1510 West Adams Boulevard


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  • Built in 1906 on Lot 5 of the Montgomery Tract by real estate investor Fannie C. Laird as a speculative project
  • On March 11, 1906, the Los Angeles Herald reported that Fannie Laird had purchased the unimproved Lot 5 of the Montgomery Tract for $2,500, noting that she intended to build a six-room house that would cost another $2,500
  • On April 2, 1906, the Superintendent of Buildings issued Fannie Laird a permit for a six-room dwelling at 1510 West Adams; James A. Kemp is cited on the document as the builder 
  • Ownership of 1510 West Adams from its completion until its acquisition in 1918 by Ada L. Chase, a widow, is unclear; it may be that Fannie Laird, if not another landlord, retained the house as rental property. The names of Barron, Scott, Ward, Montgomery, and Maritzen are associated with the address between 1906 and 1918. From 1909 to 1911 the family of Gerald E. Ward rented 1510 as an American base; the Wards lived primarily in Mazatlan, where the English-born Mr. Ward was manager of the Mazatlan water works for many years. He was also vice-president of the Guadaluparea Mines Company in Mazatlan and served as the British consul in that city
  • Ada Chase and her young children remained at 1510 West Adams until she sold the house to watchmaker Peter Henrikson in 1924
  • On August 2, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued Peter Henrikson a permit to convert the house to a duplex, which would carry the addresses 1510 and 1510½
  • Swedish-born Peter Henrikson occupied the west half of the house, renting the east to Anna B. Haig, who may have been a relative, and her two daughters, Agnes and Anna M. Haig. Henrickson and the Haigs were moving from a house he owned at 630 West 30th Street. Hendrikson was becoming something of a real estate investor; by early 1926, he had purchased 1506 West Adams next door, which he began renting out
  • On February 24, 1927, what was now the Department of Building and Safety issued Peter Henrikson a permit to build a 14-by-18-foot garage at the rear of 1510 West Adams; this was entered by way of an alley off Juliet Street
  • On June 1, 1932, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit for a new roof at 1510 West Adams; listed as owners on the document were Peter Henrikson and, interestingly, Axel E. Ogren, also a watchmaker. (Mr. Ogren did not, however, live at 1510.) The permit called for the installation of braces under the rafters to accommodate the load of the new roof, which was laid over old shingles
  • Peter Henrickson and the Haigs occupied 1510/1510½ West Adams until after World War II
  • Benjamin B. Crombie, a chiropractor, owned 1510 West Adams by 1948. By this time Crombie was married to either his third or fourth wife, Mary; on October 1, 1949, the Times reported that the third or fourth Mrs. Crombie had filed for divorce. It seems that 40-year-old Lorraine Dorsey, daughter of the landlord of the rooming house at 1516 West Adams next door, wife of mining man Urban Dorsey and mother of two, may have caught the eye of 65-year-old Dr. Crombie; the two were married on September 28, 1954. Apparently quite the operator, Dr. Crombie appears to have been in the habit of shaving four years off his age and claiming to have been born in England rather than Canada
  • On February 2, 1950, the Department of Building and Safety issued Benjamin Crombie a permit to convert 1510 West Adams from a duplex into a single family dwelling with an X-ray laboratory to occupy half of the building
  • By the spring of 1955 Sara Luna, a Mexican-born widow, was occupying 1510 West Adams—the house once again a residential duplex—with her youngest of five children and four sons, William. Mrs. Luna died on February 25, 1972; William was still listed at 1510½ West Adams in the 1973 city directory. He died in 1999
  • The family of José L. Algandar appears to have owned 1510 West Adams since 1984



Illustration: Private Collection