ADAMS BOULEVARD

1593 West Adams Boulevard

PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES

BERKELEY SQUARE WILSHIRE BOULEVARD WINDSOR SQUARE

FREMONT PLACE ST. JAMES PARK WESTMORELAND PLACE

FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO ADAMS BOULEVARD, CLICK HERE

Built in 1898 on Lot 3 of the Patterson Tract by Ada P. Miller, wife of ironworks executive Horace G. Miller

On December 3, 1897, the Los Angeles Express reported that Ada P. Miller had purchased Lot 3 of the Patterson Tract from Mrs. Emma B. Whitsell, paying her $1,250. On April 21, 1898, the paper reported that the Millers were beginning construction of a new house on the lot immediately, one with a budget of $3,000

Horace Gilbert Miller, born in Meriden, Connecticut, on May 21, 1864, was married and had had a child by the time he arrived in Southern California at the age of 27. The obvious thing to do in a region of such meteorological charms, available land, and pioneer spirit was to build, or at least to get into the game of supplying materials for building all the downtown office towers and all the bridges, pipes, conduits, aqueducts, and sewers that were coming together in Los Angeles at a furious pace as the 20th century approached, and beyond. Miller and his wife, née Ada M. Patchen, born in Connecticut in 1866, had been married since 1887. The Millers moved into 1593 West Adams with their son Robert, who turned 10 during the family's first summer in the house. Margaret Miller was born that August. Robert married in March 1916; soon after Margaret married prediatrician Ezra Simpson Fish in March 1923, the Millers decided to upsize by leaving 1593 for a new house at 17 Berkeley Square, a gated enclave that would manage to buck the decline of the West Adams district longer than most of its other neighborhoods, until it vanished altogether

On September 29, 1910, the Department of Buildings issued Ada P. Miller a permit to alter the front porch floor of 1593 West Adams by replacing its wood floor with concrete

On March 14, 1918, the Department of Buildings issued H. P. Miller a permit for major renovations to the house. He had hired architect H. Scott Gerity to enlarge the living and dining rooms and a second-floor bedroom and to add a bath and a sleeping porch

Horace and Ada Miller remained at 1593 West Adams until their new house in Berkeley Square was ready by the fall of 1924. More on the Millers, including his long involvement with the Automobile Club of Southern California, is here

Renting 1593 West Adams briefly after the departure of the Millers, if he didn't buy it, was real estate and oil operator Charles Henry Chapman and his wife, née Conchita Sepulveda, and their daughters Chita and Carlota. Henry Chapman died at Angelus Hospital on May 7, 1925, with preliminary funeral services held at home before a mass at St. Agnes. In March 1928, Chapman's widow remarried, becoming the Princess Valerio Pignatelli di Aragona–Cortez Cerchiari. The Princess moved just up Adams to rent 1661 by 1930; on January 4 of that year, she gave birth to a third daughter, Stefania. The Princess and the Roman papal Prince moved to Kenwood Avenue nearby and were separated within a few years, he apparently making off with her money. She went to work as a society reporter for many years at Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner and later lived in Lafayette Square

Ownership of 1593 West Adams after the mid 1920s is unclear. By April 1940, an absentee landlord was renting parts of the house to eight families

Renting 1587 West Adams next door by 1934 was Dr. Victor E. Bruel, who within a few years would purchase 1581 West Adams next door to that house 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 would be given large commercial front additions, leaving only 1587 (demolished) and the extant 1575 unaltered in this way. It may be that Dr. Bruel acquired 1593 West Adams Boulevard before 1948, but it was late that year that he hired architect Donald E. Neptune to design the four-store commerical addition covering the house's original front yard and still in place today

On December 20, 1948, the Department of Building and Safety issued Dr. Bruel a permit for a one-story 35-by-68-foot front addition to 1593 West Adams. On February 8, 1949, Bruel was issued a permit for alterations, also designed by Donald E. Neptune, to the original dwelling. These changes included adding a rear staircase, a kitchen, and creating openings to connect the storefront structure to the house. On May 4, 1949, Dr. Bruel was issued a certificate of occupancy to officially—despite its many years as a rooming house—from a single-family-dwelling to a three-unit apartment building with a storefront addition. Addresses would now include 1591, 1593, 1593½, and 1595 West Adams as well as 2518, 2520, and 2520½ Raymond Avenue

Among the tenants of the commercial addition over the years were the Professional Arts Pharmacy in the corner store, a space later occupied by Korea's House of Styles, a beauty parlor, and Amadeo's Furniture; the Gross Insurance Agency and Bookkeeping Service, whose space was succeeded by Reed's—later Jerome's—Barber Shop; and Sonnie's Kitchen (specializing in breakfasts, open 1 a.m. to 1 p.m.), later Hudson's Restaurant

By the early 1960s the owner of 1591-93-95 West Adams was Miller V. Parish

Ethel E. Holt, a longtime local real estate broker and civic activist, later acquired the property; she lived nearby at 1737-39 West Adams. On July 13, 1990, the Department of Building and Safety issued Holt Realty a permit to re-roof the original house

On December 2, 2004, the Department of Building and Safety issued owner Luis V. Vasquez a permit for an interior remodeling of the original house

An adaptation of a 1950 Sanborn insurance map depicts the recent alterations to the original 1898
structure, which is marked as a four-flat apartment house, differing from a
1949 certificate of occupancy indicating three flats.