1301 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built on Lot 1, Block 3 of the Urmston Tract circa 1895
  • The first resident appears to have been Matthew Gilmour Orr, a grocer born in Scotland in 1848 and naturalized in Nevada in 1886. Orr was first listed in the house in the 1895 edition of the Los Angeles city directory, with his address given as "NW cor. Thornton av and W. Adams." Thornton Avenue was eventually renamed as the northward extension of Ellendale Place
  • Matthew Orr left the household at 1301 West Adams in 1919; in applying for a passport in January of that year, he attached a signed affidavit stating that "It is absolutely necessary for me to go [to] Methvin near Christ's Church New Zealand where I am to make my home with my brother Alexander Orr who is now living there." In the 1920 federal census enumerated on January 6, 1920, a notation next to the name of his wife, Delia Walker Orr, to whom he had been married in Nevada in 1880, appears to be a "D" (indicating "Divorced") overwritten by a "W" (indicating Widowed); it was common at the time for divorcées to refer to themselves as widows
  • After the departure of Matthew, Delia and the Orrs' daughter, Margaret, remained in the house. Circa 1926, Margaret married Robert S. Jordan, a Dodge automobile salesman, who moved into 1301 in time to be listed there in the 1927 city directory. The Jordans and Mrs. Orr moved north to Burlingame circa 1929, returning to 1301 by 1934; during this period, the house was rented to Loreto Rodriguez, a wholesale grain salesman, and his wife, Maria, and their six daughters, five of whom were dressmakers
  • Still living at 1301, Delia Orr died on January 1, 1947, two months shy of 88
  • Still living at 1301, Robert Jordan died on November 1, 1958
  • Still living at 1301, Margaret Orr Jordan, who had been born on January 2, 1890, and who had moved into the house with her parents 66 years earlier at the age of five, died on March 9, 1961
  • One of the oldest houses on the boulevard, 1301 West Adams remains standing, largely unaltered, after nearly 125 years




Illustration: Private Collection