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South Arden Boulevard
500 block



500 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 30
  • Built in 1922; BP for garage issued 6-29-1922; BPs for house and "private bathhouse" issued 9-13-1922
  • Original commissioner: Anita C. Wade, wife of inventor and wheeler-dealer Henry Clay Wade
  • Architect and contractor: Harry H. Whiteley
  • Henry Clay Wade described himself as an inventor, promoter, and manufacturer of, among other things, a unique shaving kit and a method to "burn" water to produce power. Wade had been arrested in New York in 1906 for theft; in 1907 he was sentenced to two years and nine months in Sing Sing. In 1915, by now 48 years old and recently married to Anita, a stenographer 22 years his junior, and the father of little Yuma Anita, Wade was arrested in New York for cashing 65 forged checks. It is unclear what penalty he may have faced this time, but five years later he was still living well, now in an Upper West Side apartment with two live-in servants. Soon decamping for Los Angeles and somehow still flush, the Wades engaged top architect Whiteley to build an expensive house in one of the best of the city's newest suburbs. On 6-30-1926, the Times reported that Anita had charged her husband with being $4,700 in arrears on her alimony. She and Yuma were in a modest West Fourth Street apartment by 1930
  • Orthopedic surgeon Willoughby G. Dye lived at 500 South Arden during the 1930s
  • By 1941, Stanford Meyer Kolmitz, who ran a beauty-supply company and a beauty school, owned 500. Kolmitz's daughter Alene was married in the house on 6-14-1942. A year later, the entire contents of the house was up for auction


The family of Meyer Kolmitz stayed only briefly at 500 South Arden Boulevard; large display
advertisements for an auction of their possessions appeared in the Times in June 1943.







505 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 29
  • Built in 1921; BP for house issued 7-1-1921; for garage 6-23-1921
  • Original commissioner: investment broker Clyde Payne
  • Architect: Feil & Verge (Joseph L. Feil and Gene Verge)
  • Contractor: Birch O'Neal
  • Payne added a room above a one-story rear wing in 1926 (BP issued 6-4-1926)
  • Mr. and Mrs. Payne divorced in the early 1930s; Florence Payne remarried investment broker Edward S. Sears, who moved into 505 South Arden
  • Acquired by investment broker Deeb E. Peter in the early 1950s; in 1966, he demolished the original garage and replaced it with a pool; a new garage was built closer to Fifth Street







510 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 31
  • Built in 1922; BPs for house and garage issued 12-1-1921
  • Original commissioner: builder and developer Wilfred A. McCutcheon
  • Architect and contractor: Wilfred A. McCutcheon
  • McCutcheon built a number of Wilshire District dwellings, living in each until the next was complete. His 3974 Wilshire Boulevard of 1918 is a rare residential survivor on that thoroughfare; his next project, in 1920, was 744 South Windsor, also still extant; after his brief stay at 510 South Arden, he moved to the unusual duplex at 240/242 North Irving
  • June Braun Schultz Pike of Pasadena, recently married to her second husband, John Pike, purchased 510 in the spring of 1923. Mrs. Pike had McCutcheon add two bedrooms, a maid's room, and another bath to the house (BP issued 4-26-1923). John Pike was a business associate of his new father-in-law in the chemical trade. The marriage did not last the decade
  • A nephew of Angeleno J. Ross Clark and Montana Senator William A. Clark (thus first cousin of Huguette Clark), Clark Joaquin Bonner was in insurance and land development. After the death of William A. Clark in 1925, he would run the Senator's Montana Land Company, developers of Lakewood; Bonner chose to live more modestly than his uncles, acquiring 510 South Arden by 1927. Bonner died in Los Angeles on 1-13-1947 while still living in the house






511 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 28
  • Built in 1928; BP for house issued 4-2-1928; for garage 4-6-1928
  • Original commissioner: Anna Rose, wife of real estate investor Louis A. Rose
  • Architect: Max Maltzman
  • Contractor: Mr. and Mrs. Rose
  • Occupying 511 South Arden in the mid 1930s were Ern Westmore, of the well-known family of Hollywood makeup artists, and his current wife, actress Ethlyne Clair. There were reports of messy personal lives from the moment they married in 1930; during their time on Arden Boulevard, an income-tax lien was placed on Mrs. Westmore in 1935, while Mr. Westmore was charged with hit-and-run driving the same year
  • The Westmores left 511 in 1936 and were divorced in 1937; a mortgage company had gained possession. Voice teacher Rebekah C. Dodge was a tenant in the late 1930s










