2164 West 20th St., Los Angeles, CA

I've always remembered the number of the address where my dad grew up, "2164". I've never been able to remember the name of the street, however. Today as I was thinking of something else entirely, a memory crawled out of a corner and kicked me between the eyes. My dad took me to visit the house when I was young. I was observant when younger, and I recalled the name of the street we exited the freeway on to get to the house. As a paramedic in my 20's I spent many, many hours on the freeways in LA, and whenever I drove past the exit for Western Ave. on the 10 Freeway, I'd think of Dad's house up there. I hadn't thought of that particular memory in probably 30 years, but today "WESTERN AVENUE" screamed through my brain. I got on Google Maps and in a very few minutes was sitting in front of the old Duryee homes on West 20th Street. Here they are, click them to make them full-screen.

2164 W. 20th St., LA, CA

Dad was born and lived in this house from 1910 until the early 1930s. He took me to visit there once when I was very young, 10 or 11. A semi-dressed man opened the door when dad knocked. Dad asked if we could walk around the place and the man said "I don't give a shit" and shut the door. So, we walked around the place. Around the back of the house, Dad was stunned to find his mother's Cocus pumosus palm tree still in the backyard, and still showing the ax marks that he had gotten in so much trouble for creating when he had been my age. I don't see it in Google Street View.

Jacob Duryee's house next door (Dad's grandfather) 2160 West 20th Street, LA, CA

Jacob Eugene Duryee had been a General in the Civil War. He moved west to California with his son in the very early 1900s and they bought these adjoining properties in Los Angeles. They had originally settled in Redlands where my grandfather Harvey became involved in the Southern California real estate boom of the late 1800s, and early 1900s. Within a short time they had moved to 20th Street in LA, I believe my dad said they moved in 1904. 

1920 Census showing 2160 and 2164 West 20th Street residents