A Brief History of the Neighorhood

Adams Hill and Adams Square

Glendale’s Adams Hill neighborhood was originally part of the vast “Rancho San Rafael” granted to Don Jose Maria Verdugo by the Spanish government in 1784. After Don Jose’s death in 1831, the land was held jointly by Jose’s daughter Catalina, and his son Don Julio, who lived on current-day Adams Hill from 1860 until his death in 1876. In the 1860s, the Rancho was divided into thirty-two parcels, including the large Santa Eulalia Ranch, established by W.C.B. Richardson in 1868. Richardson built a wood-frame ranch house in 1873, which still stands today at the corner of Cypress and Mariposa Streets on Adams Hill, and is Glendale’s oldest wood-frame structure (Richardson House). The ranches were further divided in the early 1880s. C.H. Watts, M.E. Hodgkins, E.T. Wright, and M.L. Wicks were among the settlers to the area in the period who built houses and planted fruit orchards. These four acquired a large tract known as Watts’ Subdivision in 1883, which extended from the Los Angeles River to Verdugo Road. The Watts’ Subdivision was adjacent on the southwest to Richardson’s Santa Eulalia Ranch, the remaining acreage of Don Julio Verdugo’s estate, and 600 acres purchased by H.J. Crow in 1870.

The 1880s and ‘90s saw tremendous growth in Southern California, and the area we now call Adams Hill was no exception. The city of Glendale was established in the 1880s, but political divisiveness resulted in the city being split in two: Glendale to the north of Windsor Road, and “Tropico” to the South. Tropico included current-day Adams Hill, and flourished along with greater Southern California approaching the turn-of-the-century. By 1903, Tropico, which just a few years before had been no more than some scattered ranch buildings, strawberry fields, and orchards, boasted a population of about 700 people. 1904 saw the completion of the interurban railway, with electric street cars running up and down Glendale and Brand Boulevards, linking Tropico and Glendale to downtown Los Angeles and beyond.

On March 15, 1911, the city of Tropico was formally incorporated, and the city began making the improvements that had motivated the movement toward cityhood. In the next six years, Tropico improved twenty-nine streets, including all the main thoroughfares, and built a city hall at the corner of Brand and Los Feliz Boulevards. By 1914, Tropico’s population was 3,200. In 1918, Tropico became a part of the city of Glendale after an annexation election.

It was after the annexation to Glendale that residential development on Adams Hill took off. Of the approximately eighteen subdivisions recorded in the area between 1883 and 1967, the majority were subdivided in the 1920s. Nine retain the name Watts’ Subdivision. The “Glendale Heights” subdivision sold in 1922. Work on the “Glendale Heights Extension,” just south of the original Glendale Heights, began in 1923. The “Acacia Hills” subdivision went on sale in 1924. Period advertisements for the subdivisions tout the intrinsic beauty of the Adams Hill setting. An Acacia Hills ad tempted potential home-buyers to “picture gently rolling foothill property with an unsurpassed view of the sightly Verdugo and San Fernando Valleys, the Sierra Madre Mountains, and the Hollywood Hills.” Another promised “a view equal to the best that can be seen by the millionaires who have spent money like water in building on the hills of Hollywood and Beverly.” The natural beauty of the Acacia Hills subdivision was enhanced by its namesake, “the yellow flowering acacia floribunda … planted at intervals of 20 feet, producing one of the most unique and lovely effects.”

Matching the natural beauty of the setting, many of the houses built on Adams Hill during this decade of residential “boom,” the 1920s, are wonderful examples of the popular architectural styles of the period. Especially after World War I, “Period Revival” styles became fashionable in the United States, and Adams Hill well-represents the trend. Fine examples of Tudor Revival style houses are scatted throughout the hill. A concentration of the style, with its steeply-pitched roofs and half-timbering, was developed around Cottage Grove Ave. and Brier Lane in the mid-1920s. This “English Village,” as it was envisioned by its developer, remains largely intact today.

The vast majority of Adams Hill’s houses, however, reflect the Spanish Colonial Revival style, characterized by the abundant use of stucco, decorative ironwork, arched doorways, and low-pitched tiled roofs. (Certainly Don Julio Verdugo would still feel right at home.) While a few large, extravagant houses from the period stand out on the hill, most of the houses are modest in size, tucked unobtrusively along the neighborhood’s winding streets. Builders of the period advertised that “work throughout is of the highest quality and represents careful workmanship,” and emphasized that “an inexpensive house may be made as artistic and architecturally excellent as a palace.” Any survey of Adams Hill’s modest “palaces” of the 1920s and ‘30s proves the advertisers’ truthfulness

In 1925, the only commercial building in what is now Adams Square was the 1120-1130 South Adams St. Building. This building would figure prominently in our history when, in 1945, Irvine Robbins opened the Snowbird Ice Cream Store. In 1945, Robbins teamed up with his brother-in-law Burton Baskin to build the Baskins Robbins 31 Flavors chain and, as they say, the rest is history.

Bordering Adams Square is the John Muir School, at 912 S. Chevy Chase Dr., originally built in 1926 and reconstructed to meet structural requirements in 1950.

Because of it's stunning vista views, builders were attracted to Adams Hill in the 1920's and 30's and the building boom of this period is - luck for us - our special architectural legacy.

We all know that when we're lost, we can find our way home by fixing our gaze on Forest Lawn Cemetery. The cemetery was founded by Dr. Hubert Eaton in 1906. This property was formerly the home of Andrew Glassell's daughter. Glassell was an early developer in the area. Hubert Eaton's home still stands at Prospect and Alta Vista.

Palmer Park, west of Adams Square, off of Palmer Drive is one of Glendale's most beautiful parks with its stunning hillside backdrop. This park was created in response to public demand in the 1940's.

The neighborhood richness certainly didn’t end in the 1930s. While the majority of Adams Hill’s residential lots were developed prior to World War II, a smattering of innovative post-war modernist houses are sprinkled throughout the neighborhood as well. Adams Hill’s beauty, both natural and constructed, have attracted a vibrant mix of races and ethnicities and income levels—a colorful mixture of people attracted to the magnificent views, the winding, narrow streets, the lush vegetation, and the treasure-trove of period architectural gems that dominate its housing stock. The current residents of Adams Hill can still enjoy our period homes, our “artistic and architecturally excellent” palaces, just as Adams Hill residents did 60, or 70, or 80 years ago. And these houses are worthy of preservation, to be appreciated for another 80, or more, years to come.

Friends of Historic Adams Square, “Adams Square, Past, Present, Future,” 1999.
Glendale Evening News, “Live Community is Home Center,” April 20, 1923.
Glendale Evening News, “A Wonderful New Hillside Home Tract Has Just Been Opened Here; Each Homesite Has Scenic Outlook,” June, 9 1923.
Glendale Evening News, “Acacia Hills Tract Now on Sale,” Feb. 29, 1924.
Glendale Evening News, “New Home of Karl Gardner In Glendale Heights Tract Will be Shown to Visitors,” July 12, 1924.
Glendale Evening News, “A Typical Old English Stucco,” January 23, 1925.
Glendale Historical Society, “A Trip Back in Time to Tropico, http://www.glendalehistorical.org/tropico.html.
Historic Resources Group, “A is For Adams,” June 18, 1998.

Glendale Historical Society