518 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 32
  • Built in 1924; BPs for house and garage issued 2-15-1924
  • Original commissioner: contractor George Taylor, on spec; no architect specified on BPs
  • George Taylor was building 519 South Arden across the street at the same time; Taylor built a number of Windsor Square houses on spec, including 411, 419, and 449 South Arden Boulevard in the next northerly block
  • The first owner was Isabelle R. Thornton, a widow whose family was a longtime investor in Los Angeles real estate; Mrs. Thornton, who moved into 518 with her unmarried daughter, Pearl L. Thornton, in the fall of 1924, died at 518 on 2-11-1926
  • Pearl L. Thornton remained at 518 until at least 1956; she joined her mother at Rosedale after she died on 6-7-1960







519 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 27
  • Built in 1923; BPs for house and garage issued 3-13-1923
  • Original commissioner: contractor George Taylor, on spec; no architect specified on BPs
  • George Taylor was building 518 South Arden across the street at the same time; Taylor built a number of Windsor Square houses on spec, including 411, 419, and 449 South Arden Boulevard in the next northerly block







526 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 33
  • Built in 1923; BP for house issued 4-27-1923; for garage 4-23-1923
  • Original commissioner: real estate developer Ralph D. Young as his own home
  • Architect and contractor: Jack Olerich
  • Ralph D. Young's father, retired Iowa banker Charles D. Young, had come to live with his son and daughter-in-law in the late 1920s; he died at 526 South Arden on 4-3-1941
  • Ralph D. Young died at 526 on 8-13-1947
  • The house was on the market in late 1949






527 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 26
  • Built in 1922; BPs for house and garage issued 8-18-1922
  • Original commissioner: Dr. Herman Sugarman
  • Architect: Edelman & Zimmerman (Abram M. Edelman and Archie C. Zimmerman)
  • Contractor: James A. Kemp
  • In 1928, Dr. Sugarman hired Edelman & Zimmerman to add a library to the house (BP issued 10-15-1928); the contractor was Edward P. Zimmerman, father of Archie C. Zimmerman
  • Dr. Sugarman died of pneumonia at 527 South Arden on 11-24-1932; at the time of his death, he was the chief of staff at both Cedars of Lebanon and the Santa Fe hospitals. His wife, Myrtle, left 527 a few years later and moved into the Los Altos at Wilshire and Bronson


The architect's rendering appeared in the Los Angeles Times on 7-30-1922






532 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 34
  • Residence built in 2001; garage in 2006. BP for house issued 2-2-2001; for garage 11-3-2005
  • Original commissioners: Narciso and Anecita Seisa
  • Architect: apparently untrained, but perhaps one who thought to take cues from the house it replaced
  • The original house occupying Lot 34 and addressed 532 South Arden, seen below, was built in 1920 (BP for house 10-14-1919; for garage 12-11-1919). Its commissioner was real estate investor Sol H. Stern; architect: William Curlett & Son (William and Aleck E. Curlett); contractor: Jay B. Harris. Its outer walls were notably constructed of terra cotta tile and reinforced concrete. Stern sold the house at auction to real estate investor Cyrus A. Hovey on 2-10-1921. An early owner was surgeon Leon J. Roth, who died in the house on 1-30-1928; his widow moved out of 532 though she retained it, renting it to attorney Eugene W. Britt, who once lived at 2141 West Adams Boulevard. Mrs. Britt died at 532 on 1-26-1934. Mrs. Roth then auctioned off the house and its contents on 4-29/30-1935. A demolition BP for the original 532 South Arden Boulevard was issued on 2-2-2001; one for the garage was issued on 1-26-2006
Built in an age when architects were better trained in proportion
and detail, the original 532 South Arden, perhaps finally a victim of
maintenance issues caused by the problems often associated with houses
of reinforced concrete construction, lasted 81 years. (It may also be simply
that the builders of its 2001 replacement have no taste.) A large display
advertisement for the disposition of the original 532 and its contents
appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, 1-28-1935.








533 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 25
  • Built in 1923; BPs for house and garage issued 9-24-1923
  • Original commissioner: real estate operator Robert C. Mason as his own home
  • Architect and contractor: Robert R. Jones (not to be confused with Robert D. Jones of the S. M. Cooper Company)
  • BPs were issued for another house and garage on Lot 25 earlier in 1923 (4-2-1923); plans for the buildings that Dr. Edward E. Sherrard had commissioned Ray J. Kieffer to build there were transferred to a lot at 315 South Rossmore Avenue (new BPs issued 5-7-1923)
  • In 1929, Henry B. R. Briggs, editor of the Los Angeles Record, bought 533 South Arden; after the reorganization and sale of the Record in 1933, Briggs was appointed postmaster of Los Angeles in January 1934
  • Still living at 533, Briggs died of pneumonia on 9-27-1936 while on a business trip to Washington; two days later, his widow, Mary D. Briggs, a former Columbia University instructor, was appointed to replace him
  • Still at 533 and still postmaster, Mary D. Briggs died in Los Angeles on 7-1-1945 







