Max Neft was born in Latvia in 1874. He and his wife Paula immigrated to the US in 1901. While living in Seattle, where he worked as a jeweler, he
obtained several patents, a couple of which were for knives:
Worthpoint.com --
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...1920-rare-find
You can google his patents if you're interested; e.g.:
http://www.google.tt/patents/US1358097
After that, things were looking up for Max and his family:
November 1921
Western Machinery World --
https://books.google.com/books?id=Id...page&q&f=false
In 1923 or 1924 Max moved his family to Los Angeles and bought property around Exposition Blvd. and W. 37th Place at Hoover. He soon built
a two-story building with four flats at 904-906 W. 37th Place, and the family moved into 904-1/2.
Here is the 1922 Sanborn Map of the area, pre-Neft. McClintock Avenue intersects Exposition just east of Vermont. Hoover Street stops at 37th
Place. University Avenue, one block east of Hoover, is shown here as a short dotted line in the upper right corner. The "Laboratory of Los Angeles
Museum" is, according to a March 25, 1933
LA Times article, the taxidermist building for the LA County Museum across the street in Exposition Park:
LAPL
Meanwhile, around the same time, Max was making other plans:
December 9, 1923
LA Times @ LAPL
The plans changed:
May 18, 1924
LA Times @ LAPL
I don't know what happened to Mr. Mernstein; perhaps he sold his share of the property. What was eventually built did not go anywhere near University
Avenue. Here's the Neft Apartments in 1925 just west of Hoover at 901 W. Exposition; the building on the left is the county museum taxidermy lab:
USCDL --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/68201
Here's a closer look at the entrance:
This January 5, 1925, aerial view looking NW across Exposition Park shows the Neft Apartments above the museum dome, on the north side of Exposition,
with the flats occupied by the Neft family just to the north. You can barely see the corner of the taxidermy building. Hoover has not yet been built through
to Exposition just to the east of the Neft Apartments and flats:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics24/00031939.jpg (date per Seaver Center, LA County Natural History Museum)
The 1930 census shows the Neft family living at 904-1/2 W. 37th Place; Max, Paula and their six unmarried children. Sadly, Neft seems to have lost his
properties to foreclosure by 1933. By 1936 the Neft Apartments had been renamed the Park View, and the Nefts were no longer living in the home they
owned on 37th Place but were instead renting 916 S. Dunsmuir. The Nefts' youngest daughter, Eleanor, married in 1939, but her five older siblings, all
still unmarried at ages 34-42, were living with their parents on Dunsmuir according to the 1940 census. There was some legal action concerning the
former Neft properties, which you can read about here:
http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/14518
Here's the 1950 Sanborn. The former Neft Apartments are just to the right of the Laboratory of Los Angeles Museum, and the old Neft flats are just
to the north ("4F"). One of the three industrial buildings from the aerial photo above is still standing on the SE corner of Hoover and 37th Place:
LAPL
November 6, 1958. The intersection of McClintock and Exposition is in the lower left corner. The taxidermy building and the former Neft Apartments are
to the right of center, next to the parking lot. Hoover intersects with Exposition to the east of the Neft Apartments:
USCDL --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/54019
USC expanded in the 1960s and acquired a number of properties adjacent to the campus, and the former Neft Apartments was undoubtedly one of them.
There are a few
LA Times articles from the mid-60s that discuss the possibility of building a new taxidermy wing for the county museum, so perhaps that's
when USC acquired the taxidermy lab and the Neft Apartments.
1967. Many homes east of Vermont are gone, but the Neft Apartments is still standing to the left of center. University Avenue, which looks here like a
pedestrian mall -- it's now known as Trousdale Parkway -- hits Exposition in the lower right corner:
USCDL --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/21770
You can see the Neft Apartments and the taxidermy lab in the lower left corner of this 1984 photo looking south at Exposition Park and the Coliseum:
Seaver Center --
http://collections.nhm.org/seaver-ce...php?irn=511657
The 1989 aerial at HistoricAerials.com is rather blurry, but the Neft Apartments and the taxidermy lab seem to be standing. The 1994 aerial
shows two vacant lots. Here's the area now, with Vermont on the left. Hoover Street is now Watt Way, and 37th Street is now Bloom Walk:
GoogleEarth 2015
Rest in Peace, Max:
Findagrave --
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/...7291560166.jpg