420 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1890 on a parcel consisting of the west 7 feet of Lot 9 and the east 33.2 feet of Lot 10 in Block 8 of Daman & Millard's Subdivision of the Shaw Tract
  • As was the case with many lots in the large subdivisions of former farms and vineyards in South Los Angeles, Lots 9 and 10 changed hands multiple times during the Boom of the Eighties, a handsome profit realized with every conveyance. As the tracts evolved, lot lines could shift; when the dust settled in the run-up to the construction of 420 East Adams Street, its parcel wound up being portions of two lots with a combined frontage nearly 10 feet narrower than Daman & Millard's original 50-foot specification for Lots 9 and 10. In the 400 block of East Adams, cottages on such narrow lots adjacent to larger houses on wider ones were not unusual
  • On May 13, 1889, dry-goods merchant William F. Fixen acquired 420's parcel. It may have been he who built 420 East Adams as a speculative venture; it is unclear as to whether he may have lived in the house himself. On July 27, 1890, the Los Angeles Times carried a social note regarding the anniversary party of a "Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Haines, residing at No. 420 East Adams street." By 1892, the house was occupied by Milo A. Baker, who was working his way up the ladder at the family firm, the Baker Iron Works, one of the Los Angeles's leading industrial organizations. (It was merged with the city's Llewellyn Iron Works and Union Iron Works to form the Consolidated Steel Corporation in 1929.) Baker had married Medora Lee Brown in August 1890, living at first with his parents on Fort Moore Hill
  • The Baker's daughter, Lois, was born on August 1, 1891; their son, Elmo Remember Baker, who would grow up to join Baker Iron Works, was born on January 20, 1894. The Bakers retained ownership of 420 East Adams Street until 1898, though, it seems, they may have rented it briefly in 1896. On December 8 of that year, the Los Angeles Herald reported that retired merchant Winthrop Foote Patterson died in the house the day before; he and his son Charles E. Patterson had given 420 as their place of residence when they registered to vote the previous June
  • On November 25, 1898, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Bakers had just sold 420 East Adams to real estate operator Charles O. Goodwin, who, per the Herald of January 29, 1899, immediately flipped it to the unmarried sisters Carrie and Sarah Shipman. On January 30, 1900, the paper reported that the Shipmans had just sold the house to Marion S. Thomas, described as a "wiremaker" when he was enumerated at 420 in the Federal census on June 1 with his wife, two sons, and a brother-in-law. The Thomases did not stay long, either renting it out over the next several years, or selling it to someone who did, to at least two families including picture framer Joseph Korber
  • In 1906, 420 East Adams was acquired by builder Robert Colvin. On December 11 of that year he was issued a permit by the Superintendent of Buildings to add a woodshed to the rear of the property
  • On February 21, 1907, Colvin was issued a permit by the city—the issuing office was now called the Department of Buildings—to move the house eight feet north toward the Adams curb. In late 1908, Colvin built a new house at 191 West Vernon Avenue and moved there (191 West Vernon remains standing in good repair)
  • As was not uncommon with smaller houses in the neighborhoods flanking East Adams, there was an almost annual change of occupants at 420 over the next several decades. At some point, apparently in the 1920s, the house was divided down the middle into two units; who actually owned 420/420½ between Robert Colvin and Joseph Wolf and his wife Rosa, who acquired it and moved in by 1937, is unclear. On April 30, 1943, Joseph Wolf, who was identified as a baker, was issued a permit to replace the roof
  • One of the many charming cottages of its vintage built in the larger district straddling East Adams Boulevard, the fate of 420 is by no means certain given the housing shortages of modern Los Angeles. A 126-year-old house of similar size—444 East Adams—was demolished in December 2018, almost its entire lot immediately exploited with two large duplexes 



Illustration: Private Collection