1229 West Adams Boulevard

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




  • Built circa 1893 on Lot 5 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract as 1223 West Adams Street by real estate operator Nelson Stoddard, either as a speculative venture or as rental property
  • On March 19, 1893, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mr. Stoddard's wife, Mercy, had just paid $650 for Lot 5 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract. Once the house was completed, apparently by mid 1894, the Stoddards moved in for a time, leaving for a new house at 1432 West 23rd Street by mid 1896
  • The ownership of 1223 West Adams during the next few years is unclear; John W. Mallette, a real estate investor, was listed at the address in the 1896 city directory following the Stoddards. In conflicting reports, the Express noted on March 27, 1897, that "J. W. Mallette [has] sold to Mrs. D. F. Fisher lot 5, block 2, Urmston tract, for $2000." On April 17, 1897, the same paper reported that Mr. [sic] Forbes Fisher [has] sold to John W. Mollette [sic] a lot at 1223 West Adams street for $2500. A small house goes with the lot." The latter item appears to be incorrect. Diana Forbes-Fisher, a recently widowed Englishwoman who was investing in Los Angeles real estate, appears to have been the purchaser of the house along with 1221 next door, then a cottage of similar size;  Mrs. Forbes-Fisher would be associated with both houses during the next decade. She would take up residence at 1221 and rent 1223 for a time to Edwin and Maude Ibbetson         
  • Edwin and Maude Ibbetson, a rising young real estate power couple of the time, had been married in their native Illinois in 1896, Edwin having arrived in Los Angeles a few years earlier at the age of 24, going into business with banker William F. Bosbyshell in the Mechanics' Savings Mutual Building and Loan Association. Before long, Ibbetson struck out on his own and began to work as a developer, with his wife, at least on paper, at first. The couple would develop many residential lots in their neighborhood. Mrs. Ibbetson appears to have been something of a firecracker, if not a loose cannon; at any rate, by 1898 the couple was renting 1223 West Adams, across the street and a few doors west of a building site they would acquire for themselves at the southeast corner of Adams and Magnolia Avenue. The Ibbetsons stayed at 1223 until their new house at 1190 West Adams was ready in the late summer of 1900
  • On September 24, 1900, The Los Angeles Record reported that Mr. and Mrs. Albert Wilson had moved into 1223 West Adams from the Hotel Baltimore. The Wilsons would be the second of many short-term tenants of the house, with Diana Forbes-Fisher as the landlord. In 1907 Mrs. Forbes-Fisher would raise the cottage at 1221 West Adams next door by raising it a full floor to create a duplex; during the process she resided at 1223
  • By early 1917, Diana Forbes-Fisher had sold 1223 West Adams to Victor Louis Bouch, a bachelor general contractor who had relocated to Los Angeles from Winnipeg a few years before, first living at 1617 West Adams, a small flat building built in 1914. Mrs. Forbes-Fisher would be retaining 1221 and living in one of its apartments
  • Belgian-born Victor Bouch and his family would remain at 1223 West Adams for at least the next 30 years
  • On February 17, 1917, the Department of Buildings issued Victor Bouch a permit to make alterations to 1223 West Adams, including the enclosure of the front porch to create a sun parlor; on April 4, 1917, Bouch was issued a permit to build a new garage
  • Victor Bouch first lived at 1223 West Adams with his French-born mother, Odiele Bouch; by 1920, the household was joined by Swiss-born Blanche Field, a "guest," as reported in the federal census enumerated on January 3, 1920. Mrs. Field is listed as being 35 and married on the document, though it seems that she was in the process of getting a divorce. There turned out to be more to Mrs. Field than just having been a guest at 1223; she and Victor married not long after he turned 50 on July 21, 1922, and perhaps to please her, before old Mrs. Bouch expired the following September 28—or, in an alternate scenario, as soon as the old lady's death set them free. Before long the newlyweds were joined by the bride's two teenage daughters, Georgette and Jeannette Stamp
  • On October 19, 1922, the Department of Buildings issued Victor Bouch a permit to build a 7-by-12-foot addition to create more bedroom space at 1223 West Adams
  • Diana Forbes-Fisher sold 1221 West Adams to chiropractor Edward Gold in 1925. In 1931 Dr. Gold turned 1221 into a fourplex, which necessitated a renumbering of several houses on the block, resulting in 1223 West Adams becoming 1229. (What was originally 1221 would now also hold the addresses 1223 and 1225; what had been 1225 became 1235)
  • In October 1931 Georgette Stamp had married hardware manager Bernard J. Kelly, who was lodging just up the street from 1229-née-1223 at 1263 West Adams; having taken her stepfather's surname, Jeannette Bouch married dentist John Adrian Esnard in November 1935
  • Victor and Blanche Bouch were still listed at 1229 West Adams in the 1948 Los Angeles city directory; he appears at 1229 on voter rolls that year
  • It is unclear as to when the Bouches left 1229 West Adams, but they disappear from available records after that until their deaths, Blanche Bouch's occurring on December 19, 1955, and Victor Bouch's on May 20, 1956. His obituary in the Times three days later reported that he had been living with his daughter Jeannette Esnard in Westwood
  • May Sperbeck appears to have become the owner of 1229 West Adams by 1954; she was still living in the house in 1965 but by April 1967 had moved to Detroit Street
  • Retaining much of its original charm, 1229 West Adams appears in 2020 to have been little changed after Victor Bouch altered it in 1917; the garage he built that year also appears to remain intact in 2020



Illustration: Private Collection