718 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1902 on Lot 1 in Block 22 of Hancock's Survey; 718 was leather-goods manufacturer Samuel B. Lewis's second West Adams Street residence
  • Architects: Hudson & Munsell (Frank D. Hudson and William A. O. Munsell)
  • On April 20, 1902, the Los Angeles Herald and the Times reported that S. B. Lewis had just been issued a building permit for a 12-room house to cost $8,000
  • While some West Adams houses seem to have vanished altogether in terms of images, there are others that hide in the shadows, proffering just a tantalizing elbow or knee or wing at the edge of a photograph. S. B. Lewis's second West Adams Street residence is glimpsed above in a fragment of a larger image, seen below, focussed on its eastward neighbor at 710, which replaced Lewis's first house, the rose-covered cottage that was more reflective of the neighborhood's exurban past rather than its turn-of-the-20th-century phase as a suburban stronghold of the rich 


Samuel B. Lewis's first house on the property he bought
in 1892 was a flower-covered Victorian cottage the exact build
date of which is unclear; what was the first 710 West Adams had been
occupied by retired Michigan physician Stephen Munroe prior to his death in
December 1890. When Lewis redeveloped his parcel in 1901, he sold its easterly
142 feet to J. Ross Clark, who occupied the cottage for a time before replacing it with
a much less humble English design by architects Sumner Hunt and Wesley Eager,
completed in 1904 and seen below. The fragment view two images above is
from the same image, the only known representation of the house Lewis
built on the westerly 100 feet of his original lot, numbered 718.



  • S. B. Lewis had come to Los Angeles in 1884 to open Hayden & Lewis, a leather-goods and saddle manufacturer that was an offshoot of his business interests back in Chicago. He seemed to have thought it never too late for anything; before coming west to begin a new venture in what was in 1884 a small, pre–Boom of the '80s western town, he had married Mary Fredennick, 22 years his junior, on January 24, 1877, at the age of 42. Their daughter Lila was born the following December. The Lewises appear to have preferred hotel living prior to succeeding the late Dr. Stephen Munroe in his house at 710 West Adams, which sat at the center of a 242-by-360-foot parcel, in 1892
  • Sixty-seven years old when he embarked on reorganizing his property in 1901 and then building his new house—thinking of his impending retirement and perhaps of his youthful wife's future—Lewis struck a deal with another Los Angeles businessman, something of a social peer though one much richer and commanding business of a much larger scope. J. Ross Clark was prominent and indefatigably industrious in Southern California and throughout the west; while Clark had in mind a much bigger house, in late 1901 he bought a 142-by-360-foot parcel from Lewis, who had been living for a decade in the rose-covered cottage on it that Clark would soon replace. The sale, technically made to Clark's wife Miriam, was reported in the Los Angeles Herald on December 6. Lewis retained the west 100 feet of his original Adams frontage to form a new 360-foot-deep lot on which, by March 1902, he had plans in hand to build a sizable new $8,000 Colonial Revival design of the firm of Hudson & Munsell, the principals of which had just months before begun their prolific partnership
  • The Herald reported on April 20, 1902, that a building permit had been issued to Lewis for the new 12-room house, which would be addressed 718 West Adams Street. Lewis's original cottage, by now a relic of the district's exurban past, was apparently demolished rather than moved to make way for the Clark house—as the original 734 West Adams, next door to the west, would be for its successor. Adams Street houses were getting bigger and bigger as its quarter-century heyday began to approach its peak
  • The Lewises stayed in their new house only briefly; on April 30, 1905, their sale of the house to the Horace Marvin Russells, who were getting into the habit of moving around the neighborhood, was reported in the Los Angeles Herald. Hanging on to his old wartime rank—not easily dropped by bigger egos of there era, such as "General" Harrison Gray Otis of 2401 Wilshire Boulevard—Major Russell and his second wife, Laura, rented 854 West Adams briefly until they completed 24 St. James Park in 1900. The couple remained there until May 1904, when they moved to a house on the other side of the park at #38, which John Hyde Braly had built less than two years before. In April 1905, the Russells sold #38 and would be back around on Adams Street in the house the Lewises had completed less than three years before. (The Lewises would be moving to 663 West 23rd Street, a duplex they were building and would be occupying by early 1906; Samuel Lewis died there on May 16, 1907)


