243 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1895 on Lot 23 of the Daman & Millard Tract by James W. Webster, a salesman at Coulter Dry Goods Company
  • The Superintendent of Buildings issued a permit to J. W. Webster for a $2,800 two-story residence at 243 East Adams on October 17, 1895, as reported by the Los Angeles Times and the Herald the next day
  • James Webster was born in the village of Vermont, Illinois, on May 6, 1851, and appears to have been a lifelong bachelor; he arrived in Los Angeles during the Boom of the Eighties, becoming associated with the City of Paris dry-goods store on Spring Street before moving to Coulter. Apparently a saver with no family to support, Webster invested in real estate, including 243 East Adams, which he occupied for three years before renting it out and moving to 117 East 23rd Street, another of his investments
  • William J. Rankin, a proprietor of the Traders' Exchange, a moneylending concern, rented 243 East Adams from his fellow Mason James W. Webster in 1899. He occupied the house with his wife Rosamond, his mother Margaret, and an aunt, Sarah Sterrett, until 1905
  • James Webster took out a $2,000 mortgage on 243 East Adams with the Union Bank of Savings in May 1902 and soon left on a three-month tour of Europe, according to the Herald of August 17; after the departure of the Rankins for Normandie Avenue in 1905, Webster, now living around the corner at 237 East 27th Street, sold 243 East Adams to Dr. and Mrs. William Levi Wade
  • Mrs. Wade died at 243 East Adams on October 9, 1909, with 68-year-old Dr. Wade and 45-year-old Adelaide MacGregor soon catching each other's eye. Mrs. MacGregor had come west from Iowa at the turn of the century, The Sioux City Journal reporting on July 16, 1899, that, leaving her husband at home, she had taken their sons Dallas and Claude west to live in Los Angeles, with Mr. MacGregor intending to remain behind for a time, which became for good—he appears not to have made the move at all. Kicking around Los Angeles for a decade and now styling herself as a widow, as divorcées often did at the time, Adelaide first met Dr. Wade professionally. She got him to the altar on September 16, 1911, the day before his 70th birthday; she was just turning 47
  • Dr. Wade invested wisely, in oil as well as in real estate. His income from shares in the Fullerton Oil Company, among other sources, financed the construction of his 74-room, three-story Wade Apartments, completed in early 1912 at 1046 South Grand Avenue. Dallas MacGregor became the manager


Dr. Will L. Wade built his eponymous apartment house at 1046 South Grand
Avenue in 1911; this illustration appeared in the Los Angeles Times on
January 28, 1912. Wade remarried after his acrimonious divorce
and survived until 1931. His apartments stood until 1983.


