Early in August 1959, homeowners along the stylish Pacific Ocean beaches in Santa Monica, Calif., were dismayed to get a new set of neighbors: a bedraggled platoon of half a hundred men and women, who moved into a rundown, three-story, red brick building that once was a National Guard armory. White and black, young and middleaged, criminals and innocents, artists and loafers, the unlikely assortment shared one trait: they were narcotics addicts determined to kick their habit for good.
Scrounging lumber, paint and old furniture, the troupe converted the top floor of the...
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