205 East Adams Boulevard

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  • Built circa 1895 on Lot 15 of the Daman & Millard Tract by butcher Franklin Arthur Alexander
  • On March 11, 1895, the Los Angeles Times reported that real estate operator Austin C. Shafer had sold Lot 15 to Frank Alexander for $1,000. It is unclear as to how long after the sale Alexander began building the house; while he is would likely have started soon after purchasing the lot, he was still listed at his former residence at 132 West 25th Street in the 1895 city directory, which was published by June 
  • Frank Alexander owned the Bon Ton meat market around the corner at 2624 South Main Street. He had gone into business there with Theodore Bossler in 1892, replacing the latter's prior partner; the new association appears to have been a rocky one. The Herald reported on January 31, 1893, that Alexander had purchased the entire interest of Bossler in Bossler & Alexander, though wrangling over the deal would actually continue for four more years. While a final dissolution was reported in July 1897, three months later Alexander was hauling Bossler into court for opening a market across Main Street and calling it the New Bon Ton Market. Alexander prevailed, though Bossler remained in competition across Main, partnered with Claude de Berry and henceforth calling his establishment Bossler & De Berry
  • Frank Alexander's father was a grain man turned city official on the road to a position on the county Board of Supervisors and to the mayorship of Los Angeles; George Alexander was elected to the post three times, serving from March 1909 to July 1913. Though Frank Alexander would leave 205 East Adams in early 1902, moving to 231 East 31st Street, he remained in the meat business on Main Street until 1907 before moving to Redlands not long after
  • On January 15, 1902, the Herald reported the sale of 205 East Adams by Frank and Jennie Alexander to Margaret Greve, the wife of Hermann Greve, a musician. The Greves were newlyweds; she was 54, he 60, both German-born, and both had been widowed by the time they married in Los Angeles on August 1, 1901. Hermann Greve had arrived in the U.S. from his native Germany in 1872, teaching music in Philadelphia while also performing in a family band with several of his children. Greve's first wife died on the train trip west in June 1888. Once in California, he is said to have staked a claim with the General Land Office (now the Bureau of Land Management) for a sizable parcel near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties in what is today Hidden Hills; he is recorded there in the 1900 census, though he seems to have spent most of his time in the city, where several of his children lived. Hermann and Margaret Greve sailed for Germany after settling into 205 East Adams, perhaps on something of a delayed honeymoon. Hermann Greve died of stomach cancer at 205 East Adams on September 11, 1907
  • Margaret Greve remained at 205 East Adams until selling the house to Dr. Emeline Tanner in early 1911. Only recently arrived in Southern California after a few years in Spokane (where her brother-in-law Nelson S. Pratt was the mayor from 1909-1911), following having long practiced in Fairmont, Minnesota, Ohio-born Dr. Tanner had been graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College at the University of Michigan in 1880. She made several significant changes to the property with an eye toward making it an income-producing venture, making 205 one of the earlier properties of the many lining East Adams that would contain multi-unit dwellings 
  • On May 5, 1911, the Department of Buildings issued Emeline Tanner a permit to—for reasons unclear—raise the house two feet and to do some replastering. Dr. Tanner was issued a permit on the following October 26 to add living space to the property in the form of a two-story, 14-by-24 foot dwelling to Lot 15. Early Sanborn insurance maps indicate that before this addition there was also a single story structure, perhaps a carriage barn, marked 205½, at the left rear of the lot
  • The 1911 building would later appear on later Sanborn maps as sitting in the right middle of the backyard; this single dwelling would become addressed on maps as 203 East Adams
  • Dr. Tanner does not appear to have lived consistently at 205 East Adams; in the 1912 city directory, she is listed as living in the new rear building, presumably renting out the original residence. Having moved to yet-to-be-annexed Eagle Rock with her niece Florence Pratt, a student, she became an absentee landlord, with no further listing for her at 205. The Herald, however, reported on April 4, 1918, that when Dr. Tanner's death came three days before it was at 205 East Adams
  • Ownership of 205 East Adams after the death of Emeline Tanner is unclear; the property would see a significant turnover of renters among its various units over the next several decades
  • A new owner acquired 205 East Adams by the spring of 1939. On May 18 of that year, the Department of Building and Safety issued Emily Cruz a permit for alterations to one of the three buildings on the lot, though for which one is unclear. A divorcée, Mrs. Cruz herself is listed variously in records at 201 and 203; she appears to have lived in one and her adopted son, Abraham, after he married Mercedes Cerdan in February 1940, in another, with the main house, 205, being rented out
  • Though they may have retained ownership through the 1940s, Cruzes themselves do not appear to have remained living on the property. A new landlord came into possession of 201/203/205 East Adams by late 1952
  • Sun Yee Quon, a grocer, and his wife Billie were owners of 201/203/205 East Adams by the fall of 1952; they do not appear to ever have lived on the property, residing instead behind their store at 3310 Griffith Avenue. By the time of their purchase, the Adams Boulevard buildings appear to have been abandoned and to have fallen into serious disrepair. The Quons were issued three permits by the Department of Building and Safety on December 8, 1952, for extensive rehabilitation work including, to begin with, repairs to severely dry-rotted and termite-ridden sills, some of which had missing pieces; for repairing broken and inoperable windows; and, on an unidentified building, for the removal of an illegal fire-damaged addition that included a breakfast nook and bathroom. A permit issued to Mrs. Quon on June 10, 1955, indicates that 201 East Adams, described as being a one-story, 20-by-26-foot building, was "not in use" and had "35% damage," possibly after another fire
  • While building permits for 201/203/205 East Adams after 1955 that would explain its survival are currently unavailable to us, the original house and its dependents appear today to be in good repair. Associated with the addresses since at least 1987 and at least through 2016 is Lorenzo Barajas and members of his family



Illustration: Private Collection