Historic West Adams, more commonly known as West Adams, is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The area is known for its large number of historic buildings, structures and notable houses and mansions. It contains several Historic Preservation Overlay Zones as well as designated historic districts.
Etymology According to the Los Angeles Times, the neighborhood is "called West Adams, but whose heritage minded residents insist on referring to the Craftsman district as historic West Adams."
History
West Adams is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with most of its buildings erected between 1880 and 1925, including the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. West Adams was developed by railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington and wealthy industrialist Hulett C. Merritt of Pasadena. It was once the wealthiest district in the city, with its Victorian mansions and sturdy Craftsman bungalows home to Downtown businessmen and professors and academicians at the University of Southern California.
West AdamsEmily Green, "Greening: Where the World Is Abloom", Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2003, page F-13 is home to one of the largest collections of notable old houses west of the Mississippi River. The West Adams area was developed between 1880 and 1925 and contains many diverse architectural styles of the era, including the Queen Anne, Shingle, Gothic Revival, Transitional Arts and Crafts, American Craftsman/Ultimate Bungalow, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, Egyptian Revival, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles. West Adams boasts the only existing Greene and Greene house left in Los Angeles. Its historic homes are frequently used as locations for movies and TV shows including CSI, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Monk, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Of Mice and Men.
1880s - 1890s
The neighborhood was the site of the "fashionable" Marlborough School (Los Angeles), founded in the redecorated rooms of the former Marlborough Hotel on West 23rd Street by Mrs. George A. Caswell in 1890; in 1916 the school moved to a new home on West Third Street."The Marlborough School for Girls", Los Angeles Herald, June 11, 1890, page 3"News Notes", Los Angeles Herald, February 5, 1891, page 8"Burglar Robs Girls' School", Los Angeles Herald, November 3, 1907, page 1"New Marlborough School", Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1916, page II-3Alice Hicks Burr, "St. James Park Enshrines Aura of Oldtime City", Los Angeles Times, July 26, 1942, page d-2
A night-time fire destroyed a tent displaying phonograph machines and harboring items from other exhibits during a festive St. James Park carnival in June 1896. Two workers were burned when they tore away tent flaps to halt the spread of the blaze. Earlier, "the tamale booth, which was one of the most beautiful in the grounds", was also ablaze, but it was smothered by "two plucky women with brooms"."One Booth Destroyed", Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1896, page 10 The event had a "gypsy" carnival theme, with "myriads of electric lights", palmists, fortune tellers and people in costume. Outside was "a burly negro bouncer, clad in all the colors of the rainbow, calling in stentorian tones attention to the attractions within". Profits went to the Stimson-Lafayette Industrial School."For Charity's Sake: Gipsy Encampment – Brilliant Scene at St. James Park", Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1896, page 7
1900s - 1910s
As early as 1906 the area was referred to as "exclusive""Dry West Adams", Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1906, page II=5 and in 1913 as a "fashionable residence district"."Hotel to Be Set in Park", Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1913, page V-1 In 1916 the district was known for its "private parks and handsome homes", and the boulevard itself was undergoing improvements that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Los Angeles Times predicted "there will be no more splendid boulevard in America." Between Figueroa and Hoover streets the old paving was torn out and an asphalt surface was laid, making the street wide. In the middle was installed a series of islands that were planted with flowers, shrubs and mature palms. Many trees were set out in the "parkings", or parkways, along the street. "Lofty" electroliers, or street lamps, were installed; they were the same design as those on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago."Making Great Boulevard of West Adams Street", Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1916, page II-15
In 1905, West Adams Terrace (which in 2003 became a Los Angeles historic preservation overlay zone), was platted from what had been called the Bauer tract. This area on the north side of Adams west of Western Avenue fell under the control of a syndicate headed by William Miles, president, and Charles McKenzie, H.R. Callender, S.J. White and C.G. Andrews. Said to be "the last piece of available elevated land [with] a magnificent view of the valley and surrounding foothills", it was divided into 235 lots with building restrictions ranging from $2,500 to $3,000."Bauer Tract to Be Platted", Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1905, page V-14
In 1906, a report was made that the West Adams district lacked water, with one resident complaining in late July that "the only toilet facility enjoyed by himself and family ... was supplied by the drippings from a faucet into a pitcher." City water officials said that West Adams was supplied by a 30-inch main that ran down Hoover Street from the Bellevue ReservoirNow the Bellevue Recreation Center. "Reservoir Site to Become Park", Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1959, page 32 and that work was under way to remedy the situation by bringing more water from the "much higher" Ivanhoe reservoir, which was under construction in today's Silver Lake community and which would store "practically a billion gallons.*
