Joseph Gordon-Leavitt Buys a Pristine 1940's Home in LA

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sudsmaster

sudsmaster

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He paid $3.25 million for a 3,000 plus sq foot vintage home. Apparently untouched, mostly, since 1945, the last remodel. Although the can spotlights in the family room look a bit newer than '45.

 

Here's a link to the slideshow. Some nice touches - lots of wood, 70's era appliances (I think), and original bath fixtures. That pink sink is probably like the one that used to be in my '41 home's bath. Still have a pink and maroon tiled shower stall, though, looks like the one in the Leavitt house. Original pink Kohler commode is in storage... might put it back in some day if I can find a vintage pink stand sink like the one in the photos...

 

Please do click on the link. There are 43 slides, and the home looks quite nice and livable. And it's on a 16,000 sq ft lot...

 

http://https//homes.yahoo.com/photo...-frozen-in-time-home-photo-1424458673229.html
 
OK, a few "money shots" from the slideshow...

 

 BTW, anybody know what the square metal panel is under the cooktop? Looks almost like a pet carrier, but I know that can't be...

 

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Heater makes sense. Those were the days when the stove in the kitchen was expected to keep it warm. Without an oven below the cooktop, they may have compensated by putting in an electric heater below it. So the Missus wouldn't get chilled cooking up the Lima Beans and Spam.

 

I thought that DW as a KDS 18, but some features didn't quite jibe.

 

BTW, the wide plank oak flooring in the family room is similar to that in my home's living room and dining room. I don't think you can get wood like that any more. It's the same right down to the beveled edges and the dark stained peg plugs at each end of a plank. Mine was covered up with awful green carpeting. After pulling the carpet, all the nails, and such, I sanded and refinished the floors. Quite an experience! They look OK today. Only I know the mistakes ;-)...

 
 
Leavitt seems like a confirmed vintage stuff aficionado, so I think if he changes anything it would be to make the house more authentic. Like, perhaps, linoleum flooring in the kitchens instead of vinyl.  And those overhead lights in the kitchen area are pretty obviously modern circline fluorescent fixtures. What with LED bulbs finally getting good color rendition, more reasonable pricing, and a closer resemblance to older bulbs, maybe some period ceiling light fixtures would be possible. Don't know about the can/spots in the family room. Did they have those back in 1940? Maybe so... sort of like a hollywood sound stage lighting motif...

 
 
Is that a wall oven and vent hood above the avocado dryer? There doesn't seem to be an oven anywhere near the cooktop. Was this ever normal? It would drive me nuts.

Nice house, and they really crammed a lot of stuff onto .4 acre. At least there isn't much lawn to mow....
 
Howdy Doody House

The oven above the dryer is in the "service kitchen", which also has a washer and an upright Harvest freezer, and a utility sink. I presume this area was intended for the housemaid or help to do laundry and help prepare meals for the family. Perhaps the oven was intended to keep cooked things warm while the main kitchen was still preparing the rest of the meal. It is a bit high up, though.

 

Yes, I also saw the black oven bit in one of the photos. Obviously a more modern upgrade of a wall oven. Too bad, makes one wonder what oven was originally there. Maybe all stainless, like the electric cooktop. Which, by the way, is a remarkable piece, what with the extended stainless surface to the right serving as a good place to set down hot pots and pans etc. Also easy to clean.

 

I also spy a modern two door fridge to the left in one of the kitchen shots. Probably stainless!

 

Not a big fan of the scalloped woodwork in the kitchen. But it is very late 1930's/early 1940's. For some reason it makes me think of Howdy Doody.

 
 
.4 acres is quite a large lot in most older suburban neighborhoods. Los Feliz is pretty much all hilly, some lots have steep slopes that are difficult to build on while others have more useable area so lot size can be misleading. If the house really is a Paul Williams as was claimed by the Realtor then it’s no surprise it is well sited and designed; he was one of the best architects in Los Angeles for most of the 20th century.

