1267 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1893 on Lot 11 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract by Frederick W. Kelsey, vice-president of the Los Angeles Business College and English Training School; extensively remodeled in 1907 by architect Theodore A. Eisen
  • On July 23, 1893, the Los Angeles Times reported the sale of Lot 11 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract to F. W. Kelsey, who paid $1,000 for the property
  • The house was initially designated 1253 West Adams Street; in 1893, the neighborhood was only sparsely developed, with addresses changing as lots were filled. Streets, too, were sometimes redesignated, as was the case of Howland Avenue to the east of 1253/1267 (which became Magnolia Avenue by 1898) and Thornton Avenue to the west (which became Ellendale Avenue by 1904 and then the northerly extension of Ellendale Place by 1920). The address for the house was 1253 West Adams in city directories from 1894-1896. With ownership and the city's new address and street arrangements in flux, there was no listing for the house in the 1897 issue, though 1253 reappeared in 1898 before the address became 1267 in the directory of 1899
  • Married in Los Angeles in 1886, Fred Kelsey and his wife Anna were divorced by early 1895; both were remarried by that fall. Fred and his new wife moved to San Diego; Anna, who apparently retained title to the house, married electrician James H. Hammersley in August. The Hammersleys—who would divorce in 1909—do not appear to have lived at 1267 West Adams, but rather to have rented it out, notably to attorney Frank Finlayson during 1896-97
  • Meanwhile, Ohio-born John T. Sheward had been running a dry-goods store at the northwest corner of Spring and West First streets, which he'd opened in November 1882 in the newly completed Larronde Block. He and his wife Viola lived on Rockwood Street in today's North Westlake district, where drilling in the Los Angeles City Oil Field, especially after Edward Doheny's 1892 strike and "Oil Queen" Emma Summers's success there, was booming. Homeowners such as the Shewards who had invested in houses in and nearby what became the field and who weren't in possession of the mineral rights were understandably displeased, resulting in protests and litigation. Perhaps it was the grime and noise and resultant stress of the drilling, said to affect homeowners as far away as aborning Wilshire Boulevard, but the Shewards would divorce in December 1896, "after years of domestic turmoil," according to the Los Angeles Herald. She claimed he signed the Rockwood house over to her, he claimed she stole the deed; he, however, was granted the decree on grounds of cruelty on the part of his wife, per the Times. Sheward's store was also on the rocks. A fire there in June 1896 was a harbinger of worse to come. A popular saleswoman in the cloak and suit department was shot to death on a streetcorner by her husband in November. Sheward filed for bankruptcy on April 24, 1897; Asher Hamburger, owner of A. Hamburger & Sons, helped him out by purchasing much of his stock. Marital and business turmoil seems not to have daunted Sheward, who at 49 got married again—his bride was Louise Florida Zeiger, born shipboard on the Atlantic Ocean 35 years before—just three days before filing for bankruptcy. (One would come to wonder how much he revealed of his net worth—Sheward was advertising in newspapers regularly and participating in the design of that year's Fiesta de Los Angeles parade, meant to boost the city's retail economy after Panic of 1893.) He then opened Sheward's Cut-Rate Department Store on Broadway, which soon devolved into an "art-leather and burnt-wood" store, later described as a curio shop. (Characteristically feisty and litigious, he would eventually quarrel with his landlord.) Broke or not, Sheward was determined socially as well as in business, not one to retire to a cottage on a side street for his domestic arrangements
  • On October 14, 1898, the Los Angeles Express reported that Anna L. Hammersley had just sold what was soon to be designated 1267 West Adams to John T. Sheward for $2,200. Perhaps Louise, who was seven months pregnant, urged him into the purchase. She gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, at 1267 on December 21 (the girl did not survive). Louise, given to depression not helped by childbirth and loss, became pregnant again in the fall of 1902, giving birth at home to another son on June 13, 1903. She was dead five months later


Among the sad tales of life at 1267 West Adams was Louise Sheward's walk into the Pacific. On
 the morning of November 29, 1903, Charles Potwin noticed something floating in the surf
from his upstairs window facing the beach at Ocean Park and ran out to investigate;
it is he who was depicted carrying Mrs. Sheward's lifeless body out of the
water in the Los Angeles Herald the next day under the headline
OLD OCEAN GIVES UP THE BODY OF MRS. SHEWARD.


