1424 West Adams Street


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  • Built in 1898 on Lot 30 of the Plymouth Tract by Otis Edwin Fowble, a brick contractor and real estate investor. Fowble was building 1424 along with 1428 next door; though they were of different designs, both houses were two-story, ten-room residences budgeted at $3,900 each
  • On August 18, 1898, the Los Angeles Herald reported that O. E. Fowble had just been issued permits for 1424 and 1428
  • On July 20, 1899, the Herald reported that O. E. Fowble had sold 1424 West Adams to investor Edwin A. Rodgers for $5,000. Rogers was principally occupied as a farmer in Clearwater, just east of Compton and now part of Paramount. Rogers rented the house first, for two years, to Catherine Ward, a widow, and her three daughters
  • The Reverend Clement Molony, the rector of the new Catholic parish of St. Agnes, which was beginning develop a presence at the southwest corner of Adams Street and Vermont Avenue, was renting 1424 West Adams by 1904
  • On June 11, 1905, the Herald reported that "E. A. Rogers of Clearwater" had just sold 1424 West Adams to Reverend Molony, apparently acting as agent for the Diocese of Monterey–Los Angeles. The price paid was $7,500
  • In August 1903, the Diocese of Monterey–Los Angeles announced the formation of three new parishes in the latter city, one of which was St. Agnes, which began purchasing property along Adams Street west of Vermont Avenue. The Times of August 16 reported that the diocese had bought four lots at the northwest corner of Adams and Budlong Avenue; on September 3, the Herald reported that this parcel had been exchanged for one at the southwest corner of Adams and Vermont, where, pending more permanent arrangements, a temporary church was already being built, with the first services expected to be held there on October 4. The Herald noted that "This chapel is the forerunner of a splendid church structure which will be erected within a reasonable time." In addition to three empty lots at the southwest corner of Vermont, the 1898 residences at 1424 and 1428 West Adams would be purchased in the name of Reverend Molony, who would occupy 1424. In December 1905, St. Agnes broke ground for an imposing Gothic Revival sanctuary, designed by the Boston firm of Maginnis, Walsh & Sullivan and distinguished by twin 150-foot steeples facing Adams, dedicating it on Thankgiving Day two years later (this neighborhood landmark would be demolished and replaced with a service station in 1961). St. Agnes began planning a church residence adjacent to the church, described in some reports as a convent, within a few years—this remains standing—and the St. Agnes Parish School on a parcel comprised of the sites of 1428 and 1432 West Adams (the latter built circa 1900 on Lot 32 of the Plymouth Tract) and the additional westward Lot 33. The school would not actually open for classes until the fall of 1914 in a building designed by Albert C. Martin; the residence/convent house in a more domestic, less-institutional English Revival style also appears to have been opened in 1914, addressed 1404 West Adams and also, it seems, designed by A. C. Martin. The Diocese of Monterey–Los Angeles would in the meantime be selling 1428 and 1432 West Adams—the structures themselves, that is, which would be relocated; 1432 was trucked eight blocks south to Tallman Street (both house and street later vanishing for the University Gardens housing project completed in 1971), its garage shifted to the rear of 1424. 1428 was moved up the street to the southeast corner of Adams and Juliet streets to become 1516 West Adams
  • While no specific demolition permit has been found, 1424 West Adams remained standing until St. Agnes School was expanded over its site in 1925. The school was demolished in 1960, the church in 1961, leaving only the church residence remaining of St. Agnes's original buildings along Adams Boulevard




St. Agnes Church stood for 54 years as a towering landmark
at the southwest corner of Adams Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.
The St. Agnes Parish School, built in 1914 and expanded 11 years later
to its west as well as east over the site of 1424 West Adams, was razed
in 1960. The church residence, above and in yellow below, remains
the only original presence of St. Agnes facing Adams today.




St. Agnes Catholic Church stood at Adams and Vermont from 1907 until 1961



Illustrations: Private Collection; LOC