In September 1906, Los Angeles Times reporter wrote that "The growing popularity of apartment houses is causing them to encroach on grounds heretofore exclusively reserved for high-class residences". He was reporting on "one of the handsomest apartment-houses in the city", which was designed by Thornton Fitzhue and was to be built on the southern side of St. James Park, "with a north frontage on the botanical gardens". All would have servants' quarters."Latest Invasion by Apartments", Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1906, page II-9 Landowner John R. Powers completed another apartment building in St. James Place in 1909, with an entrance also on Scarff Street. Designed by George W. Wryman, it was divided into four apartments of seven rooms each; the venture represented an investment of $35,000."Looks Like Fine Home", Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1909, page V-1
on January 24, 1916, John S. Hendrickson, head of a private security firm, was killed by pistol fire when he challenged two men skulking about the neighborhood some fifty feet west of the Chester Place entrance on West Adams Street."Officer Slain in Night Fight on Chester Place", Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1916, page B-1
1920s - 1930s
On June 26, 1921, the Automobile Club of Southern California announced it would build a new home on a site purchased the year before on the southwest corner of Figueroa and Adams streets. It was to be of Spanish architecture and would feature an octagonal domed lobby extending up three floors. Locker rooms and showers were planned for both men and women. The third floor would contain a dining room, with kitchens, a men's lounge and smoking room, a large assembly room and a directors room. Sumner Hunt and S.R. Burns were the architects and Aurele Vermeulen the landscape architect."Auto Club Will Build New Home", Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1921, page V-1
Ground was broken on September 28, 1924, for the Church of the Advent, Episcopal, on the corner of Longwood Avenue in the Glen Airy district at the end of the West Adams streetcar line, with Bishop J.H. Johnson present. The brick structure with heavy wooden beams was to replace a temporary structure. Plans called for a parish house at the rear of the lot.
For three years between 1924 and 1927, a smoldering peat fire on the Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin estate near the Baldwin Hills, between Jefferson and Hauser streets, adversely affected the air quality of the West Adams district, spreading to affect twelve acres. The stench even drifted into Culver City, where windows had to be shut in schoolhouses because of the nuisance. Four teenagers were among those severely burned while crossing the bog. Civil suits for damages were brought against the land owners and, after some weeks of discussion, the City Council allocated funds for city firemen to quench the nuisance, hoping to recoup the cost later."Odor From Peat Fire Rouses Ire", Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1927, page A-9"Peace Near in Peat-Bed Fire Strife", Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1927, page A-20"Peat Fire Warrants Out", Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1927, page A-5"Ex-Member Scores City Councilmen", Los Angeles Times, October 26, 1927, page A-15"Peat Fire Battle Nears", Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1927, page A-1"Peat Fund Approved by Mayor", Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1927, page A-5
In the meantime, the city filed charges of maintaining a public nuisance against three men affiliated with the Baldwin estate or with the care of the property. After a bench trial in which the defense stated that the fire could have been burning "for many centuries", Municipal Judge William Frederickson ruled against the city, stating that "fires there as elsewhere in the neighborhood are what might be considered a common enemy and the municipal authorities should put out the fire, if possible, by the use of a water system or other means.""Peat Defendants Freed", Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1927, page A-1 The City Council attempted to bill Anita Baldwin, owner of the property, for the cost of quenching the embers,"Anita M. Baldwin to Get Peat-Fire Bill", Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1928, page A-1 but City Attorney Jess E. Stephens ruled that the city had no authority to do so."Peat Fire Held Sole City Obligation", Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1928, page A-1
In 1924, West Adams was rivened when two sisters, May Martin, 12, and Nina Martin, 8, disappeared on August 23 while away from their home at 2854 Mansfield Street (now Avenue) in a district then known as Glen Airy. Screams had been heard from the direction of the La Brea slough, which was thoroughly searched by.relatives, friends, Boy Scouts and police from the University division of the Los Angeles Police Department, to no avail."Fears for Girl Tots Grow", Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1924, page A-1 On September 7, a mass meeting was held at the Calvary Methodist Church, Adams and Cloverdale Avenue, where police and sheriff's deputies were scored because of asserted "lack of interest" in the case and a motion was unanimously adopted asking for more effort to find the girls. The motion was sent on to the congregations of Angelus Temple, Temple Auditorium, Trinity Methodist Church and other "various churches in the West Adams district"."Finding of Lost Tots Demanded", Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1924, page A-1
Investigators questioned just about all the residents of the immediate West Adams area, and on September 16, 1924, some 275 police officers and 17 mounted patrolmen hunted for the girls' bodies in the rugged Baldwin Hills (mountain range) and nearby marshlands. The searchers were unsuccessful that day,"Giant Hunt for Children Fails", Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1924, page A-9 but on February 4 the two bodies were discovered by an agricultural worker in a shallow grave. Even The New York Times reported the news."Find Two Lost Girls Buried in California", The New York Times, February 5, 1925