Vanessa WoodThe house is gone. Not just torn down — its address has vanished entirely, swallowed up by decades of Los Angeles urban development. Finding out more about the house was important to telling the stories of the people who lived there. I first told the story of this Wade Street boarding house in my book Board in Venice, but documenting the physical structure itself turned out to be its own research challenge.
I attempted to obtain a copy of the deed for the house and I was sent deep down the research rabbit hole only to surface without a deed. The elusive deed hinged upon the complete obliteration of the address. It was a challenge to get creative in the search to document the house. Some sources were just for Los Angeles, but they are typical of large cities and could be applied to other locations. The following are several resources to search for clues to who lived at an address and descriptions of the structure as it appeared across the years.
City Directories
City directories can reveal where an ancestor lived. Once you have an address you may want to try a directory database on Ancestry.com, “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/). If you search the address using the keyword field, you may find other household members living at the same address.
Newspapers
If you’ve only searched for people in newspaper databases, you’re missing out on finding more about where an ancestor lived. Try using keyword searches for specific addresses. You may find events and people at that location. Property transfers are often listed in newspapers.
WPA Household Census Cards, Los Angeles, 1939
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) took a census of Los Angeles households that described the building construction, the value of the property, the year built…and, my favorite, the number of flush toilets because it tells a lot about the living conditions. The census records are available online at University of Southern California (https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/) > search “household census.” If you do an Internet search you can find other WPA assessments in other cities that may help your research.
Building Permits
City of Los Angeles building permits are available online (https://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/). They can be searched by two things you may have: address or assessor number. They cannot be searched by an owner’s name.
Getting The Assessor’s Number
The Los Angeles County Tax Assessor assigns a number to all properties. If you request a copy of a deed you’ll need the assessor’s number. You can also use it to search building permits. The county assessor’s website is located at https://assessor.lacounty.gov/homeowners/property-search.
FEATURED IMAGE: “Little vine covered house with ginger bread trim,” CoPilot AI, Illustration, 2026.