The built in appliances are obviously not original since they weren’t available in 1940. To me it looks like the kitchen and laundry had a big refurbishment or remodel in the early ‘60s. I predict it’s headed for another, the electric cooktop will almost certainly go in favor of gas although induction is a small possibility. If it were mine I’d have both.

Hopefully whoever is engaged to work on the house will be talented and have an appreciation for its history. Los Feliz seems to attract a better grade of design work than many other posh neighborhoods, possibly because of the topography that makes scraping a house or substantially enlarging one far harder and more expensive than in flatter parts of the city. Most of the homes in Los Feliz were designed as luxury homes and can often be thoughtfully updated without killing the charm and style that makes them so nice in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Williams_(architect)
 
If that were my kitchen...

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I'd replace the dishwasher and the black oven with those that better match the vintage of the kitchen.  I'd love to find a kitchen like that!!</span>
 
My guess it that this home had an all-electric kitchen, and perhaps the whole home was all-electric, from 1940 onward. Back then all-electric was a more pricey way to go, but certainly not out of the question, esp for a luxury home like this one.

 

I see air conditioning vents high in the walls above most of the common area rooms. Perhaps there was a heat exchanger in the setup as well, but the high placement of any heated air coming from those registers likely needed to be supplemented by the various wall electric heaters pictured in the slide show. I didn't see any floor or lower wall registers that would be characteristic of gas fired forced air heating.

 

It's not too surprising that the various kitchen appliances have been replaced over the years. I'm still thinking that custom cooktop is pretty old, though. There are various retro-look modern appliances like fridges etc that could be fitted to maintain the 40's look. I suspect a round window Western wall oven would fit in quite well there, LOL. Given all that vintage woodwork in the kitchen, I tend to doubt that it ever had a free-standing range, gas or electric.

 

Personally I prefer free-standing ranges to the cooktop/wall oven combination. Unfortunately my '41 home had its kitchen extensively remodeled in the 60's. A wall separating it from a side door and a bedroom was removed, and a cooktop peninsula put in its place. The bedroom/side entry was turned into a family room open to the kitchen. Where the range once was, (the remnants of a gas stove pipe are still in the attic above) was fitted with floor to ceiling cabinetry holding a wall oven and cupboards, and a nook for a 36" wide fridge created between those cabinets and a wall. New cabinets and countertops around the peninsula and adjacent sink were added, with space for a dishwasher. It looks nice enough, finished in birch veneer, but I'd much rather have the older setup, which would allow for a restored Wedgewood or O'Keefe & Merritt gas range.

 

I tried to locate the real estate listing for the Levitt home to see how it classified the utilities/heating, but had no luck. The address has been shielded for "privacy concerns".

 

As for lot size, the home itself takes up only about 1/4 of the lot space. The pool area is large, however, and it looks like a substantial 2+ car garage is included. The ivy covered front hillside is basically wasted garden space. If it were me I'd have all that awful ivy ripped out and replaced with drought friend native vegetation, and maybe a few irrigated veggie patches. No doubt the drainage would be good!

 

Anybody else notice the torn green fabric awning on the left front of the home, that shades the family room? It's hanging down in one interior photo, and then it looks like it was removed or pinned up in the shot from the street.

 
 
Thermador/L&H was offering built in cooktops and wall ovens in the 40s. The cooktop features are newer than the 40s model which would have had different knobs and the old, thick TK elements instead of the thinner ones in the present cooktop, but the older cooktop could have been updated in place. I don't understand how the TL Maytag washer could be used under those low wall cabinets. If the home was built in the 40s, the washer and dryer were probably Bendix which would have made both front loaders with the controls on the front in the earliest washers and the early dryers.[this post was last edited: 2/23/2015-12:17]
 
Did Thermador offer the built ins before WWII? This house was supposedly built in '40 so plans would have probably been drawn in '38 or '39. I would not be surprised if the pass through above the cooktop was added later as kitchens in pre-war luxury homes were often designed to be isolated from the breakfast room, the idea being that even if the homeowners cooked breakfast a maid would come in later to clean up the mess. My best guess is that the original house featured a big electric free standing range where the cooktop is now.
 
