1141 West Adams Boulevard


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  • Built in 1900 on Lot 3 of Leonard Merrill's Adams Street Tract as a speculative project by real estate operator Leonard Merrill. It was sold in November 1900 to oculist and aurist Robert Warren Miller, who occupied the house until his death in August 1940
  • The Los Angeles Times, Herald, and Express all reported during the spring, summer, and fall of 1900 that Leonard Merrill was developing his small triangular tract on the north side of Adams Street (as the Boulevard was officially designated until the mid-1920s) between Hoover Street and Magnolia Avenue, with its westerly point at the intersection of the now-decommissioned  Quincy Street (Designated as "Little Adams Street" on some early maps and in later years as West 25th Place, Quincy Street was a one-block extension of Adams due east of Magnolia Avenue, where Adams Street/Boulevard itself turns 30° south going east.) Two houses, 1131 and 1141 West Adams, are described as being built by Merrill as speculative offerings
  • On November 23, 1900, the Times reported that Dr. Robert W. Miller had just purchased the two-story, ten-room 1141 West Adams, "one of two beautiful residences erected by Leonard Miller." The price paid was noted as $9,000
  • Robert W. Miller had arrived from his native Iowa in the boom year of 1887, before long becoming president of the Los Angeles County Medical Society and affiliated with the Santa Fe Railway's health-care operations in Los Angeles
  • Robert and Lucy Miller had three children. Twenty-four-year-old Florence, their elder of two girls, married 26-year-old Frank Cook Winter in a quiet ceremony at 1141 West Adams Street on June 18, 1908. Frank Winter's parents had just moved from 1587 West Adams to their new house at 3320 West Adams; after matriculating at Stanford and U.S.C., Frank had joined his father George in their real estate partnership, the Winter Investment Company. In 1925 Frank and Florence built 904 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills, a house that remained preserved in amber by their daughter Frances until she died in 2011 at the age of 101
  • On May 15, 1918, the Department of Buildings issued Dr. Miller a permit for a new 12-by-18-foot garage at the rear of 1141 West Adams. On August 11, 1932, what was now the Department of Building and Safety issued Dr. Miller two permits; one allowed for the enclosure of a second-floor porch and its conversion into a bathroom, the second for a 6-by-12-foot storage room to be attached to the 1918 garage
  • Mrs. Miller died at home at 1141 West Adams on May 22, 1926. She was 67
  • Still living at 1141 West Adams, Dr. Robert W. Miller died at the Santa Fe Hospital in Boyle Heights on August 6, 1940, six weeks shy of his 90th birthday
  • Immediately after the 1942 bankruptcy of Mark's Credit Clothing Company, his Chicago-area chain of women's, men's, and appliance stores, Mark L. Appelman and his wife Sonya relocated to Los Angeles, although his legal troubles would continue for years to come. The Appelmans settled in the Wilshire District, apparently having stashed away enough cash to buy a jewelry store on Central Avenue near the southeast corner of its intersection with Vernon Avenue. On April 21, 1945, the Pittsburgh Courier reported that Mr. Appelman had been taken into custody by F.B.I. agents "on a fugitive warrant charging that he concealed $80,000 in cash in a bankruptcy action" back in Illinois, apparently in safe-deposit boxes. He was released on a $20,000 bond pending his return to Chicago. On February 21, 1947, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported under the headline "Pretends He's Broke" that "Mark Appelman, 55, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 20 months in prison on a charge of concealing the assets of Mark's Clothing Company...." It is unclear if Appelman wound up serving any time in Joliet or anywhere else. Meanwhile, down on Central Avenue, with the jewelry shop now having become or being supplemented by Ray's Clothing Store, the Los Angeles Sentinel reported on May 1, 1947, that Appelman was being accused of racially discriminatory hiring practices. The slippery Appelmans somehow managed to buy a house at 1343 Longwood Avenue by 1947 as well both 1141 and 1131 West Adams as rental properties by 1950—and to retain them for many years
  • By early 1967, 1141 West Adams, along with 1131, had been acquired by the recently formed Atlantic Richfield Company, with Mobil Oil having acquired the northwest corner of Adams and Hoover, including the sites of 1101 and 1109 West Adams
  • On February 23, 1967, the Department of Building and Safety issued Atlantic Richfield permits to demolish both 1141 and 1131 West Adams
  • Mobil built a filling station on its Adams/Hoover property in late 1967; it is unclear as to whether Arco followed suit on its site that had included 1141. By 1977, Arco's property had been acquired by a real estate investor who created a parking lot and opened a coin-operated car wash there in 1978. This lasted until 1984
  • The one-time site of 1141 West Adams was acquired by the nearby Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had ambitious plans for an $8,000,000 120-unit apartment complex for seniors that would be built on the former path of Little Adams/Quincy/West 25th Place, with its front gardens fronting Adams Boulevard. Ground was broken for Ward Villas in late 1989; it opened in January 1992



Illustration: Private Collection; LOC