1587 West Adams Boulevard


PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES
FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO ADAMS BOULEVARD, CLICK HERE




  • Built in 1902 by developer George W. Stimson on Lot 1 of the Patterson Tract
  • On April 26, 1902, the Los Angeles Express reported that Stimson had just begun construction of a 2½-story, 10-room house at 1587 West Adams to cost $5,000
  • Julian Elisha Winder, born in Detroit in 1839 and a lifelong resident of that city, purchased 1587 West Adams from George Stimson as a winter home and moved in upon completion. Winder, a real estate investor, began buying California property from an office in downtown Los Angeles
  • Elisha Winder and his family retained ownership of 1587 West Adams until the late 1910s, renting the house out on their frequent lengthy absences from the city. In the spring of 1907, when they began spending time in Paso Robles, back in Detroit, and in San Diego. For a time the Winders maintained a Los Angeles pied-à-terre at 2504 South Flower Street; in 1911, there would be a brief stay at the Mayfair Apartments on St. James Park
  • Elisha and Janet Jerome Winder had two sons, Jerome and Harry, and a daughter, Cornelia. In November 1907, Cornelia married Paymaster R. T. Mason Ball of the Navy, 21 years her senior. They had a daughter in 1909, named for her maternal grandmother
  • Kansas City real estate developer George Francis Winter and his family began spending time in Southern California before the turn of the 20th century, frequenting Catalina and renting houses on the mainland, first in Pasadena and then in Los Angeles's West Adams district. George and Eliza Winter began planning a permanent move to California just as their son, Frank, was finishing his studies at Stanford and U.S.C., with father and son forming the Winter Investment Company, operating out of an office downtown. The Winters would rent 1587 West Adams Street from Elisha Winder during 1907 and '08 while awaiting the completion of a permanent residence at 3320 West Adams Boulevard in the section of estate-size properties beyond Arlington Avenue along the south side of what was then called West Adams Street. Mr. and Mrs. Winter and Frank were both listed in directories at 1587 along with Mrs. Winter's widowed mother, Phoebe Cook