Yes, they did. There are ads in magazines from 1938-39 with that layout of the surface units, usually with a deep well, and ovens that looked like the one in the laundry room or "Ancillary Kitchen." Boy, I've heard it all now.
 
Tom . . .

Wikipedia's entry on Thermador claims they "invented the first wall oven and cooktop"  in '47 but I'd trust you more than them. Since they are a SoCal company perhaps there were some pre-war installations around here, it would be interesting to know.  That wacky little wall oven in the laundry, um ancillary kitchen, looks very much like Thermador's popular models in the '50s which are still not uncommon to see in use, they seem to outlast cooktops.
 
1940s House

I have a hunch that the house is a little newer than 1940 and that the kitchen,[ with cook-top and wall ovens ] being orignal to the house.

 

I have never seen any evidence that TD made and sold built-ins till after WW-2, I know that the idea was being floated around before hand.

 

Samuel, could you look up when this house was actually built?
 
From the July, 1939 Electrical Merchandiser, pg. 40:
"Thermador Ranges,
Thermador Electrical Mfg. Co. Atlantic Blvd and S. Riverside Dr., Los Angeles, CA

A featured model, the Thermador Bilt-In range, presents a new idea in range construction: Surface units, baking oven and warming oven are available in separate units to be built into kitchen fixtures, allowing every unit to be placed in the most convenient location regardless of its relation to other units; for instance the oven may be placed at waist level to avoid stooping." It is not exactly the cooktop in this home, but they were making them in 1939.

Also, on the same page, "Globe Stove and Range Co. Div. of Globe American Corp, Kokomo, Ind. announces Model Dutch Oven model 3231MTL

Selling Features: Dutch oven cooks with retained heat, equipped with cast bottom plate with recessed T-K closed element; spring-seal oven door prevents heat loss; Wilcolator thermostat oven termperature control; automatic timer clockl smokeless broiler in top of oven has 2 broiling positions: High 3400 watts, low 2200 watts; large white utility and warming compartment equipped with 360 watt T-K unit; 2 large utility drawers; three 5 speed T-K surface units and a 6 quart Dutch oven cooker with a 3-speed unit: 625 high, 125 medium and 100 watts low; modernistic louver-light lamp and condiment set; 1-piece white acid resisting porcelain enamel cooking top." SO, They Made Electric Ranges At One Time, not just the gas ranges like the ones for Maytag!

In January, 1939, Barton introduced the Model C8S Controla Speed Washer with three speeds for washing and wringing."changes from one speed to another accomplished by finger-touch control lever on washer skirt."
 
Greg, I don't think Maytag sold anything but gas ranges, but you are right, that was probably a slow preheating oven although, if Wilcolator thermostats had the same preheat feature back then that the Wilcolator thermostats on some later Frigidaire ranges had where you could engage the broiler to help preheat the oven, it might have heated up faster than your gas Maytag.
 
John . . .

I did a little research and found that both the County Assessor and LADBS (Los Angeles Dept. Of Building and Safety) list the house as having been built in 1940. The assessor additionally lists an “effective date” of 1945 so some work was done then. I also found an unverified but likely true note elsewhere that Paul R. Williams was not the original architect for the house but designed a remodel or addition for the second owner.

My guess is that in 1945 the house sold and Williams was hired at that time. I would not be surprised if he did the poolhouse; it would have had a permit for a new building which would explain the two dates of 1940 and 1945 at the assessor. To my eyes much of the kitchen looks later than ‘45, more likely the mid ‘50s  although the cabinets are very simple in design so could have been modified and added to rather than replaced completely. The last owner bought it in ‘57 so I wouldn’t be surprised if he freshened up the kitchen shortly after purchase since it would have been 17 years old and possibly getting a little tired.
 

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