  • On November 25, 1903, Louise Sheward walked out of 1267 West Adams, stopped at a nearby lumberyard to order a sack of coal, and disappeared. Friends feared suicide; the Herald described Mrs. Sheward as having suffered from "morbid melancholia" for nearly five years, with childbirth adding to the burden. John Sheward discovered notes at home implying that she intended to harm herself. He reported to police that his wife's mood had improved and that he was on good terms with her. On reports of sightings, the lake at Hollenbeck Park was dragged. As it turned out, Louise had gone from the lumberyard to Ocean Park and walked into the surf. On November 30, the Herald reported that her body had washed up in the morning tide. Norman and Robert Sheward were left without a mother, a situation that their father sought to remedy. On February 15, 1905, 57-year-old John Sheward married his third wife, 36-year-old Englishwoman Jennie Trent
  • On May 9, 1906, Jennie Sheward, rounding the corner from Eighth Street onto Olive in a buggy pulled by a fractious horse, collided with another carriage. Per the Herald of the next evening, she and the friend seated beside her were thrown from the vehicle and dragged 30 feet; Jennie suffered a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder as well as cuts and bruises. She recovered well enough over the summer to host a musicale and dance at 1267 West Adams on August 1. The event seems to have been something a farewell gesture, with major alterations to the house to begin shortly and the Shewards' departure for Northern California imminent. (Interestingly, the Herald report of the buggy accident appeared just above a report on the progress of the Owens Valley aqueduct [the "Owens River Conduit System"], which wouldn't open for another seven years) 
  • On July 7, 1907, the Herald reported that architect Theodore A. Eisen—nothing but the best for John Sheward—was preparing plans for extensive alterations to 1267 West Adams. The building was to be converted into a "first-class" apartment building, one with four four-room suites and four single rooms. The changes would essentially make the house symmetrical, as it appears today, adding an easterly second gable to the façade. It may be that Eisen was the architect of the original building, but no evidence for this has been found


1267 West Adams Street—"Street" being upgraded to "Boulevard" in the 1920s—was converted from
a single-family dwelling to an apartment building in 1907, as seen in this adaptation of two
Sanborn fire insurance maps that indicate the house's alteration into the structure  
of today. At left is Thornton Avenue, which became the northerly extension
of Ellendale Place after a brief interim identity as Ellendale Avenue.


  • From at least 1900 and apparently until 1907 there had been a small building at the left rear corner of the lot that served as a dwelling addressed 1267½. On August 28, 1907, John Sheward was issued a permit for a 12-by-24-foot building at the right rear of the lot, which he claimed on the permit application to be intended for storage but which became a rental unit assuming the 1267½ address
  • On August 24, 1907, the Department of Buildings issued John Sheward a permit for Eisen's alterations. The application for the permit included the intention "To erect six rooms on the easterly side of an eight room house and alter certain partitions in the old house all according to certain plans and specifications prepared by Theo A Eisen Arch't." The cost of the project was estimated at $4,000. The Shewards moved out, John now having become interested in poultry and peach farming
  • The Shewards moved to Hanford in Kings County, apparently expecting the rental income from 1267 West Adams to finance the farm venture as well as a new store in Hanford selling imported goods. It all appears to have been a colossal failure. In December 1908 the Hanford Daily Journal and the Hanford Weekly Sentinel began reporting numerous lawsuits against Sheward that appear to have resulted in foreclosure on the farm. Reports of suits by various parties continued for over a year. Sheward even managed to stiff the esteemed Theodore Eisen; the Sentinel of December 16, 1908, reported that the architect had attached the farm for unpaid bills regarding his work on 1267. The Shewards moved north to then-rural Milpitas, where, by April 1910, they had somehow bought property and began farming again; perhaps they managed to hang on to 1267 West Adams through all the litigation and sold it to finance the Milpitas spread
  • The ownership of 1267 West Adams Street, which came to be known as the West Adams Apartments, is unclear after the departure of John Sheward. The building saw numerous individuals move in and out of various apartments over the next 70 years
  • The 16-year-old daughter of carpenter Frank Machette of 1267 West Adams was reported missing on August 1, 1914, lured away from her downtown sales job at Woolworth's that morning by a woman claiming to represent a suitor. No follow up report has been found; it is unclear if the girl escaped foul play or a rushed marriage. Roland C. Nickerson of 1267, father of four, committed suicide by poison on February 8, 1931. Police found his body on the front porch of a vacant house around the corner at 2830 Ellendale Place. His wife reported him to have been despondent over ill health and lack of employment
  • 1267 West Adams was later acquired by David T. Rangel, whose family appears to have owned several properties in the neighborhood; the Rangels appear to be related to the Martinez and Farias families who have owned 1277 and 1283 West Adams next door
  • On December 17, 1987, the Department of Building and Safety issued David T. Rangel a permit to apply stucco to the exterior of the building, described now as a five-unit dwelling. The application includes the phrase "the entire bldg.", though an accompanying diagram indicates that stucco was to be applied on the side and rear only, with the façade and adjacent portions of each side to have their wood siding retained and restored. The westerly chimney and first floor of the latter sections later received the faux-arroyo-stone treatment in place today
  • The Rangel family was still in possession of 1267 West Adams in 2003, when the roof was replaced, and appear to still own it in 2020
Illustrations: Private Collection; Historic Places LA; LAH; LOC