With Victorian mansions and Craftsman bungalows tucked off its boulevard, driving down West Adams can feel like you’re traveling back in time. Many of the core structures were built between the 1880s and 1910s, making the South L.A.
neighborhood one of the oldest in the city. But pops of vibrant street art bring you back to the present, like David Flores’ pensive portrait of Bob Marley set against crimson poppies or the mural of a little girl in a backward cap who holds her hand up in a “W” sign, a nod to the West Coast. “It’s both a historic neighborhood and one that is in transition,” said Ryan Wilson, co-founder of West Adam’s private co-working club the Gathering Spot.
“There are a lot of things that are emerging.” Founded by wealthy Pasadena industrialists Henry E. Huntington and Hulett C.
Merritt, West Adams’ first denizens were of similar economic stature. But as Beverly Hills and other Westside neighborhoods were developed, well-to-do white residents were persuaded to resettle in those areas. Affluent Black Angelenos took their place, including architect Paul R.
Williams, who designed the nearby headquarters of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co. — once the largest Black-owned insurance company in the West — as well as more than 2,000 private homes, with celebrity clients like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. Oscar-winning actor Hattie McDaniels, blues musician Ray Charles and attorney Johnnie Cochran also had homes in the neighborhood .