444 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1892 on Lot 5 in Block 8 of Daman & Millard's Subdivision of the Shaw Tract by John Leonard Eby and his wife Ellen. Eby was at the time a stationary engineer at the Troy Laundry Company
  • On December 18, 1891, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gustavus A. Millard, developer of the neighborhood along with Aurelius O. Daman, had sold Lot 5 to Ellen J. Eby for $700. The Ebys appear to have moved into 444 by early 1893
  • The Ebys raised "pullets ready to lay" at 444 East Adams and advertised them for sale in the Herald in late 1901
  • Sabina Eby, Mrs. Eby's mother, died at 444 East Adams on April 18, 1902. Her husband, described as having been driven insane by alcohol, had been committed to the new state asylum at Highland—later known as the Patton State Hospital—in 1894 and died three years later
  • Three weeks before Sabina Eby died, her son and daughter-in-law were advertising 444 East Adams as being for rent; it is unclear as to where John and Ellen lived for the next few years before returning to 444; in the meantime, the house was rented to building contractor Edwin S. Preston and his wife Maud
  • The Ebys would remain at 444 East Adams from 1904 until their deaths nearly 50 years later. John Eby pursued mining during the aughts, afterward becoming the manager of a taxi service—with the Ebys' son Emmett a driver after clerking for a time at Barker Brothers—and then an automobile mechanic operating out of the barn at the rear of the lot, addressed on insurance maps as 444½ East Adams
  • On March 6, 1920, John Eby was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to add a "sleeping room" to 444 as well as an extension to the kitchen. This was then rented to various boarders
  • On February 21, 1924, John Eby appeared in a testimonial in a Times advertisement for Neugo tablets, which promised to restore vitality. In December, he appeared in print again, this time with his picture, in an ad for the same pills, which had been renamed Nuerex. Eby would continue to be listed in city directories during the '20s as an automobile mechanic; by 1942, he was once again being listed as a stationary engineer
  • Neurex perhaps actually having been effective, John L. Eby died at the age of 87 on December 14, 1950, still living at 444 East Adams. Ellen Eby was still at 444 when she died on June 26, 1952. The Ebys are buried at Forest Lawn; Mrs. Eby's carved stone reads not Ellen J. Eby but "Ella J. Eby," Ella apparently being the name by which she was generally known
  • Ownership of 444 East Adams over the next 60 years is unclear; no listings for it appear in city directories from the 1950s until at least 1987
  • A prime example of early easterly Adams Boulevard domestic architecture, 444 survived for 126 years until not long after a permit for it was issued by the Department of Building and Safety on December 7, 2018
  • On January 24, 2019, permits to erect two two-story duplexes on the lot of 444 East Adams were issued by the Department of Building and Safety. The rearmost building is addressed 444 and 444½; the front, 446 and 446½


Perhaps one way of drumming up distaff
trade in your auto-repair business was
to advertise yourself as revitalized;
as seen in an ad for Nuerex in
the Los Angeles Times on
December 22, 1924.



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT