English style, with history, in Windsor Square
This home was built at New Hampshire Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles in 1908, but it was moved by horse-drawn conveyance to Windsor Square in 1930. Architect Gordon Kaufman, who oversaw the move, preferred horses to trucks as a way to minimize damage.
Later, the house was owned for more than 50 years by the Rindges, one of L.A.’s pioneering families, famous in large part because of May K. Rindge, who rode horseback with hired guns in 1923 to protect her land in Malibu from being taken by the state for the development of Pacific Coast Highway.
Rindge, who died in 1941, won a judgment of slightly more than $100,000 in damages but lost her fight with the state, which in 1925 was given the right-of-way to build Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu. That stretch opened in 1928.
At the turn of this century, Brett Waterman, an entrepreneur who likes old houses, bought the home and performed a massive refurbishing in which bricks were removed, reversed and put back in place.
Turning the brick around reveals the previously unexposed, more preserved side, enhancing the home’s appearance.
Now he’s ready to renovate another house, surrounded by an orange grove, in Riverside.
About this house: Known as the O’Melveny House, the registered L.A. County historic landmark was built for Henry O’Melveny, dean of the California bar and still owner of the home when he died at 81 in 1941. He was a founding partner of the law firm known today as O’Melveny & Myers.
Asking price: $4,999,000
Size: There are eight bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms in an estimated 9,708 square feet. The lot size is 32,400 square feet.
Features: The English Arts and Crafts-style home with Tudor accents was designed by architect Sumner Hunt. The manicured lawn has trees, an outdoor fireplace, a koi pond and an ozone-filtered pool with a swim lane.
The home also has a bar, basement, sunroom, library and wine cellar.
There is extensive use of such woods as mahogany and Oregon pine, and there are some original light fixtures as well as a custom stained-glass window depicting a tree.
Where: Windsor Square
Listing agent: Ernest Carswell of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, (310) 777-6244, and Kathleen Gless, Coldwell Banker, Hancock Park, (323) 464-9272.
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To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, send color interior and exterior photos (copies only, please; we cannot return the pictures) and a brief description of the house, including what makes the property unusual, to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.
