2619 South Figueroa Street
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PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES
BERKELEY SQUARE WILSHIRE BOULEVARD WINDSOR SQUARE
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WESTMORELAND PLACE
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After 13 years as a social dreadnought at 2619, Laura Dorsey died there on July 9, 1915. Then the shadow over her husband reappeared when the bank, foreclosing on his mortgage, ordered a series of auctions of the contents of the house, held in January 1916. Dorsey, having been ill for some time, was living in a modest bungalow at 2222 West 28th Street when he died on March 20, 1916.
It was only after the actual corner house southwest of the intersection of Figueroa and Adams streets—number 2601 South Figueroa—was jacked up and moved westward on its lot and turned northward to assume a new address that the house at 2619 gained Adams frontage and thereby its inclusion in our survey of Adams Boulevard residential architecture. While details as to designer and builder remain elusive, widowed banker Major George Henry Bonebrake appears to have completed and moved into his rambling new house on Figueroa, between Adams and West 27th, in the first half of 1890; as with many high-ranking veterans, Bonebrake did not discourage the use of the honorific of Major, dating from his Civil War service. Newspaper reports of the Bonebrake family's social engagements early that year—those of his daughter Blanche, in particular—place them at 1610 South Figueroa, while those of midsummer, including news of Blanche's lavish coming-out party on July 1, have them in residence 10 blocks south at 2619. After Blanche was married to druggist John W. A. Off in the house on January 1, 1892, the couple moved in while the residence Major Bonebrake was giving them as a wedding present was being completed next door at 2625 South Figueroa. (The new son-in-law was apparently expected to accept the gift with equanimity; he would soon, perhaps also in keeping with his father-in-law's expectations, become a banker.)
Major George Bonebrake died at 2619 on October 30, 1898, after a struggle with Bright's disease. The Offs had leased their residence the year before and moved into 2619, and would remain there until the fall of 1902, when the house, along with the lot next door at 2601 South Figueroa (seen hiding behind the right side of 2619 in the image at top), was acquired by a notorious one-term U.S. senator representing Arkansas, Stephen W. Dorsey, who had arrived in Los Angeles in 1898. Senator Dorsey's recent bride was Laura Bigelow, 20 or so years his junior; the combination of an attractive and equally ambitious new wife and a big house were apparently the key to becoming respectable members of polite society in the still-dusty L.A. of the aughts. The Dorseys made social inroads despite his shady past back in Washington—he had been implicated in the Star Route postal-service scandals of the 1870s and '80s—and the claim, within days of his marriage to Laura in New York on July 7, 1902, by his stenographer, Bess Joralemon, that she and the senator had been shacking up in a house he'd bought her at 414 West 22nd Street in Los Angeles. It seems that Mrs. Joralemon, who claimed suggestively in an affidavit filed with the court that she "could not have been more dutiful or affectionate toward him had she been his lawful wife," disappeared from the scene within a few weeks, more than likely having been paid off. Dorsey was also publicly accused of welshing on mining deals. The undaunted Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey climbed on, in part by raising the profile of 2619 by in effect making it the southwest-corner house at the intersection of Figueroa and Adams, then equally prestigious residential thoroughfares, by annexing the bulk of the lot containing 2601. That house was moved to the rear of its parcel where it was turned to face north and henceforth addressed 630 West Adams Street.
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| A view from the northeast as landscaping has begun maturing, circa 1895 |
Major George Bonebrake died at 2619 on October 30, 1898, after a struggle with Bright's disease. The Offs had leased their residence the year before and moved into 2619, and would remain there until the fall of 1902, when the house, along with the lot next door at 2601 South Figueroa (seen hiding behind the right side of 2619 in the image at top), was acquired by a notorious one-term U.S. senator representing Arkansas, Stephen W. Dorsey, who had arrived in Los Angeles in 1898. Senator Dorsey's recent bride was Laura Bigelow, 20 or so years his junior; the combination of an attractive and equally ambitious new wife and a big house were apparently the key to becoming respectable members of polite society in the still-dusty L.A. of the aughts. The Dorseys made social inroads despite his shady past back in Washington—he had been implicated in the Star Route postal-service scandals of the 1870s and '80s—and the claim, within days of his marriage to Laura in New York on July 7, 1902, by his stenographer, Bess Joralemon, that she and the senator had been shacking up in a house he'd bought her at 414 West 22nd Street in Los Angeles. It seems that Mrs. Joralemon, who claimed suggestively in an affidavit filed with the court that she "could not have been more dutiful or affectionate toward him had she been his lawful wife," disappeared from the scene within a few weeks, more than likely having been paid off. Dorsey was also publicly accused of welshing on mining deals. The undaunted Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey climbed on, in part by raising the profile of 2619 by in effect making it the southwest-corner house at the intersection of Figueroa and Adams, then equally prestigious residential thoroughfares, by annexing the bulk of the lot containing 2601. That house was moved to the rear of its parcel where it was turned to face north and henceforth addressed 630 West Adams Street.
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The palm to the right of the entrance of 2619 South Figueroa has made some progress in this direct view of the façade, circa 1895, and considerably more by early 1921 when, in its last months, 2619 was used as the title location in Buster Keaton's short "The Haunted House." Actor Joe Roberts, the dapper villain, is seen coming toward the gate, detail of which can be seen in two images below. The huge popularity of the automobile was about to usurp the quiet residential nature of the corner. |
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| Charming detail characterized the elaborate fencing of 2619 South Figueroa Street, as it did around all of the biggest West Adams district houses. Photographed closely, with upper-story turret and detail out of frame, 2619 appears almost farmhouse-like—perhaps appropriate in that it was built during the area's transition from agriculture to suburb after U.S.C. was founded in 1880. |
After 13 years as a social dreadnought at 2619, Laura Dorsey died there on July 9, 1915. Then the shadow over her husband reappeared when the bank, foreclosing on his mortgage, ordered a series of auctions of the contents of the house, held in January 1916. Dorsey, having been ill for some time, was living in a modest bungalow at 2222 West 28th Street when he died on March 20, 1916.
Kathryn Montreville Cocke opened a music school at 2619 that year; it was gone by the time the property was acquired by the Automobile Club of Southern California in 1920. The Department of Buildings issued a demolition permit for 2619 on November 12 of that year; on June 26, 1921, the Times ran an article announcing the club's plans for an elaborate new building on the corner, one proclaiming the preeminence of the automobile in the city as well as the twilight of residential Figueroa Street.
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| Appearing to this day much as it was rendered in the Los Angeles Times on June 26, 1921, the landmark headquarters of the Automobile Club of Southern California soon replaced the Bonebrake/Dorsey house. Designed by Hunt & Burns, it was completed in 1923. The original corner house, addressed 2601 South Figueroa Street as the club is today, was moved westward on its lot and turned north to become 630 West Adams Street. It was razed for a a parking lot in 1922. |
Illustrations: Private Collection; LAPL; UCLADC; LAT; John Bengtson's Silent Locations
