Historic West Adams

Historic West Adams. . , Millionaires And Milestones , Long before there was a Beverly Hills, there was the West Adams district , Los Angeles' first millionaires' commune and its first gated community. , In the century-plus since it was settled by the city's richest citizens, West Adams has become more diverse: home to students and an order of nuns, to a clinic for deaf children, to silent film stars, to a shelter for homeless women , and to a group of black actresses, led by Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, that cracked racial covenants barring black residents from owning property. , Through the area's economic and cultural seesaws, West Adams has retained its immense architectural appeal. Some of Los Angeles' most renowned early architects built churches and homes here that new owners still delight in. , Scandals, Stars, And Spirituality , Like so many Los Angeles neighborhoods, this one was converted from farmland , in this case, by a judge who envisioned an elite community. West Adams' richest and perhaps most notorious resident was Edward L. Doheny, who sank the first major oil well in Los Angeles in 1892, and later became involved in the Teapot Dome/Elk Hills oil bribery scandal of the 1920s. , At one point, to Doheny's dismay, his neighbors included silent screen vamp Theda Bara and film comedian Fatty Arbuckle, himself notorious after being tried three times and ultimately acquitted in the death of a young woman in his San Francisco hotel suite. Doheny eventually bought up the enclave of ornate Victorian mansions on Chester Place; his widow left the nine mansions to the city's Catholic archdiocese, which converted them into the downtown campus of Mt. St. Mary's College for women. Doheny also endowed St. Vincent's Catholic Church at this corner, a Churrigueresque copy of a Mexican church. It is the second-oldest Catholic parish in Los Angeles (1886). The interior, equally ornate, attracted a film crew for Arnold Schwarzenegger's "End of Days" and behind the altar, a statuary of religious figures features Doheny himself as Edward the Confessor, the sainted Saxon king of England, holding a replica of St. Vincent's in his hand. Other notable churches are St. John's Episcopal, an Italian Romanesque edifice about a block east of St. Vincent's, and the Christian Science church farther west on Adams Boulevard, a remarkable domed building dominating the street. It is also frequently used for filming. , Farther down West Adams from Mt. St Mary's College are more beautiful homes like those of St. James Park, as well as the John Tracy Clinic for deaf children , founded by actor Spencer Tracy and his wife, Louise, and named for their deaf son , and the Sunshine Mission/Casa de Rosas, which began as a kindergarten, became a finishing school and eventually a shelter for homeless and struggling women. , West Adams' Role In Civil Rights , But perhaps the neighborhood's most significant contribution to changing the city's cultural landscape and eventually California's , was what happened near West Adams Boulevard and Western Avenue, where noted black actresses like Hattie McDaniel, Lena Horne, Louise Beavers, Ethel Waters and Butterfly McQueen bought grand homes during World War II. Outraged white neighbors sued over violations of racial houusing covenants that barred black owners , one black couple had posed as a white couple's servants to buy their home. , McDaniel, the first African American performer to win an Oscar, for her role in "Gone With the Wind," took her case to court where, in 1945, a judge threw out the white tenants' lawsuits; restrictive covenants wound up in the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the black homeowners. , Not all of the architectural gems of West Adams are residential or religious. The Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building, at Western and Adams, is a pioneering black-founded business whose building was designed by Paul Williams, who also designed the Hollywood YMCA and many renowned residences. The company's collection of work by African American artists is on view during business hours. , In the 1950s, the West Adams neighborhood was split by the new Santa Monica Freeway, but a civic spirit and devotion to preserving the treasures of the past have endured.