A Hancock Park home with executive roots
This restored Spanish Colonial Revival listed for sale in Hancock Park for $7.995 million has historical ties to both the film and banking industries.
The home was originally commissioned by M.C. Levee, a prop man turned studio executive and financier, who paid $110,000 to build the two-story in 1927. Architect Stephen Goosson, who later won an Academy Award for art direction for “Lost Horizon” (1937), was tasked with the design while S.C. Clark, a general contractor, handled the construction.
A 1927 story in The Times notes the home’s L-shaped structure, a hand-made tile roof and the nearly half-acre lot that “backs up against the Wilshire golf links.”
Levee, who was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, sold the property in 1944 for $30,000. The home was later owned by Leontine Giannini, the widow of Bank of America president and film producer A.H. Giannini, in the 1950s. Following her passing in 1959, the property was bequeathed to her children, according to The Times.
The home, which has undergone a restoration in recent years, sold twice last year for $3.5 million in August and $4 million in June. The 8,500 square feet of living space retains much of its original charm with rich hardwoods, arched doorways and detailed molding throughout, but has also seen a few new additions.
A den has been outfitted as a home theater with a snack bar, and the kitchen has been updated and modernized. Through a row of French doors, a living room with a wet bar opens onto landscaped grounds containing extravagant fountains, a large loggia and a pool and spa.
Dafna Milstein and Gregg Silver of Keller Williams Beverly Hills are the listing agents.
