2156 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1903 by Dr. Elbert Wing, a recent arrival from Chicago
  • Architect: Hunt & Eager (Sumner P. Hunt and Wesley Eager)
  • On April 12, 1903, the Los Angeles Times reported that Wing had just purchased from three individuals three parcels to assemble a building site; the 86-by-255-foot result was comprised of Lots 2, 3, 20, and 21 of Block 1 of the Boulevard Tract. Two existing houses on the assemblage were to be relocated. The Los Angeles Herald reported on August 3 (and the Times on August 16) that a building permit had been issued to Wing to begin construction of a 12-room house at 2156 West Adams Street. The Alta Planing Mill Company was the contractor
  • Mrs. Wing's widowed mother, Eliza W. Halliday, who had moved west with the Wings from Chicago, purchased at the same time a Dutch Colonial house, newly built by speculator Grace E. Wells, next door at 2146 West Adams
  • On October 7, 1908, the Department of Buildings issued a permit to Elbert Wing for the construction of a new 16-by-24-foot garage at the rear of the south-sloping property at what was then New Orleans Street and is today West 26th Place
  • In late 1909, Mrs. Halliday added what is described as a Craftsman-style wing to 2146 West Adams; this house, still standing and known as the Wells-Halliday house, is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #458
  • With the headline PHYSICIAN TAKEN TO THE GREAT BEYOND, the Los Angeles Times of May 9, 1916, reported Elbert Wing's death the day before "at his residence"
  • The Times reported the sale of 2156 West Adams on June 10, 1917; Mrs. Wing had moved into her mother's house next door. The new owners of 2156 were described as "a group of local investors"; within the year, druggist Charles H. Nance and his wife, Hattie, and their nephew, Claude H. Castle, a physician, had movied in
  • Only minor changes appear to have been made by the Nance/Castle family during its long residency; aside from maintenance and repairs, a second garage was added to the property in 1923
  • The Nances and Dr. Castle would remain at 2156 West Adams until their deaths. Charles H. Nance died in Los Angeles, age 87, on September 22, 1955; Hattie died in Los Angeles, age 90, on June 15, 1958; Claude Castle died in Los Angeles, age 79, on March 24, 1959
    • The property was acquired by the Lytton Savings & Loan Association, which demolished the house and its two outbuildings after permits were issued on November 16, 1964. By the early 1970s, a two-story, 200-foot-long, 94-bed hospital facility opened on the property close to the Adams curb. Having undergone several name and use changes, it still stands

    Illustration: Private Collection