Adams Boulevard, the house becoming a duplex rental providing income for Fischbeck's family. (In 1955 a new commercial structure would be moved from the path of the Harbor Freeway at 123rd Street to the Vermont lot, which was apparently no longer owned by Fischbeck) 
  • After his daughter Marcella married her second husband, Ruben A. Watson, in 1938, Joseph Fischbeck employed his new son-in-law in his construction business. Joseph and Mary Fischbeck and Ruben and Marcella Watson lived very near each other at varying addresses on San Pedro Street near 37th Street during the 1940s. During that decade, the men redeveloped the northeast corner of Mansfield and Lexington avenues in Hollywood, where the Fischbecks and the Watsons would be living in nearby houses by 1950; the team would also be making further alterations to their property at 116 East Adams
  • On July 14, 1948, Joseph Fischbeck and Ruben Watson were jointly issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to convert 116-118 East Adams from a duplex into a fourplex. This involved adding a 12-by-12-foot bedroom and 9-by-14-foot kitchen to the rear of the building. The addresses 116½ and 118½ were added to the property
  • On February 24, 1950, Fischbeck and Watson issued permit to add to the east and south sides of the garage to create a one-family dwelling; this unit became 118¾ East Adams. Only remnants of the foundation of this structure exist today; while the building's demolition date is unclear, according to aerial images in the library at the University of California, Santa Barbara, it appears to have stood until at least 1979
  • The developer Young B. Ahn became the owner of 116-118 East Adams by 2002. On April 30 of that year he was issued permits by the Department of Building and Safety to rehabilitate 116-116½/118-118½ by replacing windows and roofing, among other updates. It may have been Ahn who removed the rear building, perhaps around the same time



Illustration: Private Collection