Major Russell was an oilman, but he had already made a fortune in gold mining. He was
caricatured in 1905 by Los Angeles Times illustrator—and noted painter—Arthur
Burnside Dodge in As We See 'Em: A Volume of Cartoons and Caricatures
of Los Angeles Citizens. Russell's vast success was unencumbered
by humility; after decades of accomplishment, he seems to
have met his Waterloo both socially and possibly
economically after his sale of 718 West
Adams to the dodgy Mr. Leavitt.




  • Considerable biographical information on Horace M. Russell and his family can be found in our stories of houses he occupied at 24 St. James Park and 38 St. James Park; the Russells' unsettled life continued at 718 West Adams. Mrs. Russell's children from a previous marriage, Arthur G. Keating and Eva Keating, had moved from house to house with their mother and stepfather; in a ceremony at 718, Eva was married to Dr. Titian J. Coffey on March 30, 1909. In Chicago on November 17 of that year, Arthur married Adele Gray. Both newlywed couples moved into 718, with Keating Coffey making his appearance on February 19, 1910
  • Perhaps seeking more room for his ménage, or to get away from so much togetherness in one house, Russell decided on a few additions to 718. On November 15, 1909, the Department of Buildings issued Russell a permit to enlarge a bedroom and to add a bathroom. On the same date the city issued a permit for a small one-story structure on the grounds, possibly for staff displaced by family members moving into the main house; it is unclear as to whether this was completed. The Russells' plans were changing direction
  • Possibly hoping to find a less-frequently-visited family gathering spot, Russell decided to trade 718 West Adams Street for a ranch in Tulare County. The swap with automobile dealer and road-race promoter Ralph J. Leavitt, finalized on August 5, 1911, turned out to be disastrous. The new owner of 718 was not happy to find the house missing valuable items he contended were included in the deal; early reports indicated that the house was "stripped bare" by the Russells. Leavitt got the district attorney's office to charge them with embezzlement, a felony. The Russells had taken a pied-à-terre at the fashionable Albemarle Hotel on nearby Scarff Street, where, after the Major relinquished his loaded .32 Colt revolver (amid loud protests along the lines of "Do you know who I am?"), he was arrested and handcuffed along with his wife. Headlines in all papers were large, the stories often illustrated with photographs of the principals involved. An early example appeared in the Herald on August 16: "Exclusive Circles Stirred When Constable Serves Warrant.... Major Horace M. Russell, capitalist, clubman and Bon vivant, and his wife Laura B. Russell, were yesterday released on $2000 bail each for hearing on a charge of embezzlement of $15,000 worth of furniture...." William G. Kerckhoff of 734 West Adams next door was among those who put up the bond. There were numerous counter-suits and a rumor of Russell being on the verge of bankruptcy. Leavitt's apparent reputation as a shyster in the automobile business in New York and his attempts to escape justice after killing a Seattle street sweeper while driving a car there were not yet known in Los Angeles, where he was famous for having won $10,000 in a 1909 road race, but he did eventually manage to win the furniture suit. (When he died in 1932, Leavitt was still married to his third wife, who had sued him for divorce at least twice since their 1917 marriage)


Over the years Ralph Leavitt had, overall, acquired a poor reputation whereas Horace Russell had
been hailed as one of Los Angeles's great achievers; neither, however, came off very well in
their very public fued over the latter's sale of 718 West Adams to the former in 1911.
The men and their wives were chronicled in unflattering terms in the press at
the time, sometimes with illustrations. The one above appeared in
 the Los Angeles Herald on Monday, October 16, 1911.


