237 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1898 on the easterly 48 feet of Lot 22 of the Daman & Millard Tract
  • The original builder of 237 East Adams is unclear; the address first appears in the Los Angeles city directory's 1899 edition, indicating occupancy by John Q. Braun and his wife Linda Hills Braun. On June 13, 1900, the Brauns were enumerated in the Federal census as renting the house. The Brauns had moved from 120 East Adams farther west on the block, the residence of Mrs. Braun's sister May and her husband Frank D. Lanterman, with whom the sisters' widowed mother Rachel Hills also lived. (The 100 and 200 addresses of East Adams are all on the same block, between Main Street and Maple Avenue.) Frank Lanterman was a prime early developer of the East Adams district; his house at 120 East Adams was one of the earliest on the street, built by 1888 on a lot in one of his projects, [Austin C.] Shafer & Lanterman's Subdivision of the Montague Tract
  • Rachel Hills was living with the Brauns at 237 East Adams by 1903; the next year, she and her daughter and son-in-law returned to live with the Lantermans at 120 East Adams
  • As were many houses along East Adams Street, as the Boulevard was designated before the mid-1920s, 237 has been rental property for much of its life. Leasees after the departure of the Brauns included mine investor James F. Cullen and real estate operator Frank B. Bartlett, who may have become the owner and landlord. City directories list many individuals as living in the house between 1907 and 1911—including eight in the 1907 issue alone. Advertising salesman Lyman Naugle was in residence during 1910. The next year the house was purchased by retired Ohio-born merchant Isaac Harlan Beal and his wife Sarah, who were moving from Long Beach, having come to Southern California from Denver
  • On October 13, 1911, the Department of Buildings issued two permits to Sarah Beal. One was to add a second level to the rear porch, its first-floor space gaining a bath and screening, the upstairs becoming a sleeping porch. The second permit authorized the construction of a second residence on the lot, a single-story, four-room dwelling at the rear. This became 239 East Adams Street
  • Harlan Beal was still living at 237 East Adams when he died at home on July 5, 1925. He was 67 and died intestate, despite owning considerable property, including Denver real estate. Sarah Beal remained at 237 until early 1930
  • The landlord unclear, 237 East Adams was once again given over to renters during the Depression, including insurance agent William Adams and his wife Belle, warehouse worker John Donahue and Myrtle, clothes presser Turley Grissom and Elizabeth, laundry worker Arthur Mullin and Peggy, carpenter John Cameron and Alice, retired auctioneer Charles Clavier and Stella, and interior painter Elmer Short and Bessie
  • By 1939, electrical maintenance engineer Joe Willard and his wife Eula, a registered nurse, owned 237 East Adams, living there with her mother and father, Barney and Ellen Lewis
  • By 1952, Lewis and Josephine Bradley were in possession of 237 East Adams, having moved in with their daughter Pearlie Wade
  • On February 23, 1954, the Department of Building and Safety issued Josephine Bradley a permit to repair fire damage; on January 25, 1956, she was issued a permit to replace the foundation of 239 East Adams
  • Lewis Bradley appears to have died on December 18, 1968, still living at 237 East Adams; Josephine died on August 18, 1971. Pearlie Bradley Wade remained at 237
  • On September 13, 1990, Mrs. Wade was issued two permits by the Department of Building and Safety. One permit was for the removal and replacement of the front porch, replacement of the roof, and for stuccoing of the exterior. The second permit was for the demolition of a rear shed. A third permit was issued on December 13, 1990, for the replacement of windows. Mrs. Wade was issued a permit on February 21, 1991, to replace the roof of 239
  • By 2002, the house was owned by Eduardo Rodriguez, who on September 24 of that year was issued a permit to convert 237 into a three-unit building and to legalize an existing second-floor bedroom extension


Recognizable under a layer of stucco, 237 East Adams Boulevard has also gained decorative quoins
at its front corners and a large quatrefoil appliqué on the second floor—and, of course, a dish.



 Illustrations: Private Collection; UCLADL