33 Westmoreland Place
PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES
FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO WESTMORELAND PLACE, CLICK HERE
- Built in 1908 on Lot 33 of Clark & Bryan's Westmoreland Place Tract by citrus, oil, and real estate investor Alexander Parley Johnson
- Architect: Robert B. Young, who in 1903 had built the Hotel Lexington on Main Street for A. P. Johnson (within three years, the Lexington became part of the Hotel Rosslyn next door)
- A. P. Johnson was a younger brother of noted Angeleno O. T. Johnson, who was among the largest individual owners of property in early Los Angeles; his real estate ventures included construction of the Westminister Hotel on Main Street in 1887. The brothers had arrived in Riverside earlier that decade, later moving to Los Angeles to pursue property development together and individually
- The Department of Buildings issued A. P. Johnson a permit for the foundation of 33 Westmoreland Place on March 16, 1908; the day before, Los Angeles Herald reported that R. B. Young had prepared plans for 33 and that the initial work on it had begun. A permit for the 16-room house itself was issued on April 3 and one for the barn-garage on June 23. On February 7, 1909, the Los Angeles Times featured the house and included a lengthy description, which can be seen below
- A. P. Johnson and his wife, née Nancy Cairns—called Nettie—had five children. Eva, one of three daughters, apparently learned her father's trade well, growing up to enjoy building houses, grand ones for herself. In 1923, she built 212 Muirfield Road in Hancock Park and three years later another one across the street at 211 Muirfield. Within another five years, she built a third one in Beverly Hills
- Despite so few houses being built within the gates of Westmoreland Place after #33 was completed, and despite the removal of the gates themselves and his address becoming the less exclusive 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue by 1930, A. P. Johnson would remain in the house for the next 29 years
- Johnson's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Cairns, died a month shy of her 100th birthday at 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue on January 5, 1932
- A. P. Johnson remained at 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue until his death at home on November 14, 1937. He was 94; he had been active in the family business until recently and at the time of his death had been a member of the board of directors of the Union Oil Company since 1914. Nettie Johnson remained at 1001 until 1940, when she moved to an apartment at 10830 Linbrook Avenue in Westwood. Almost as long-lived as her mother, Mrs. Johnson died there on December 19, 1951, at the age of 98
- After Mrs. Johnson's departure from 1001 South Westmoreland, her social cohort having long since left downtown-area neighborhoods for westerly suburbs, her 32-year-old house succumbed to one of the fates of hundreds of big residences in declining Los Angeles neighborhoods. If an old dwelling of materials and craftsmanship almost unimaginable today wasn't cut up into flats or turned into a rooming house or boarding house or fraternity house, or turned over to commerce by the onset of the Depression, it would be given over to use as a variation on the theme of old-age home or sanitarium. The large frame houses of West Adams and Pico Heights were appealing to their operators as cheap real estate and to inmates for their homey atmosphere; there were several sanitaria of various descriptions in the vicinity of 1001 South Westmoreland including the Keeley Institute for alcoholism and drug dependency down the avenue at #1305. And given its Olympic Boulevard frontage, it is not surprising that part of the Johnson property would be given over to automotive commerce
- In 1941, a 65-by-125 parcel at the northeast corner of the original Johnson lot was carved out for a filling station. On June 27, 1941, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit to the Eagle Oil Company of Santa Fe Springs for a metal building on the site; this would be addressed 2630 West Olympic Boulevard
- Elda J. Miller, a nurse, appears to have acquired the house at 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue by early 1941. Her name appears as the owner on a permit issued by the Department of Building and Safety on April 15, 1941, authorizing the installation of two fire escapes; what was until recently a single-family residence was now described as a "hotel." On a permit issued on May 13 to add a small garage to the property, Elda Miller is listed as co-owner with an Edna Miller; on a permit issued to the two women on March 11, 1942, the house is referred to as a "sanitarium"—this document, curiously, authorized the complete closing off of the attic floor
- By late 1942, the ownership of the sanitarium at 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue changed; Dr. George A. Berson, a psychoanalyst who lived in Windsor Square, acquired the property, calling it the Westmoreland Sanitarium and setting about rearranging rooms and adding bathrooms. By late 1953, Dr. Berson sold the house to Dr. George J. Wayne, who, it appears, was a psychiatrist with a specialty in gerontology
- Though there had been several changes of ownership, 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue was listed in city directories as the Westmoreland Sanitarium into the 1970s
- In 1968, a parcel measuring 65 feet along Westmoreland Avenue and the full 200-foot depth of 1001 South Westmorland's original lot along Olympic Boulevard, incorporating the parcel first occupied by the filling station in 1941, was delineated and given the address of 2636 West Olympic Boulevard; the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit for a Firestone tire and supply store on October 16, 1968
- On June 26, 1978, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit changing the use of 1001 South Westmoreland Avenue from a sanitarium for ambulatory patients to a group home. The American Youth Foundation operated several facilities to house troubled youths; by 1982, the Los Angeles Times was describing its Westmoreland Avenue house as run-down, its residents as delinquents, and its management as more interested in paying themselves large salaries rather than spending money on maintenance or patient care
- While a specific demolition permit for 33 Westmoreland Place/1001 South Westmoreland Avenue has proven elusive, the house appears to have been demolished in 1987. Most of its original lot was given over to parking behind the 1968 Firestone building, which remained. Expanded, this structure was remodeled into offices in 2008 and today houses the facilities of Visual Plastic Surgery