  • As it turned out, Leavitt and his second wife, Mary, never did occupy 718 West Adams. Not one to play by the rules, he had secret plans to redevelop the property instead. The first rumor of such a change in the use of the site involved his inconsistent plan to cut down many large palm trees and replace the nine-year-old house with a hotel or apartment house, which, unsurprisingly, enraged neighbors. Then he place a large FOR SALE sign out front announcing that the 1902 residence would be removed from the property "within 60 days." In early October 1911, Homer Laughlin of 666, the Clarks of 710, the Kerckhoffs of 734, Caroline Seymour of 746, the Waltons of 755, Caroline Severance of 806, William May Garland of 815, the Capens of 818, and the Hickses of 832 were among those who sued to put a stop to any such multifamily invasion in a neighborhood of genteel single-family dwellings. Meeting with resistance, the charming Mr. Leavitt threatened at one point to build a "negro hospital" instead of apartments or small houses, or failing that, to "rent the house to negroes." As it happened, William G. Kerckhoff's nephew Edward J. Kuster, an attorney, was in on the battle due to his holding part of Leavitt's mortgage on 718. On October 13, Kuster, who had ascertained that Leavitt's plan was for an equally abhorrent 11-bungalow court rather than a hotel or apartment house, asked the court for an injunction to "prevent Leavitt denuding the property...of Cocos plumosae and other things," according to the Times the next day. When the dust finally settled after many months of court proceedings and sensational, often front-page, press coverage all brought on by the principals themselves, there would be no bungalow court or hotel or apartment house or denuding of trees, or for that matter pompous Russells or double-dealing Leavitts, and Kuster would be designated on real estate maps for the time being as the owner of 718, though the notations was likely intended as a stand-in for his Uncle William Kerckhoff, who appears to have stepped in along with J. Ross Clark of 710 to save the day
  • It came to light that W. G. Kerckhoff and his fellow neighbors with Adams Street frontage had faced a similar threat of redevelopment only recently: Their buyout of the Harrison Henrichs of 758 had ensued after that couple succeeded in building three small houses at the south end of their property before indicating a desire to demolish their residence toward Adams and replace it with apartments. A deal for pro-rated reimbursement to Kerckhoff was ironed out with his neighbors; a similar plan of purchase, engineered with the help of Kuster, appears to have rescued 718 in its brush with death at a young age. (Kuster himself had color, at least in his personal life during this time—while he admired his wife, Una, he found he could could no longer tolerate her "advanced theories of superman and superwoman" or her interest in mysticism and the occult. Freeing each other in a divorce that was final on August 1, 1913, he married a 17-year-old high school student 15 minutes after the decree was granted; Una Kuster married poet Robinson Jeffers the next day)
  • While 718 remained unoccupied for most of the next four years, there were two short-term renters. Banker Henry S. McKee was in residence during 1913; Major George B. Pillsbury U.S.A.—whose rank was actually current—occupied the house during early 1916; he had just been transferred from New London to Los Angeles by the army as the extensive district's new United States Engineer
  • On August 14, 1916, the Herald reported that "Dr. Norman Bridge has purchased the property at 718 West Adams street from J. Ross Clark and W. G. Kerckhoff.... Dr. Bridge...is planning extensive improvements in the West Adams street place, which will include a new heating plant, garage and elaborate new gardens." Dr. Bridge was a physician who had gotten into the oil business with Charles Canfield and Edward Doheny after having them as patients. His oil millions enabled him to become a benefactor of the University of Southern California and of Throop Polytechnic Institute—later the California Institute of Technology; the Norman Bridge Laboratory at Caltech, which he seeded, bears his name. Dr. and Mrs. Bridge, whose only child had died in infancy, had for several years been renting 10 Chester Place, just across Adams, from Doheny when they bought 718
  • On September 21, 1916, the Department of Buildings issued Bridge a permit to add a bedroom, a sunroom, and, for the servants, a new bedroom, bath, and dining room; the number of rooms at 718 would swell from the original 12 to 21. Work at this time also included running a cornice of unspecified description around the entire house; at some point before 1922, a porte-cochère was added to the west side
  • Perhaps sensing that the end was nigh, the Times of December 30, 1920, in an item complete with his picture, went into more detail than one would have thought necessary regarding Dr. Bridge's bowel trouble. While his condition was termed "grave," he got through this bad patch and the Bridges were able to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary at 718 on May 21, 1924. When his death came at home on the following January 10, a few weeks after his 80th birthday, the Times cited the cause as an intestinal hemorrhage. When Mae Bridge died at 77 on June 11, 1926, it was at Angelus Hospital after an operation, the details of which went unremarked upon by the Times. Her funeral was held at 718 West Adams on June 15