  • On September 21, 1911, the Department of Buildings issued J. E. Winder a permit to rebuild the front porch
  • The Winders were in and out of 1587 West Adams from 1909 to 1917, 1913 being their annus horribilis. In early January, Jerome Winder, general manager of a San Diego lumber-company, was sued for damages for running a woman down with his car in November 1911 and fleeing the scene. Later in January, Jerome and his father were sued by the First National Bank of San Diego for failing to pay back a loan; it may be the consequent stress that led to Elisha Winder's fatal heart attack at 1587 West Adams on March 13. (He left his entire estate of $34,116, all but $1,100 of it in real estate, to his wife.) On August 19, Mason Ball died in Philadelphia
  • Among those to whom the Winders rented the house when absent were William Gaynor of Chicago, who was wintering at 1587 in 1909; Oregon cement manufacturer Aman P. Moore; Scottish-born mining engineer and oilman John Crombie Niven (later of Fremont Place); attorney Charles W. Chase; real estate operator David A. Mizener while he awaited the completion of 101 Fremont Place; and retired Canadian real estate man Robert Gorman and his wife Margaret, who had emigrated in 1915. On February 22, 1909, the Times reported that a hoax had been played on Mr. Gaynor when an ad was placed in his name offering to buy dogs; the block became so overrun with canines in response that the police were called. David Mizener's occupancy of 1587 is notable because of his impending move to Fremont Place, which, after it opened for sales in 1911, became one of the first of the new Wilshire-corridor suburbs that would be draining the West Adams district of its most affluent residents
  • On September 3, 1918, the Times reported that Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gorman of 1587 had lost three of their four sons between March and August of that year while the men were serving Allied forces in France. The Gorman family's loss prompted them to leave 1587 and buy a house at 215 North Manhattan Place
  • It appears to have been the widow Winder who put 1587 West Adams on the market in the fall of 1919; a large advertisement for it appeared in the Times on November 23, 1919, as seen in our illustration above. The ad claimed that the house "Could Not Be Duplicated Today for $18,000" but noted that it could be had for only $12,000: "Owner Going East/Needs Cash." 
  • Building permits in 1919 and 1920 regarding 1587 West Adams are somewhat confusing; one issued on December 15, 1919, to an H. A. Smith indicates that he hired builder Ralph Homann to renovate the house into what is described on the document as a duplex. On July 1, 1920, a permit was issued indicating new owners, Roy and Maryan Lauman, who hired contractor Fred R. Black to alter the building from a "4 fam to 3 fam" apartment house
  • Roy and Maryan Lauman—he was a dye-works manager—would remain at 1587 West Adams for the next nine years
  • On July 11, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued Roy Lauman a permit for his three-family building at 1587 West Adams authorizing alterations to windows on the front and west sides. The Laumans appear to have separated in 1929, selling the house soon after; Roy moved to Manhattan Place, Maryan and the couple's daughter Roberta to Salt Lake City
  • Living elsewhere, real estate investor Hubert R. Dodd would own 1587 West Adams after the Laumans and retain it into at least the mid 1940s
  • By the spring of 1930, 1587 West Adams was being rented by the family of chicken rancher Richard Trimmell, who, in reverse of the usual migration out of the fading West Adams district, was moving from the rural but suburbanizing San Fernando Valley. Trimmell's daughter Stella, who had been a teacher in the Valley, opened a private school at 1587 by the spring of 1930, with classified advertisements in the Express announcing the "Trimmell Private school for Boys and Girls. Day and residence." In 1932—apparently after a fire—the Trimmells, and the school, moved around the corner to 2619 Raymond Avenue; that October 15, Stella Trimmell died at the age of 31
  • Two building permits issued to H. R. Dodd on February 19, 1932, by what was now called the Department of Building and Safety called for the repair of fire damage to the rear of 1587 West Adams and to the garage. There was, apparently, another fire in the rear building in 1942, a permit for repairs being issued to Dodd on June 10 of that year
  • Renting 1587 West Adams by 1934 was Dr. Victor E. Bruel, an osteopath, who within a few years would purchase 1581 West Adams next door and add a large business addition to its front yard. Such additions marked the decline of Adams Boulevard, particularly between Vermont and Western avenues, from an avenue of upper-middle- and upper-class residences into one of converted multi-unit dwellings and commercial buildings. On the north side of the Adams block between Budlong and Raymond avenues, three of five houses were given large commercial front additions, leaving only our subject house and the extant 1575 unaltered in this way
  • Louis and Alice Prell were among the 10 tenants of 1587 West Adams in April 1940
  • Hubert Dodd, later a principal in the Walter Kidde Construction Company, died in 1956, although it is unclear as to when he may have ceased to own 1587 West Adams
  • While ownership of 1587 West Adams during the 1960s is unclear, one tenant, until at least 1973, was Hope Knight. Soon after, both 1587 and 1581 next door were acquired by Dr. Joanne Ellen Bannister Ewing, a family physician
  • On September 12, 1975, the Department of Building and Safety issued "Dr. Joanne B. Ewing a.k.a. Joanne Bannister" a permit to demolish 1587 West Adams
  • On October 2, 1989, the Department of Building and Safety issued "Ellen Bannister" of 1581 West Adams a permit to replace a sign on the vacant lot at 1587. This enormous 11-by-23-foot billboard rose 38 feet above the ground on the west edge of the lot. The sign and its pole were removed in 2017. In 2020 the empty and overgrown lot was still being used as parking for 1581
  • On July 24, 2019, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit to combine Lot 1 of the Patterson Tract, on which 1587 West Adams Boulevard had been built in 1902 and had stood until being demolished in 1975, and Lot 3 in Block D of the Adams Street Tract on which sat 1581 West Adams. On February 1, 2021, the Department of Building and Safety issued a demolition permit for the 114-year-old 1581 West Adams Boulevard. On the same day, a permit was issued to Dream City Funding Inc. for a new complex of two three-story buildings containing seven four-bedroom townhouses with garages underneath on the combined lots of 1587 and 1581


Illustrations: LAT via Larry Romer; LOC