  • While they largely developed at the same time, Adams Street east of Main was never as fashionable as the avenue was to the west; by 1911, even West Adams Street was seeing the effects of residential competition with the rapid development of tracts along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor. Opened for sales in 1911 in what was being called the "West End" of Los Angeles—as Pico-Union and Westlake had been called before—were exclusive Windsor Square and Fremont Place, which began to draw the affluent north from Adams. East Adams was already beginning to see departures of original homebuilders and their replacement by a more cosmopolitan population. While each was headstrong, the new Mrs. William L. Wade wasted little time in getting her groom out of the old neighborhood and into a newly built house at 820 South St. Andrews Place, completed in early 1913 by developer Sanson M. Cooper in spiffy Country Club Park (it would be demolished in 1988). No longer an unattached lady of uncertain background, Adelaide Wade began to appear in society columns. The Wades' honeymoon began to sour after a few years. The final break came when Dr. Wade kissed his wife goodbye as she went off on a picnic with friends, Adelaide coming back to find that he had cleared the house of furniture except for the things in her room and gone to live in a hotel. The marriage was over officially on their eighth anniversary in 1919, when, as he handed down the decree, Judge Charles Crail remarked, "I have no sympathy with either party.... Both knew what frequently happens when a woman marries a man four years older than her mother—September mating with June." Adelaide charged Will with being overfamiliar with her sister and accused him of keeping a woman on the side. She said he tried to poison her on at least two occasions. His family came to stay for months on end. He was stingy. Dr. Wade claimed his wife was cruel and verbally abusive and dismissive of both he and his 16-year-old Persian cat, Toby. He got to keep Toby; she got to keep 820 South St. Andrews
  • It is unclear as to whether the Wades sold 243 East Adams after moving to Country Club Park or retained it themselves as rental property. At least three different parties leased the house between 1913 and 1921, including William E. Manlove, a traveling salesman, who was renting 243 for several years before leaving in 1921, when it was sold to a retired physician
  • Dr. Albert W. Swearingen acquired 243 East Adams as an investment in 1921. Recognizing the rapidly changing character of Adams Street east of Main and a trend toward duplexing houses that were built as single-family residences—and anticipating the dramatic more-than-doubling of the city's population during the '20s—Dr. Swearingen took out a permit from the Department of Buildings on September 24, 1921, to convert 243 into a two-family house. There would now also be a 241 East Adams Street
  • Multiple individuals appear in records at both 241 and 243 East Adams subsequent to Dr. Swearingen's conversion of the house into a duplex including the interestingly-named Mildred Sparhawk, Millford E. Sill, Adelbert J. Springer, Mabel L. Smock, Lovina Openlander, and Isom D. Littles. Dr. Swearingen himself never lived in the house; it is unclear as to whom may have owned the house after Dr. Swearingen and whether he or she came into possession before or after he died on September 27, 1935.
  • By 1947 the house was owned by Elizabeth West, who lived on the premises at 241 East Adams; on May 15 of that year she was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for minor alterations and rewiring. The document indicates that in addition to the house and garage on the lot, a second dwelling at the rear northwest corner of the property had been added on a date as yet undetermined (addressed 241½, this one-story, 24-by-25-foot building would be demolished in 1960). On January 25, 1951, a federal judge ruled against several Los Angeles landlords, including Elizabeth West, who were being sued by the government for overcharging tenants
  • On December 15, 1951, the Department of Building and Safety issued Elizabeth West a permit for termite repairs; on October 23, 1952, she received a permit to reside the house with asbestos
  • On December 15, 1955, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mrs. West a permit to turn the rear dwelling, 241½, into a duplex; this appears to have been a new unit, connected but separate from the original rear building
  • By 1960, 241-243 East Adams came into the possession of Arlice Ray as an investment; Mrs. Ray lived at 1109 East 121st Street. On August 19, 1960, she received a permit to demolish what seems to have been the original 241½, leaving intact its 1955 addition, which still stands along with the 1895 house
  • On November 14, 1961, Arlice Ray was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to repair fire damage to, apparently, the east unit of the main house
  • According to city records, later transfers of ownership of the property occurred in 1981 and 1989. The primary address by this time having changed from the original 243 East Adams to 241, a Mr. Kang acquired it in 1989; on June 29, 1989, he was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to stucco the entire building—resulting in the current appearance of the house—and to replace the roof, change out some windows, and perform other repairs. On November 13, 1989, Mr. Kang was issued a permit to add three windows in an unspecified location and to enclose a second-floor patio; a certificate of occupancy for the latter work was issued on January 3, 1991
    • As of 2020, the most recent transfer of ownership of 241-243 East Adams occurred in 2003, when the house was sold for $269,000
    • In early July 1962, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles on the African-American experience in the city. An article on July 4 was illustrated with an image of East Adams Street, including 241-243, seen here at bottom




    The siding originally installed on 241-243 East Adams in 1895 was
    replaced with asbestos shingling in 1952, as seen in the photograph at
    top. (The automobile pictured in that 1962 view is a 1953 Mercury.) Above
    is a recent depiction of the house, which in 1989 was re-sided again, this time
    with stucco. Below is a image of 233, 237, 241, and 247 East Adams that ran
    in the Los Angeles Times on July 4, 1962; all four houses survive despite
    a recent area trend toward demolitions for newer multi-unit housing.




    Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT; USCDL