A fuller view of the second 718 West Adams is part of a broad aerial view taken circa 1932 after
its acquisition by Mrs. William G. Kerckhoff, who completed 734 West Adams next door (at
right above) in 1908. At left is J. Ross Clark's 710 West Adams, completed in 1904.


  • After the departure of the Bridges, their neighbors once again became interested in 718. It is unclear as to whether the Kerckhoffs, who no doubt feared another round of redevelopment threats, bought the house before Mr. Kerckhoff died on February 22, 1929, or whether Mrs. Kerckhoff did so afterward. Disregarding the deterioration of the neighborhood as her social cohort decamped for newer suburbs—it had been doing so even before the Wall Street crash—she was determined to stay at 734, and gaining control of 718 would be key. The first tenant of 718 after the Bridges, whether or not the Kerckhoffs were the actual owners yet, was an important one
  • On January 20, 1928, the Times reported liltingly that a deal had been worked out, presumably with U.S.C., to have the school's president move into the Lewis/Russell/Bridge house: "Of interest not only to university circles but to the many friends and associates of Dr. and Mrs. R. B. Van [sic] KleinSmid is the announcement of the change of their residence and address from 801 West Twenty-eighth street to...718 West Adams street.... That President and Mrs. Von KleinSmid are to occupy this especial house is particularly fitting. When the abode of the late Dr. and Mrs. Norman Bridge it was a veritable rendezvous for the intelligentsia and cognoscenti." Rufus and Elizabeth von KleinSmid stayed only a short time. In a West Adams version of musical chairs, the Von KleinSmids' across-the-street-neighbor Edward Doheny Jr. had succeeded Norman Bridge at 10 Chester Place when the doctor moved to 718 in 1916; after Doheny left Chester Place in the fall of 1928 to move to the famous Greystone in Beverly Hills—and to his death there a few months later—the Von KleinSmids, apparently having no problem being renters beholden to powerful interests, hauled their belongings across Adams Boulevard (as it was now designated, rather than "Street') to become the tenants at #10 of Edward Doheny Sr. and his exacting wife, Estelle
  • On March 17, 1931, Louise Kerckhoff took out a permit from the Department of Building and Safety to add a roofless veranda and to make general repairs to 718. The only people at all interested in big old West Adams houses as the Depression deepened were those who wanted to cut them up into small flats or lease them to U.S.C. fraternities or sororities; it is unlikely that Mrs. Kerckhoff would have tolerated either unruly use of 718. A flat eastward extension of her gardens would prove to be the answer
  • Under the address of "720" West Adams, the Department of Building and Safety issued Louise Kerckhoff a demolition permit for 718 on January 9, 1936; she would stay in her house at 734 until her death in 1946
  • The 142-by-360-foot parcel once occupied by J. Ross Clark's 710 West Adams serves today as a parking lot for the headquarters of the Automobile Club of Southern California; the 100-by-360-foot-lot occupied by 718 West Adams is now the site of U.S.C.'s Annenberg House apartments, completed in 1980


Big West Adams houses appear not infrequently in silent films; here, comedian Harry Langdon is seen
escaping from 710 West Adams in 1925's There He Goes, a bonus of which is a very rare glimpse
of the Colonial grandeur of 718. The house disappeared in 1936; 710 and its elaborate
fencing were demolished in 1975, replaced by a parking lot for the Auto Club.