3101 West Adams Boulevard

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Seen above in its last weeks, one of the earliest houses built in the western reaches of West Adams was gone soon after a demolition permit was issued by the Department of Building and Safety on November 11, 1965. Though its lot at the northwest corner of Adams and Arlington has been empty ever since, most of the stone wall surrounding it, if not all, survives. Built by blacksmith and wagon-maker turned real estate investor Andrew Joughin not long before he died in 1889, or not long after by his widow, 2301 West Adams Street—as the house was designated prior to 1912 annexation-related renumberings—went up on the 116.5-by-180-foot Lot 14 in Joughin's Tract, which was a development of Joughin's vast holdings west of Arlington Avenue. It has been suggested that the house was a design of Knoxville, Tennessee, architect George Franklin Barber, who from 1888 to 1908 published and distributed widely books through which local builders could purchase plans. Around the turn of the 20th century, an estate area developed on the sloping, view-rich south side of Adams Street from Manhattan Place westward, when the city's movers and shakers saw only prosperous blue skies ahead for an extending West Adams district.


As seen in December 2014, the original Joughin wall at the south side of the property remains intact, as
do the corner entrance steps to the vanished house. The south wall appears in the image at top as
well. The original east-side wall also appears to remain, though covered in concrete.



 Illustrations: Private Collection; CSUN; GSV