1483 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1898 on Lot 15 in the Kenwood Park Tract by businessman William Egelhoff. The house would be moved twice; it still stands as 2644-2650 Orchard Avenue
  • On February 22, 1898, the Los Angeles Times reported that William Egelhoff's wife, Augusta—known as Gussie—had just purchased Lot 15 in the Kenwood Park Tract for $1,500
  • William Egelhoff was the son of a prosperous Jerseyville, Illinois, carriage maker who had come west by 1893, perhaps for his health; he would die at the age of 42 at 1483 West Adams on April 30, 1903. The Egelhoffs appear to have arrived in Los Angeles with some money and some entrée, quickly becoming among those mentioned in newspaper social columns. Gussie became a member of the top-drawer Friday Morning Club; Egelhoff was successively employed by the S. W. Luitweiler Company, the Newell Mathews Company, and Hawley, King & Company, all dealing in vehicles and farm implements
  • In the months before William Egelhoff's death, 1483 West Adams was being advertised for sale, as it was in the Herald on April 12, 1903: "Buy from owner and buy cheap. Choice corner on Adams. 10 rooms." It was not until August 1904, however, that Gussie Egelhoff left 1483. That month, it was reported in the press that she had effectively swapped the house for one at the southwest corner of Olive and Twelfth streets, adding it to her portfolio of downtown properties that were ripe for conversion from residential to commercial use. Charlotte Borchers, another real estate investor, appears to have then flipped 1483 to James A. Reardon, who had plans of his own for the northeast corner of Adams and Romeo streets
  • Gussie Egelhoff had more than just real estate plans on her mind. Clarence Rundel, a friend of Mrs. Egelhoff's late husband and a director of the Southern California Music Company, began to court her, and the couple married at her sister's house in Ocean Park on September 12, 1905
  • In 1902, banker Newman Essick had purchased Lot 13 of the Kenwood Park Tract and built a house that became 1475 West Adams. He was at the time part of a splinter group leaving the First Presbyterian Church at Figueroa and Twentieth streets, which would be joining Grand View Presbyterian then around the corner from his house. Grand View was soon formulating plans for a new church on Adams between Vermont and Romeo, three lots east of Essick's home. In July 1905, though apparently for unrelated reasons, Essick moved his house at 1475 West Adams to 1636 West 25th Street, where it sits today. He then sold his empty Lot 13 to investor James A. Reardon, who had also acquired 1483 West Adams, apparently from Charlotte Borchers, and created a three-lot package of Lots 13, 14, and 15, selling this to real estate dealer William S. Boyd in May 1906
  • William Boyd rented out 1483 West Adams for several years before deciding to shift the house from one side of its three-lot parcel to the other
  • On August 23, 1909, the Department of Buildings issued William Boyd a permit to move 1483 West Adams from Lot 15 of the Kenwood Park Tract to Lot 13, the site of 1475 West Adams, which had been moved to 1636 West 25th Street in 1905. On Lot 13—though with its yard still including Lots 14 and 15 to the Romeo corner—what had been 1483 West Adams was redesignated 1473. Boyd immediately sold the house and its large corner yard to Lewis E. Grigsby, a retired Pomona citrus farmer turned real estate investor
  • Lewis and Emma Grigsby were living at 1473 West Adams by the spring of 1910, moving from 665 East Adams Street, built in 1889 for Dr. Andrew S. Shorb. (The Grigsbys would trade 665 East Adams for downtown commercial property in 1911)
  • On April 1, 1910, the Department of Buildings issued Lewis Grigsby two permits pertaining to 1473 West Adams. One permit was for a new 1½-story, 20-by-20-foot garage at the rear of the lot. The other was for alterations to the house itself, including a sleeping porch at the rear and a masonry front porch. A notation on the second permit application refers to the addition of gables to the roofline and what are apparently other exterior treatments that updated the 1898 house into what appears in a 1921 image to be a half-timbered English design of the sort very much in vogue in 1910. Noted on both permits as architect was "Tyler," no doubt a reference to Frank M. Tyler, prolific residential designer in Los Angeles during the first decades of the 20th century; many of his half-timbered English designs remain standing. It could be that Tyler and his family building firm, Tyler & Company, designed the house as it stood originally at 1483 West Adams. Our title image is a 1921 view of the house as it stood at 1473 West Adams
  • On November 21, 1916, the Department of Buildings issued Lewis Grigsby a permit to add a kitchen and bedroom to the rear of the house; the document carried the notation "This residence to be occupied by one family only"
  • The Grigsbys remained at 1473 until leaving by late 1920 to move to the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, which opened on New Year's Day 1921


Downsizing: Lewis and Emma Grigsby decided to leave it all behind to become among
the first permanent residents of the brand-new Ambassador Hotel, which opened
on January 1, 1921. On the 17th, the Los Angeles Times advertised their
old house and possessions about to come up on the block.
The ad copy might have been more accurate
stating that the house had been re-
built for its owners. 


  • The Grigsbys—or someone to whom they sold it—put 1473 East Adams up for auction on January 19, 1921. Its contents were also up for bid, piece by piece, at the same time. The original three-lot parcel was divided by 1924, with a new parcel comprised of Lot 15 and the westerly 43 feet of Lot 14 being redeveloped that spring with a store strip (originally including a public garage) that still stands on the northeast corner of Adams and Romeo today. The new easterly parcel comprised of Lot 13 and the easterly seven feet of Lot 14—including 1473—was acquired by real estate developer John M. Close by early 1927, who had plans to erect a three-story, 24-family apartment building on the site; its construction began the following November. Rather than being demolished, the house, which appears to have been rented out in recent years, was acquired for relocation by retired Colorado cattle rancher William Thompson and his wife Allou by the spring of 1927
  • William and Allou Thompson had been living since 1925 at 2652 Orchard Avenue, situated on Lot 35 of the Nies Tract; they had also acquired 2650 next door on Lot 34. In a reorganization of the two lots that cannot have pleased the neighbors, Mrs. Thompson received a permit from the Department of Building and Safety on April 27, 1927, to have the original house on Lot 34 pushed back to make room for a new building in front—two days before, Mrs. Thompson had been issued a permit to move 1473 West Adams several blocks east and then south on Orchard to the front half of Lot 34. The façade of the relocated house came close to the sidewalk, breaking the uniform setback of houses on both sides of Orchard Avenue between Adams and West 27th Street. What had been 1483 West Adams and then 1473 West Adams would now divided into four apartments at its new site
  • What had been 1483 West Adams and then 1473 West Adams was divided into four apartments on its new site. In another disruption for neighbors, this caused some renumbering of the east side of Orchard Avenue. The relocated house became 2644/2646/2648/2650 Orchard; as a result, what had been 2648 on Lot 33 was renumbered 2640
  • As of early 2020, the 122-year-old twice-moved house remains standing on Orchard Avenue in excellent repair




The residence that was built at the northeast corner of
Adams and Romeo streets in 1898 in an unclear configuration
became, after being shifted on its lot, an English Tudor house 12 years
later. After another 15 years and another move (this one .4 miles to the east),
its roofline was changed again. Although the porte cochère went missing,
the masonry front porch and its 1910 half-timbered gable survived
the house's 1927 relocation to 2644-2650 Orchard Avenue.




Illustrations: LAPL; LAT; Private Collection