540 South Arden Boulevard

  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 35
  • Built in 1924; BPs for house and garage issued on 9-24-1924
  • Original commissioner: Mayme Clossman Koska of Zanesville, Ohio
  • Architect and contractor: Rea D. Lentz
  • Mrs. Koska hired contractor Jack Rex Davis to enlarge two rooms on the first floor and one on the second (BP issued 7-15-1929)
  • Mrs. Koska appears to have divorced Ferdinand T. Koska by 1930; she was listed in city directories from 1929 as the "widow" of F. T. Koska and sometimes styled herself as "Mrs. Clossman Koska," using the device combining maiden and married surnames that some divorcées of the day felt might save face. Also by 1930 her parents, George and Ernestine Clossman, and her daughter Ernestine M. Koska were living at 540 South Arden. George Clossman died at 540 on 3-7-1933
  • Ernestine M. Koska was married at 540 on 10-11-1947; her uncle, Edward A. Dickson, who lived nearby at 425 South Windsor Boulevard, gave her away
  • An owner of 540 by 1960 was California Governor Goodwin J. Knight, who had left office in 1959. As a young attorney in the early 1930s, Knight had leased 120 Fremont Place. In 1962, he and 59 other Windsor Square homeowners successfully blocked the construction of a new sanctuary by the 32nd Church of Christ Scientist in the 600 block of South Lucerne Boulevard around the corner from 540


The original architect's fondness for Corinthian capitals has been stripped from 540 South Arden since it
was photographed in 1926, soon after completion; also gone are the façade trellises, commonly
found on domestic Colonial architecture of the era. Additions include the move of the
north wall out to add rooms over the porte cochère and widen first-floor rooms.







541 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 24
  • Built in 1922; BPs for house and original garage issued 11-15-1921
  • Original commissioner: attorney Joseph L. Lewinson
  • Architect: Elmer Grey
  • Contractor: Loudon & Morgan (Havillah E. Loudon and Virgil Morgan)
  • In 1928, Lewinson added a library to the house
  • In 1935, Lewinson hired architect Paul R. Williams to make several interior alterations and to make changes to the façade including revisions to the front entrance
  • On 6-29-1952, Mr. and Mrs. Lewinson's daughter Joan was married in the garden of 541 South Arden
  • In March 1953, classified advertisements began to appear in the Times offering 541 for sale; copy referred to the house as "Paul Williams rebuilt"
  • A subsequent owner demolished the original garage and replaced it with a carport in 1969 (BPs for demolition and construction issued 12-1-1969)
  • Another subsequent owner replaced the 1969 carport with a new garage/recreation room in 2001 (BPs issued 4-25-2001)







549 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 23
  • BP issued 8-3-1921
  • Original commissioner: Louise O. Brown, wife of retired Pittsburgh iron and steel executive George L. Brown
  • Architect: Earl D. Stonerod; recently a draftsman in the office of Myron Hunt, Stonerod joined the office of Walker & Eisen (Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen) in 1922. He was also the construction superintendent for the latter firm
  • Louise O. Brown died at 549 South Arden on 1-12-1930
  • George L. Brown died at 549 on 8-2-1946







550 South Arden Boulevard


  • Wilshire Heights Tract 1476 addition to Windsor Square; westerly 120' of Lot 36
  • Built in 1952; BP for house and attached garage issued 4-28-1952
  • Original commissioner: newspaper distributor and real estate investor Frederick B. Hesse
  • Builder: Daniel J. Thomas & Son
  • Hesse purchased the entire never-built-upon Lot 36 to build two houses; in addition to his own at 550 South Arden, he was issued BPs in the name of his widowed mother-in-law, Anna Niemann, on the same day to build her 4619 West Sixth Street on the easterly 60' of the parcel
  • On 8-15-1955, Hesse was issued a BP for a 10-unit apartment building at 4601 West First Street; 550 South Arden and 4619 West Sixth were put on the market in February 1956 and Mr. and Mrs. Hesse and Mrs. Niemann would move to the new building. (Classified advertisements for the two houses suggested buying "one or both—ideal in-law setup")
  • Subsequent owners of 550 South Arden were Mr. and Mrs. Warren R. Spaulding; Evelyn Spaulding was the respected longtime general manager of Los Angeles's Social Services Department. In ill health, Mrs. Spaulding shot herself in the head in her bedroom at 550 on May 29, 1962; she died on June 3. She left a note for her husband, who found her, expressing regret for spoiling a planned trip to see the Seattle World's Fair







Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT; USCDL