1283 West Adams Boulevard

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  • Built in 1921 on Lot 13 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract by George E. Bentel, then a salesman for the Pacific Coast Concrete Company
  • By early 1920, George E. Bentel had become the owner of 1289 West Adams, a house dating from 1890 that, after having been relocated from a kitty-corner parcel, was now straddling Lots 13 and 14 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract at the northeast corner of Adams Street and Ellendale Place. 2615 Ellendale Place occupies its original site
  • On March 29, 1921, George Bentel was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to erect a one-story, 20-by-32-foot four-room dwelling on Lot 13 easterly adjacent to his primary residence on the parcel comprised of Lots 13 and 14 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract. This became 1283 West Adams. Southwest Builder and Contractor of April 1, 1921, reported the cost as $1,700
  • 1283 West Adams was rented by various parties during the 1920s; late in the decade, George and Elizabeth Bentel left the property. Ownership during the following decade is unclear. With its simple design and its narrow end facing Adams, the 736-square-foot house, which still stands, resembles a prefabricated storage shed of the type still available today. It also bears a resemblance to the many small real estate offices that were usually built on prominent corners of new Los Angeles subdivisions in the early decades of the 20th century; living up to its visage, 1283 would in fact be utilized as a real estate office during the 1930s. Among the property businesses operating out of the building was that of Ralph S. Paschal, who may have become the owner of the house
  • At some point, a separate lot for 1283 West Adams was carved out of the parcel comprised of Lots 13 and 14 in Block 2 of the Urmston Tract, one with 26 feet of frontage on Adams and extending back irregularly 83 feet
  • On September 30, 1970, the Department of Building and Safety issued Guillermo T. Farias—a.k.a. Guillermo Farias Tapia—a permit for the repair of minor fire damage to 1283 West Adams. Farias was by then also the owner of 1277 West Adams next door, which he maintained as his primary residence. His father-in-law may have been George G. Martinez, who had acquired 1277 by the mid 1950s
  • The Farias family still owned 1283 West Adams in 2013 


Illustration: Private Collection