Edward Roybal House

The one-story Craftsman bungalow house at 628 S. Evergreen Ave. in the Boyle Heights neighborhood was constructed in 1913. The house was the home of Edward Roybal, a prominent Mexican American local politician, from 1949 to 1963. Roybal worked as a community organizer in the 1940s and was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949, where he served for thirteen years. In 1962, Roybal became the first Latino from California to be elected to the U.S. Congress since 1879. The Edward Roybal House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 as one of multiple properties associated with Latinos in twentieth-century California; the house is significant for its ties to local government/politics and Hispanic heritage/Latino struggles for inclusion.

The house at 628 S. Evergreen was the home of the prominent Mexican American local politician, Edward R. Roybal, from 1949 to 1963. Roybal was born in New Mexico in 1916 and was the oldest of eight children; his family was Mexican American but had lived in New Mexico for generations. The Roybal family moved from Albuquerque to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles when he was a young child; they lived with relatives when they first arrived in Boyle Heights. By 1930, they resided at 722 Mott St.; by 1935, the family had moved to 2729 E. Fifth St.

In 1934, after graduating from Roosevelt High School, Roybal joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a government jobs program during the Great Depression. He went on to study business administration at U.C.L.A. and law at Southwestern University. During World War II, Roybal served as an accountant at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro and was a public health educator for the California Tuberculosis Association. Roybal worked as a community organizer in the 1940s and was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949, where he served for thirteen years. He was one of the first Latinos on the city council in seven decades. He helped found and served as first president of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) in 1959. In 1962, Roybal became the first Latino from California to be elected to the U.S. Congress since 1879. Roybal served as a Democrat from his Boyle Heights district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was a founder of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in 1976. He decided not to run for re-election in 1992; his daughter, Lucille Roybal-Allard was elected that year and retired from Congress in January 2023. Roybal passed away in 2005 from pneumonia at age 89; he was buried in Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. The Federal Building and Courthouse in L.A. was named in honor of Roybal, as well as a health center in East L.A. An Atlanta building of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) also is named after him.

The bungalow at 628 S. Evergreen dates to 1913. Roybal married Lucille Bessera in 1940. After World War II, Edward and Lucille lived at 617 S. Evergreen, on the opposite side of the street from their future home. They purchased the house at 628 S. Evergreen in 1949 and made it their home for the next fourteen years. These are the years where Roybal was most active in community organizing and local politics. The Community Service Organization (CSO) and MAPA meetings were often held in the house; fundraisers held in the backyard were common. After becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Roybals split their time between houses in Pasadena and near Washington, D.C.

The one-story, Craftsman bungalow at 628 S. Evergreen has a cross-gabled roof and a front dormer; the exterior was clad in wood clapboards and shingles. The front porch is made of concrete block. The concrete block and iron fence around the lot edge, window grilles, and a one-story rear addition are later modifications; inside, the kitchen was modernized by 2016. Original wood floors were still present in 2016, as well as Craftsman touches: wooden pocket doors, built-in bookcases, and dining room wainscoting. The garage at the end of the driveway also was included in the property's National Register nomination. The three-bedroom, two-bath home is currently privately owned and not open to the public.

Grimes, Teresa. NRHP nomination of Edward Roybal House, 628 S. Evergreen Avenue, Los Angeles, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2016.

Library of Congress. Edward R. Roybal, Hispanic Americans in Congress. July 15th, 2010. Accessed March 25th, 2023. https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/roybal.html.

Roybal Foundation. Legacy Gallery Exhibit, The Lucille & Edward R. Roybal Foundation. January 1st, 2020. Accessed March 25th, 2023. https://www.roybalfoundation.org/legacy-gallery-exhibit/.